Upcoming races

One more race in the ultra season for 2009 for me then I coast into a sort of awkward jumble of races that will be difficult to train coherently for.

The last ultra this year for me will be the High Peak 40, a 40 mile race which starts in Buxton in the Peak District and does a clockwise circuit of some of the more interesting trails, peaks and dales including Mam Tor and Cave Dale. It's quite a fast race as parts of it are on road although it contains everything from muddy bog to hard pack trail to seriously rocky trail to road and grassy fields, and has around 4500' of ascent. The last 6 or 7 miles of it are a real sting in the tail - first psychologically as you come up and out of a dale at the 33 mile mark or thereabouts and have to run for 4 or 5 miles along a road which winds its way visibly ahead of you, seemingly forever - then physically as you strike over a field with only a few miles to go and all of sudden come across a 300' odd deep narrow dale barring your way with the only option being to descend then climb back up. It's a great race though and I've run it twice before. I'll be hoping for sub 7 hours this time.

I have decent 'ultra legs' on me just now having completed a total 5 ultras so far this year (Wuthering Hike, Highland Fling, Marlborough Downs Challenge, West Highland Way Race and Devil O the Highlands) so training shouldn't be a bother. I went out for a 9 mile recovery run last week after DOTH and also did a gym training session. Today I'll do a 6 mile trail run, then an 8 mile road run tomorrow then another 6 mile trail run on Thursday. I'll squeeze in something around the 15-16 mile mark on Saturday and that should be my legs recovered so I can build up the distance for a few weeks before I taper.

My back of year plans are to run a 9 mile trail race (the Ridgeway Run) from Tring on 12th October then the Original Mountain Marathon (OMM) on 25th/26th October. Marco C and myself have got an entry for the A-Class, which will entail being self sufficient (i.e. carrying all gear - water, food, clothing, tent etc.) and navigating our way point to point over the Borrowdale fells in the Lake District covering around 20 miles and a few thousand metres of ascent each day. The exact course details won't be released till the day but if its anything like the event in Galloway in 2006 it will contain a lot of up, a lot of down, a lot of navigating over very rough ground in bad weather, fording rivers up to my chest and sleeping in damp warm clothes with spectacular scenery and bunch of other like minded er folk. Heaven, sheer heaven.

I then plan to try run a half marathon faster than my current PB of just over 1:29 and would like to enter a full marathon in December to see what time I could do. I've only ever run 1 road marathon and that was years ago when I had only been running for a few years. I got 3:42 which I think I could easily beat now. Sub 3:15 would be my goal, sub 3:10 if possible but I don't know if I'll be able to turn round the ultra and OMM training quick enough to get speed in my legs.