A different kind of endurance

My wife Kirstin has been back at work for about 2.5 months now and has recently been successful in gaining a promotion - she's now Operations Manager for Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. This has meant that she has had to up her hours from 3 days per week which she felt comfortable with since having Eilidh, to 4 days 1 week then 3 days the next. As part of this, and to get me more time to spend with our daughter I will be taking 1 day off every 4 weeks to be the pcg as we call it tongue-in-cheek (primary care giver). I did my first pcg stint on Friday, and wheesht it's pretty intense, but great.


Eilidh in 'give me my yoghurt' mode in July before teeth appeared

Now I don't want to paint a picture of me as an oafish, non contributing husband. On the contrary we have always adopted a 50/50 split to all forms of work domestic but Kirstin has definitely pulled more than her fair share of baby raising. I did midnight nappies and bottles and all that sort of thing but other than the paltry 2 weeks paternity leave I've not done much full time pcg'ing other than at weekends due to my being a full time work.

On Friday, it all went pear shaped from 8am, when Eilidh started moaning due being tired from getting up too early (a habit she has on occasion). I tried to put her to bed but the screaming began and wasn't stoppable even with a nice warm bottle of milk. I called K for advice and she suggested taking E out for a walk in her buggy. This worked a treat, got us both out of the house, soporifically sent her to sleep and reset her mood for the rest of the day, which we spent in the sun at a Milton Keynes lakeside, playing on swings and 'ooking' at ducks (E can say ook). I even managed a shopping trip (in which E sat laughing in the trolley chewing a cucumber half her height) and still managed to make dinner for us all as per usual. The whole experience is quite tiring physically (constant bending over to help her walk) and emotionally but great overall.

Outwith the baby front I nearly landed myself in deep doo with a comment on Debs blog about whether or not she should run and race whilst pregnant. Clearly a sensitive issue from her blog and the comments made by some of the other commenters. Anyway, I managed to extricate myself after realising I had waffled incorrectly about how Kirstin and I had approached the issue of pregnant exercising. Apparently the advice given by our Doctor was that keeping up existing forms of exercising is fine, it is the taking on of new forms of exercise which might be more risky - probably something to do with uncertainty as to how the body would adapt. Not sure how long Debs will manage to run as expansion continues - good luck to her though!

Last thing. I went a for a run on Saturday morning with a fellow called John Litten who had read my blog and has entered the Highland Fling. He lives in Luton so not so far away. I took him round the local hilly woodland and we waffled about ultras and running as the morning mist rose to reveal a glorious day. If you are reading this John - it was nice to meet you. Good luck in the Venice marathon!

High Peak and Vasque Ultra Champs position

The results are out for the HP40 run held at the weekend: http://www.highpeak40.co.uk/results.asp

I came in 16th out of 154 finishers with a time of 7:06:28, so very pleased position wise even though I was outside my target time of 7 hours. The heat probably put paid to that ambition for me for this year. I bettered my time from last year by about 9 mins so happy anyway.

Well done to other Family members Lucy Colquhoun (6:13:06), George Cairns (6:23:20) and Ritchie Cunningham (6:58:12)! The race was won by Brian Coles of Stoke AC with a stonking 5:44:42. Well played that man.

I have now completed all my Vasque Ultra Championships races and am currently placed 7th out of 203! Whoopeee! There'll probably be a bit of movement as there are some races to go and few folk should definitely overtake me like Mark Hartell, currently ranked 14th but with 1 race in hand. Full results here:
http://www.runfurther.com/media/results2/Overall_Results_10_races_2008.pdf

High Peak 40 race report

Distance: 40.97 miles (advertised 40 miles)
Ascent / descent: +4858' / -4766'
Terrain: varied (wet grass / fields, hard trail, rocky trail, road)
Time: 07:06:32
Splits: 10:25 (avg), 7:40 (fastest), 15:58 (slowest)
Position: tbc

NOTE: all photos have been taken from http://www.geograph.org.uk/


Elevation profile of HP40


Splits for my HP40 race 2008

The High Peak 40 or HP40. My 4th and final race in the UK Vasque Ultra Championships and a race I've run for the past 3 years, this one included. It contains a fair amount of road running but the road is well broken up by such a variety of other terrain types from lovely lake side paths to fields, to muddy dale tracks and rocky hill top trails, that this race is one of my favourites. It is exceptionally well organised with drinks and food provided at every 1 of 12 checkpoints so you don't need support or to carry much except for a drinks bottle and some weatherproof gear. Although the latter wasn't needed at all on Saturday. Sheesht it was hot.

I didn't get home from work till 7pm on the Friday so it was a quick in, eat, get stuff ready, have beer on couch then off to bed. The alarm went off at 4am and I awoke a bit disoriented with the sound. Porridge quickly eaten, coffee cup and water bottles filled I was out the door in 30 mins for the 2.5 hour drive to Buxton in the Peak District. The M1 was pretty dead but music from Radio 2 kept me going till dawn arose.

The Peak District is not strictly a particularly mountainous terrain but it is lovely, and great running country with lots of ups and downs and a real mixture underfoot. The HP40 starts and ends in Buxton, taking in a 40 mile loop of the Goyt Valley, Rushup Edge, Mam Tor, Cave Dale, Tideswell Dale, Cressbrook and the River Wye and the Deep Dales.

I arrived, found the registration and headed back to my car to get ready. Richie C passed me on his way to registration and said 'hello Brian'. I caught up with him when he returned, wearing his new Skinz (yes very slick), in an attempt to stave off the excesses and damage of the UTMB. Brave fella I thought, this is likely to hurt so soon after. He was well aware of this likelihood. The UTMB sounds like such a race, I can't wait to enter next year. It'll be a challenge like no other.

A chap called Ally (Ali?) came up to me asking if I was Brian McIntosh, to which I responded affirmatively. He had apparently read my Highland Fling race report and been inspired to enter it next year. He was entering the HP40 as his first ultra at a distance slightly below the Fling for preparation. If you are reading this Ally, I hope it all went well - the heat was brutal! It's great that someone has been motivated to run an ultra partially as a consequence of blogging. Spread the ultra love as Dr Marc and Tanya (a pair of american ultra bloggers) would say. Cheesey but true!

I met a girl who had travelled down with Richie called Lucy as well. I think she was Lucy Colquhoun but can't be certain. She shot off like a bolt so I suspect she was. No other family members were about that I saw although Ritchie said George Cairns was there.

Anyway I stretched (something I forgot to do last year - doh) and headed down to the start. Not much hanging about and we were off, Lucy leading the field. 7:15 pace, crikey better slow down I thought as we headed out of the centre of Buxton towards the climb over the moors to the Goyt Valley. I slowed to a more sustainable 8:00 - 8:30 pace until we hit the hill up to the moor when power hiking was the order of the day.

After the moor I slotted in beside a long haired runner from Essex whose name I can't remember, and a chap called Andy from near Whitby who I met both last year and in 2006. We ran together down the steep sloping road to Fernilee reservoir and along its banks, chatting as we went, keeping the pace between 8:30 and 9:00. The sky was clear blue gorgeous and I was already sweating lots. I kept having to eject bogies from my nose, a behaviour which I know winds Miek Mason up, but there's not a lot else to do mid race when there's stuff to come out. I wondered whether I still had some cold virus inside me.


Fernilee Reservoir in the Goyt Valley

I felt strong as we left the Goyt Valley and headed east for Rushup Edge and Mam Tor. I kept up the pace at sub - 9 levels but walked up the steeper or more sustained hills so as not to knacker myself. I was drinking well and despite the bogies and sweat was feeling great. Sub 7 hours looked on - my goal for the race. Upon reaching the Rushup Edge checkpoint I kept up the pace and deliberately grinded out the slow mile or two uphill to Mam Tor, peeling away from Long Haired Essex Man and Andy. The air was beginning to get warm now.


Mam Tor from the air


Hollins Cross from near Mam Tor

The descent from Mam Tor to Hollins Cross then off the south side of the ridge to Castleton is great fun - very fast with lots of rocks to scrabble and jump down in the latter stages. My legs felt fine despite the pummelling and I got into the Castleton checkpoint on my own. Another runner approached as I finished filling up my water bottle and headed off, jaffa cakes stuffed in mouth. The runner kept with me into Cave Dale but I kept up a good power hike pace in the early stages and upped it to a light jog in the latter, less steep sections and lost him as a consequence.


Cave Dale viewed from above

I was alone in the hard limestone fields above Cave Dale when I saw a runner in the distance and thought I'd keep them in sight, or maybe even catch them. Little did I know it would be a suffering Ritchie C. Well, I guess it was only 4 weeks ago that he ran 103 miles with 33,000' ascent in the UTMB so he probably has a good excuse for being caught by me! :-)

We ran together for bit, chatting (good to have met you Ritchie, if you are reading this) but I kept the next checkpoint brief so peeled away. I overtook another runner on the long gradual road descent to Tideswell village and dale the Ritchie overtook me, his second wind emerging. Good stuff. My legs were beginning to feel the pain though as marathon distance approached - I can never be entirely sure if this is psychological or whether there is some damage threshold at ~26 miles that kicks in.

I passed through the Tideswell checkpoint amidst the stink of a small sewage treatment plant with odour issues to be shortly overtaken by the 2nd lady. I kept up with her for the next 5 miles or so at around 9:05 - 9:20 pace, grinding out the miles, ignoring the growing pain and enjoying the scenery in the dales. Lovely, picturesque stuff.


Near Cressbrook

Ritchie C passed me again, he had gotten lost for the 2nd time so wasn't having his ideal race, but looked cheery nonetheless. No swearing. Maybe he was just being polite.

I had been sweating for hours now and the heat must have been above 20C by now. My t-shirt was covered in salty stains.

I think dehydration was now taking its toll. The climb up the first Deep Dale to the long road section took forever and I just couldn't get more than a plod out of my legs. My stomach felt heavy but I was hot and dripping with sweat. After what seemed like an eternity I reached runnable ground and made myself run up the last half mile to the checkpoint next to the 3 mile long road section from hell. The 3rd lady caught me and another fella up here. Both left before me.



Looking up Deep Dale number 1

The road section from hell at mile 33

I drank as much as I could and left stuffing jaffa cakes into my mouth, settling into a plod behind the runners in front. I could feel despondency and an I can't be arsed mood take hold as I looked ahead along the seemingly endless 3 mile road section from hell. Sheesht it was sunny, but at least there was a breeze. After about 1 mile I began to think making sub 7 hours will be tight I'd better get a shift on and so upped the pace from 10:00-10:30 to 9:10 - 9:30 per mile. I overtook the 2 runners plus another but it didn't feel pleasant. Nausea was beginning to make its presence felt.

I kept up the pace and staggered towards the 2nd Deep Dale, a hilariously hidden, 200' odd deep ravine in otherwise flattish limestone farmland. I staggered down one side and up the other but had to let the 2nd lady over take me. Nausea was rising and my head was feeling hot and a bit wobbly. Sweating, sweating.

The chasm of Deep Dale number 2

I topped out of Deep Dale 2 and managed to stagger into a trot across the field to the last checkpoint, sweating. Quickly downing some water I tried rather feebly to run on. After 20m I managed to get into some sort of rhythm and forced myself to keep up a pace. Making sub 7 hours was going to be tight. I forced on, nausea rising and head feeling hot, sweaty and wobbly. Come on Brian, push it, push it, I ran up the last grassy field and had to stop at the top for a second or two, holding on to a fence. Push it, I ran on. Well, tried to run on.

I kept up some sort of run as I entered Buxton but I knew sub 7 was out of my grasp. Well, keep your position then I told myself, glancing back to see another runner a few hundred metres behind. I pushed on, sweating and feeling really not very right at all, holding the other runner at bay until I could stop when I reached the line and fall onto the crash mats provided. My legs ached, my shirt was caked in salt, my legs in mud and my head a bright sunny red. My thoughts swam and it took me good 5 minutes before I could sit back up again. That was a tough race. Superbly organised, extremely hot and wonderfully varied. I'll be back in 2009, potentially with UTMB legs like Ritchie C. :-)

Exercise induced muscle damage and bugs

My last bit of follow up with Paul Murgatroyd at Lincoln Uni after my running performance tests was concerned with understanding why I am performing reasonably well this season but have a poor running economy. I asked ...

"do you think ultra performance might be related to resistance to muscle microtearing, which might be trainable? I am aware that I do not get sore muscles mid-race as much as I used to. I have to run longer and faster to reach the sore stage."

And he replied ...

"Definitely - the research is unequivocal here that exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD), usually microtrauma in the local muscle tissue following eccentric contractions, is reduced through the repeated bout effect (RBE). Obviously the trauma is worsened when covering difficult terrain, particularly involving a lot of ascent/descent, and the body's adaptability to withstand this is improved through training and racing (increasing the RBE, in effect)."

To which I then replied ...

"I wonder then whether this might be the case as a pair of hypotheses to explore:

1. elite or very good performers have both good running economy and good ability to withstand EIMD
2. there are 2 ways to be an above average performer - either good running economy or good ability to withstand EIMD

Looking at myself I don't do a lot of road running. Most is trail, and quite hilly. I suspect therefore I have reasonable resistance to EIMB (could this be tested in some way?) but don't run at high speeds much so have a poor economy.

I wonder what the ideal mix is between economy focussed and EIMD resistance focussed training? Something perhaps to explore. "

And he replied ...

"Interesting hypotheses indeed - for us, the next stage of testing in racing is firstly to look at where the subjects are working in relation the the lab variables taken. For instance do runners work at a certain percentage of VO2 max/HR max? Do they run below, at or above LT? Is this replicated amongst the group or do individuals differ? Does this change between races, eg. 40 to 60 to 100 milers? How much effect does the terrain have on this - hilly v flat? Lots to discuss and deliberate, undoubtedly!"

And just for good measure here is more of the genius of Ivor Cutler, with a superb rendition of 'I believe in bugs'. Marvellous. Just ignore the random badly shot stuff of some guy playing a guitar in a nightclub that starts about a minute and a half in, when Ivor has finished.

Pickle your knees in cheese

Ivor Cutler, now deceased, was a Scottish genius of folk and poetry. Here is one of his songs on YouTube. Marvellous.

Children are vectors of disease

Just returned from a very sunny, warm and pleasant Vienna, where I was attending the IWA World Water Congress. Far too large a conference for meaningful interaction but some of the sessions were good. I got to go out to my favourite restaurant, Meirerei Im Stadtpark, the cheese and milk bar. It is dedicated to serving products made from milk and if you are a cheese lover like me then it's a slightly smelly heaven. Well recommended.

If you really like cheese and want to find out what your name is in cheese then go to the online cheese comparator. I am Gruyere, St. Agur or King River Gold, depending on whether I enter Brian McIntosh, Brian Stuart McIntosh or BS McIntosh.

I drank far too much good Austrian lager at the conference but did manage to get out for a couple of runs, one 17 miler a week ago on the Saturday before I left, and two whilst I was there (one mid pace, one tempo) along with a gym session. For gym sessions, on the advice of Andy Dubois (WHWR family) I've stopped using weight machines (single leg press etc.) for quad and ham strength training and have started doing clock lunges with dumbells, and single leg squats (tricky balance wise!). Both exercises are great - hopefully they will help strengthen my weak right glute med as well improve my quads.

Andy DuBois demonstrating clock lunge technique without dumbells:



Good demo of single leg squat technique:



Currently I am sniffling with a fair sized quantity of bogies up my nose, having caught a cold from our daughter. She isn't walking yet so we still carry her around. She catches colds from other kids at playgroups and our childminder, Maria, then we hold her and she breathes and sneezes over us. C'est la vie but not so good prep wise for the High Peak 40 race which is coming up this weekend. I haven't trained that much since the Devil O the Highlands so I might struggle with my goal of coming in sub 7, but I'll see. Grit the teeth and bear it I suppose ...

Running economy and ultramarathon performance

After my testing on Monday I was wondering whether Paul Murgatroyd was looking at the wrong factor as a key determinant of ultra running performance so I sent him this email:

I have had a good ultra season so far, coming in top 10% in one race and consistently top 20%-25% in all others. My running economy is poor which might explain why I am not in the top 5 say but I wonder physiologically might there be some other determining factor behind decent muscle performance? Something anaerobic? These might be daft questions from a physiological layman but I wonder do you need to have a good running economy (in the terms you measured) to be decent at running ultras?

Specifically I was wondering whether ultra performance might be related to resistance to muscle microtearing, which might be trainable. Paul replied stating:

The determinants of running economy are yet to be fully understood and a good deal of research in this area is still ongoing. Certainly there will be an underlying genetic component (but how much is determined by this is difficult to say, with any great certainty) but one thing that is well reported is that running economy and other associated variables, such as LT and LTP, are more trainable than VO2 max.

I would anticipate that, as your quality and quantity of training increases - more miles and more speed work at the recommended paces - you will see a greater change in running economy and LT/LTP values thanVO2 max. Running economy and other factors, such as vVO2 max, have been shown to be important determinants of endurance performance and if we took two marathon athletes with similar VO2 max values, the deciding factor would be running economy - the ability to sustain race pace with lower energy demands/O2 consumption and thus offsetting fatigue. In terms of ultra-running, this is even more likely to be a performance indicator, due to the longer distances involved and the need for athletes to be as economical as possible and delay the onset of fatigue for as long as they can. [one of the UK's best ultrarunner's] VO2 max is not exceptional, but running economy value and speeds at LT /LTP and vVO2 max were amongst some of the best we've had so far. Interesting stuff!

The LT and LTP he refers to are the lactate threshold (point where a person moves from easy to steady running) and the lactate turn point (point where a person moves from steady to tempo running). My LT occurred at 11km/hr (8:44 mins/mile) and my LTP occurred at 13km/hr (7:23 mins/mile). Not too hot really!

His recommendations for me to improve as I mentioned in a previous post are to do more speed interval and tempo work. Specifically he has recommended 1-2 sessions per week of:

• Tempo - Warm-up, then 25-30 mins@164-172bpm (and/or ~13-14km/hr on the flat), then warm-down
• Intervals - 1M easy, then 3 x 1M or 6 mins@172-177bpm (at ~14km/hr), with 800m or 3-4 min recoveries, then 1M easy (increase to 4-5 reps over 4 months)
• 1M warm-up, then 6 x 600m or 2mins@175-180bpm (at ~15km/hr), with 400m or 2-min recoveries, then 1M cool-down (increase to 8-10 reps over 4 months)
• Warm up, then 2 sets of 4, 5, and 6 mins@172-177bpm (at ~14km/hr), with half-length recoveries and 6 mins between sets, then cool down
• Pyramids - Warm-up, then 1min up/down, 2 mins up/down, 3 mins/up down @175-180bpm (at ~15km/hr)- repeat 2x, then warm down

I had weekly sub 7 min/mile tempo runs as part of my training before the WHWR but didn't restart them due to the need to recover and just get some miles in my legs in preparation for the DOTH. I restarted my weekly tempo runs last week and did another one on Tuesday at ~ 14km/hr (6:51 mins/mile) to implement his recommendations. 1 mile warm up, 5 miles at tempo then 1.5 odd miles cool down. It really monsoon style pissed it down and I got soaked, my legs felt pretty heavy and sluggish, and my trainers filled up with water. Great. :-)

I then did a medium pace (7:58 mins/mile) and distance road run last night. It felt fine. Looking forward to a hilly 19 miler at the weekend before I scoot off to Vienna for a conference next week.

Body fat and beerage

I weighed in yesterday at the University of Lincoln running tests at 64.2kg - a little heavier than I was entering the WHWR, when I was around 63.5 kg. I think I have put on a bit of extra beerage since then. :-)

I was skin fold tested and came out at 15.7% with a BMI of 21.7 and a height of 172cm. The conclusions and recommendations were that I am about optimal for endurance running but could improve by losing 1-2% body fat, or around 0.6-1.3kg. If I get back down to 63.5kg I will be within the recommended range and will be happy. A few less mid week beers then. Boo.

Performance tests, The Forge and religion (again)

Well done to all Family members who competed in the UTMB, and special congratulations to our man from Essex - Mike Mason - for a terrific run!

I went to the University of Lincoln today for some running performance tests as part of the ultra running study being conducted by sports physiologist Paul Murgatroyd. He is trying to see if there is some ultra threshold, a % of VO2 max or some other relative physiological measure known to affect running / aerobic exercise capacity, which might be trainable and directly relate to performance.

Anyway he did 1 test to test my running economy - he was looking for changes in my blood lactate, heart rate and oxygen uptake over a series of increasingly faster 3 minute intervals. He then let me rest for a few minutes then did a VO2 max test where I ran at 13km/hour on an increasingly steep incline. I came out with an average VO2 max (3.81L/min), a max heart rate of 185 bpm and a poor running economy (220 ml/kg/km).

I was initially surprised at having such a poor running economy (which is a meaure of how my body responds to increasing intensity of exercise) but Paul has explained that it is likely because I am trained to a slow race pace just now so when the test was conducted it started at 12km/hr (8 min/miles) and rose to 15km/hr (6:24 min/miles) I struggled with the intensity. I can feel that after 5 ultras so far this year my legs are sluggish and don't have much speed in them. The remedy? More tempo and interval work. I do wonder given that I am running ultras quite well whether there is something more than an aerobic measure which will be influential to performance in ultra races - there has to be something about muscle function but I am no exercise physiologist so don't know.

A few people have asked about the photo at the top of my blog. It is of An Teallach (The Forge), just south of Dundonnel, which is just south of Ullapool. A truly magnificent mountain with some of the wildest, most remote and beautiful land in Scotland. Here is another photo, this time taken from one of the tops, back along the spectacularly sharp ridge. It was taken in 2005 and the chap is my mate John.



Onto religion again, I sit here blogging whilst semi-watching a programme on TV about religion. The programme this time is about how Wahabism (correct spelling?), a relatively hardline interpretation of Islam from Saudi Arabia, is being taught in some UK Mosques. The interpretation is reported as being based on segregration and the drilling home that Muslims owe only allegiance to Allah and no-one, or nothing else. There are some fairly serious and worrying undertones and implications from what is being shown - that UK Muslims are being encouraged not to integrate, and in fact to be slightly duplicitious in their relations with non-Muslim Brits - that is not to form friendships with them and not to speak of what they are being taught. Non-Muslims are given a depersonifying label by the various religious teachers - kaffirs which I thought was a white south african apartheid and derogatory term for black people. The implication is that the teaching is one of Muslim superiority. Not good. Now I realise (hope) that what the programme will not apply to most Muslims but nonetheless it is worrying. To see the hate literally on the faces of some of the people preaching really concerns me. Why such hate? What has happened to them to make them hate so much?

More generally and beyond Islam, I wonder how the institutions of religions prevent such a slide towards extreme views in their adherents? What strategies are employed to ensure that whilst teaching 'the truth' as apparent to adherents of that religion, that such teachings are not corrupted by some into saying that those who do not believe the truth or live their lives according to the truth are somehow bad, evil, lesser etc.? The teaching of absolute truths concerning morals, ethics and the structure of society in terms of inter-personal relationships and values seems to me to be dangerous thing which unavoidably contains a strong potential to slide towards extremism.