Stan B reckons my blog is reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I am trying to figure out how.
I have a large domed and bald head which does impart a certain otherwordly appearance in a dim light, or if a bright torch is shone upon it. It might be this which reminds him of said movie.
Or he may simpy have detected that I look like the kind of fella who really enjoyes watching said movie. Sad I know, but it's a cracker. Almost as good as Das Boot for mind numbing ultra length movies. Here's the famous bontempi organ music to heighten the Close Encounters experience I offer here on this mildly academic blog. Enjoy. :-)
Tuesday 24 February 2009
Sunday 22 February 2009
Condors soaring over Milton Keynes
Saturday was a glorious day for the start of my Milton Keynes based alpine training regime in preparation for the UTMB in August. The sun was out and its warmth could be felt penetrating through trees and clothing. The condors were soaring high above the lofty, snow clad peaks and jutting aretes of the Brickhill Alps whilst marmots and lemmings scurried about in the pine clad slopes and upper alpine meadows. Glorious.
I picked the off road slope with the single greatest uninterrupted vertical ascent and started my run at 3pm. 115' of climbing and 115' of descending saw my first hill rep complete. Yes, the Brickhill Alps are a behemoth of a mountain, ahem er, molehill range.
Last year I peaked at 15 reps in my mid-week hill rep sessions so I was pleasantly surprised when I got to 13 and thought, hang on, this isn't too bad, I can manage a few more. I got to 15 and thought the same thing again. It wasn't till rep 17 that I could feel my calves begin to complain and in rep 18 I thought I'd probably have to walk rep 19 so I called it a day. 18 consecutive reps of up and down, covering 2100' of ascent and descent over 7.83 miles in 1:26.
I then managed to dodge the condors on my descent to make it home in time for my voracious daughter's dinner. A great afternoon. I'll work on upping the number of reps to somewhere around 30-40 as I get closer to the UTMB (oh joy, the idea of it sounds very enticing).
Here's a picture of my at the top of the hill I selected to run up. Milton Keynes is wonderfully scenic isn't it? A real hidden gem. ;-)
I picked the off road slope with the single greatest uninterrupted vertical ascent and started my run at 3pm. 115' of climbing and 115' of descending saw my first hill rep complete. Yes, the Brickhill Alps are a behemoth of a mountain, ahem er, molehill range.
Last year I peaked at 15 reps in my mid-week hill rep sessions so I was pleasantly surprised when I got to 13 and thought, hang on, this isn't too bad, I can manage a few more. I got to 15 and thought the same thing again. It wasn't till rep 17 that I could feel my calves begin to complain and in rep 18 I thought I'd probably have to walk rep 19 so I called it a day. 18 consecutive reps of up and down, covering 2100' of ascent and descent over 7.83 miles in 1:26.
I then managed to dodge the condors on my descent to make it home in time for my voracious daughter's dinner. A great afternoon. I'll work on upping the number of reps to somewhere around 30-40 as I get closer to the UTMB (oh joy, the idea of it sounds very enticing).
Here's a picture of my at the top of the hill I selected to run up. Milton Keynes is wonderfully scenic isn't it? A real hidden gem. ;-)
Friday 20 February 2009
Training update (oh what an exciting post title) and racing plan
Right then folks, I'm back to the keyboard whilst sitting in bed last thing at night. Eilidh is teething like billy-oh just now so it's 6am ups or earlier every day. The time is past 11pm so I'm playing fast, loose and dangerous with sleep quotas. I'll have to be quick.
My training is back on track performance wise after a rather stuttered start to the year. I'm not managing all my planned sessions yet as various bits and bobs are popping up but I am performing as I want to be at this stage in the year and season. Progress wise I am doing as below:
Endurance - no problems, my base level doesn't appear to have diminished and I've run an 18.5 miler on the last 2 weekends. The 2nd one had about 1500' of ascent in it and I recovered within a day.
Speed - again no problems, I am up to running 6 consecutive sub 7 minute miles in my tempo sessions with the first 3 at sub 6:50 pace. I am holding 6:15 and below pace easily in my 3 minute effort interval sessions
Strength - my gym sessions haven't been as regular as I'd like so I need to up these
Yoga - I can now do up and down dog positions in Ashtanga Yoga and am enjoying it
Hills - not really started this yet but tomorrow is the day I run 15-20 reps of a 130' ascent hill near my house as the start of my 'simulate alpine running in rural buckinghamshire' training plan
I have my race and training even plan sorted until the back end of September and it kicks off next month:
March - MK half marathon (aiming sub-1:29), Wuthering Hike 31 miler (aiming sub-5:15)
April - Exe to Axe 21 miler (4500' ascent, aiming sub 3:20), Highland Fling 53 miler (aiming sub 9:56)
May - Marlborough Downs Challenge 33 miler (aiming sub 4:55)
June - 2 day Bob Graham Round
July - in Australia so I''ll grab whatever I can plsu something big when I return as a final UTMB training session
August - UTMB 103 miler
September - High Peak 40 miler
If anyone has any June or late July ultra race or training ideas I'd be very grateful for them.
Looking forward to the season, and hoping to see some familiar faces at the ultra events, particularly the Wuthering Hike, Highland Fling and HP40.
In the meantime here are some photos that were taken by my mate Phil Dickson at PSD Photography over the festive period. We wanted to get some professional photos taken to send to Kirstin's family in Australia, for my family and our own albums, but didn't want anythin too cheesey. I think he did a good job. The last photo was taken in People's Palace in Glasgow when he accidentally dropped something and managed accidentally to take a photo of us (my family - gran, mum, dad, brother, wife, daughter and me) grimacing at the noise. Funny expressions!
My training is back on track performance wise after a rather stuttered start to the year. I'm not managing all my planned sessions yet as various bits and bobs are popping up but I am performing as I want to be at this stage in the year and season. Progress wise I am doing as below:
Endurance - no problems, my base level doesn't appear to have diminished and I've run an 18.5 miler on the last 2 weekends. The 2nd one had about 1500' of ascent in it and I recovered within a day.
Speed - again no problems, I am up to running 6 consecutive sub 7 minute miles in my tempo sessions with the first 3 at sub 6:50 pace. I am holding 6:15 and below pace easily in my 3 minute effort interval sessions
Strength - my gym sessions haven't been as regular as I'd like so I need to up these
Yoga - I can now do up and down dog positions in Ashtanga Yoga and am enjoying it
Hills - not really started this yet but tomorrow is the day I run 15-20 reps of a 130' ascent hill near my house as the start of my 'simulate alpine running in rural buckinghamshire' training plan
I have my race and training even plan sorted until the back end of September and it kicks off next month:
March - MK half marathon (aiming sub-1:29), Wuthering Hike 31 miler (aiming sub-5:15)
April - Exe to Axe 21 miler (4500' ascent, aiming sub 3:20), Highland Fling 53 miler (aiming sub 9:56)
May - Marlborough Downs Challenge 33 miler (aiming sub 4:55)
June - 2 day Bob Graham Round
July - in Australia so I''ll grab whatever I can plsu something big when I return as a final UTMB training session
August - UTMB 103 miler
September - High Peak 40 miler
If anyone has any June or late July ultra race or training ideas I'd be very grateful for them.
Looking forward to the season, and hoping to see some familiar faces at the ultra events, particularly the Wuthering Hike, Highland Fling and HP40.
In the meantime here are some photos that were taken by my mate Phil Dickson at PSD Photography over the festive period. We wanted to get some professional photos taken to send to Kirstin's family in Australia, for my family and our own albums, but didn't want anythin too cheesey. I think he did a good job. The last photo was taken in People's Palace in Glasgow when he accidentally dropped something and managed accidentally to take a photo of us (my family - gran, mum, dad, brother, wife, daughter and me) grimacing at the noise. Funny expressions!
Monday 2 February 2009
Grunt puff puff ...
... are the noises I made on my supposedly long hilly trail run at the weekend before I decided to cut it short and go home! Talk about perseverance, not.
Last week was my first full week of training so my mileage lept up and by Saturday my body was groaning under the strain. Probably too much red wine on Friday night too - well you've got to haven't you, after a week of hard work and not much sleep due to our crazy daughter's prolonged teething? That and I still get overly excited by Friday nights even though my hazy youthful days are but a hazy memory. Actually they were hazy the next day but that's besides the point.
Anyway, my breathing felt a bit laboured / asthmatic (I've had asthma since I was wee) and my legs sluggish after 1 mile of running so I called it quits at 11 miles. Pain in the bum really and disappointing performance wise but hey ho, back in the saddle this week. I'm planning to do a 20 miler this weekend and I'll remember to stay off the vino.
More importantly I've got to pass my condolences on John Kynaston for the loss of his father - sad news. And at the other end of life, my congratulations to Debbie and Marco for the birth of their son, Cairn, the first newborn to have already finished the West Highland Way Race - great stuff.
To leave this post I'd like to finish with a great a track by the Doves - There Goes the Fear. I first heard it, and the band on Richie Cunningham's UTMB slideshow and rather liked it. It has a dramatic fee that sort of suits the enormity of running a long ultra I think. And lots of other life events too.
Last week was my first full week of training so my mileage lept up and by Saturday my body was groaning under the strain. Probably too much red wine on Friday night too - well you've got to haven't you, after a week of hard work and not much sleep due to our crazy daughter's prolonged teething? That and I still get overly excited by Friday nights even though my hazy youthful days are but a hazy memory. Actually they were hazy the next day but that's besides the point.
Anyway, my breathing felt a bit laboured / asthmatic (I've had asthma since I was wee) and my legs sluggish after 1 mile of running so I called it quits at 11 miles. Pain in the bum really and disappointing performance wise but hey ho, back in the saddle this week. I'm planning to do a 20 miler this weekend and I'll remember to stay off the vino.
More importantly I've got to pass my condolences on John Kynaston for the loss of his father - sad news. And at the other end of life, my congratulations to Debbie and Marco for the birth of their son, Cairn, the first newborn to have already finished the West Highland Way Race - great stuff.
To leave this post I'd like to finish with a great a track by the Doves - There Goes the Fear. I first heard it, and the band on Richie Cunningham's UTMB slideshow and rather liked it. It has a dramatic fee that sort of suits the enormity of running a long ultra I think. And lots of other life events too.
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