Training Log Archive: GaryHouse

coaching on the lanes for clients next race......

some coaching uphill and down......still easy and not much go in the legs but didn't need it

easy group run on grass

Not really a rest when I had to spend the day shopping .........should have gone running

Led a group 10k before a Macmillan coffee morning for one of our members - was nice to have a bit of a run. Fine afterwards

Didn't have any work on so took it easy - did take Winter to the swimming pool just to move a bit

Easy coaching again - no ill effect from Wednesdays run

had to do some group coaching....

very easy and obviously have tiredness but everyone said I was moving well.

have to be careful with hips and right knee still just a little achey afterwards

Same as yesterday.....

Slept, walked the dog for 45 minutes then had a group session in the evening but didn't do anything myself

plenty of sleep......taught a 45 minutes RUNSTRONG session for the group but used others to demonstrate.

EQUINOX 24hr Race

Didn't sleep as well as usual before a race waking at 5am and not being able to sleep again until 7am for another hour.

Good Breakfast

Had rained pretty heavily over night and started up again at around 0900 so I stayed at the house until 11 rather than 10.....no point in getting cold and standing around in the tent.

Started in the rain but was due to clear in an house or two and the first few laps just went by really easy with no issue

First four laps
55
57
56
57

It was now 4pm and the sun had come out...for whatever reason I had a headache and although still running fine I just wasn't able to enjoy it as much.

I took a few mins at the tent just to eat some pasta, cheese etc and then moved on

next few....

66
63
63
64

Now 8 laps in and 8 hours in I had kept to schedule but the times had slipped mainly due to some parts of the course being completely chopped up with mud having rained so much early on, it was drying out a bit but was very sticky and slippy for about 1km.....my headache had got worse and I decided I had to try some paracetamol.

I don't really get headaches and I never really take pain killers in races, especially not this early in 24 hours.

Anyway it was only 1 and I carried on......

Maybe I should have taken it earlier because for the next half a lap it got worse before pretty much clearing completely by the end of the lap.

that lap (9) took 77 mins though and that wasn't a good sign as my legs and body felt OK.....a few normal aches but just dealing with the headache for a few hours had took its tole I think

The new problem I seemed to have was drowsiness......I THINK I stayed on top of my fuel and had eaten plenty and stayed hydrated but over the next few hours I just couldn't do anything to stop it

I was still running OK but just had no GO or energy when it came to pushing on when I have in the past.....

Between around 1am and 3am it became a bit a real battle just to stay awake....never had this before and maybe we can chat about it to try and find the cause but maybe it just wasn't my day

I only found out what place I was in at half way (third) and the only thing keeping me going was that I knew the two ahead stood a good chance of blowing up....

The 21 laps had gone out the window but I knew if I just kept going I could still podium.

At 3am one of my friends ran a lap with me who was in the team and he said apparently I fell in to him "asleep" while running.......what a farce. I don't think I said two words to him in the 1hr 54 minutes it took to get around!! (20 minutes of this at the tent)

The next lap was even worse.......i was stumbling and can't remember anything apart from leaning on a fence and getting fucking electrocuted!!

No signs or anything just an electric fence for horses just off the track.....getting back to the tent and telling my support that I had no choice but to go to sleep because not even that shock woke me up

Ive never slept in a race before but you mentioned it in the phone call that Scott Jurek had so I thought sod it.....if it works for him I have no choice anyway. Maybe I should have tried it earlier.....

Everyone told me NOT to get in the tent but if I had gone out for another lap I would probably still be out there now.....I said to wake me after 20 minutes and it will either work or I will stay there for hours.

They did what I said and I climbed out - stuck some more layers on and started to walk......for the first time it was my legs not wanting to run but that was going to happen after being curled up for 20 minutes.

I walked a KM then took a layer off to walk faster......then by 5k I was running again and the drowsiness was not like it was.

Add the fact that the sun was coming up I was now moving again....

That lap(15) took 2hr 26 with sleep and walking.........I decided that I would go and do one more to make it 100 miles then spend the rest of the morning eating and supporting the others.

I had zero motivation to to run 106 miles instead of 100 just to finish 4th or worse....

So the 16th lap took 1 hr 50....I ran a bit....chatted with people on the course and generally had a bit of fun thinking I wanted to end on a fun one . ......only to get back to the news that I was in third place?!?!

Not only that but 1st place (the same guy who blew last year) had done the same thing and was in his campervan crying because his knee was shot......to be honest he runs like its a marathon so not surprised...

Second place had also pulled out and was in a heap in the medical tent.

this left me with 2.5 hours to do one more lap and start another.

18 laps would win and I had done 16.

This was a weird situation as last year I was running sub 70 mins for lap 19/20 at this time to win and now I only had to crawl around to win (assuming 4th wasn't going faster)

I sat down at the tent and had some good hot food because now the night had just left me with zero energy.....legs felt ok but just could not get going with running.

I remembered that my poles were in the car so i thought I would take them out and maybe they would help.....last two laps were

1:56 and then 1:14 just to make sure nobody could catch me.

The run and distance was very disappointing but the win and more importantly the battle to just keep moving made up for it.

180km in 24 hours is not what I wanted but I always think its such a long time for stuff to go wrong you can't nail it EVERY time.

i know this is a long report but if I don't write it all down now I will forget.

POSITIVES

- Not a single blister and my feet were wet from lap 1
- I didn't DNF
- I only have tiredness and a little inflammation in joints to recover from....no injuries to speak of

NEGATIVES

- Not sure where the headache and severe drowsiness came from
- Not the distance I wanted
- The socks I won are too small (there was other prizes)

Was due to have a 30 minute steady run but had poor night sleep with Winter waking up a few times (this never happens usually)

I decided to just walk the dog before getting picked up by friends at 10:30 to travel down and maybe have a run on the course when we got there.

Weather was fine when we left but had forecast cooler weather later on and I was feeling like the head cold hadn't completely gone.

I felt pretty tired all day if im honest, the kind of tired you feel when you have been fighting off a bit of sickness although I hadn't felt to bad at all....

Didn't run when we got there, a mixture of tiredness and trying to stay warm getting the tent up meant I was happy to just go for some food and then the house for an early night.

Easy with the dog

- I had woken up yesterday (Wednesday) with a bit of a head cold. Today it was worse with me having to blow my nose every 5 minutes

Didn't feel rough apart from that but not ideal before the weekend.

It cleared by the afternoon though and felt fine

Group Trail Run - no issues

Easy with the dog - no issue

plan had 60 steady with speed variations but had more work on than usual for a Monday so missed that session rather than go in to the weekend tired.

This was a guided trail run for a new client straight up and down a pretty technical trail, some walking/talking involved.

Muddy and wet under foot but nice fresh temperature - no issues

Easy group run before technique session

80' Specifc Endurance


Combined the session with a guided run with some more experienced clients on a 10 mile run while my other coach led a shorter route.

Pace was set by them which suited me and was just along the canal on bright sunny morning...fingers crossed for similar weather next week.

Went a little over time but we had a walk break and toilet stop when a few struggled a little.

Good relaxed run and feeling fit.

Saturday group run after coaching kettlebells for group

Very easy on the park trails - no issues from Friday

90' Specifc Endurance + 30' Steady (FFLR)

Back down to the canal for this one, woke up not feeling too motivated for the session but hoping once I got going it would be OK....

I hadn't had breakfast apart from a handful of Brazil nuts....only because I had nothing suitable left in the house and couldn't face food shopping before the run.

I definitely wasn't tired or anything and once I got started things were fine.

I had a banana 10 minutes before the FFLR and had sipped on a carb mix drink from the start

legs felt good from a few easy days but I didn't push things at all and kept the FFLR at a steady pace..

Felt much better for doing the session afterwards

Group drills followed by short run on park trails. no issues

easy coaching session with Mel before GNR on Sunday...strides on grass to finish

HIll reps for the group working on downhills with walking breaks back up.

Easy again and tiredness from ROF weekend has nearly gone.

Short naps have made a come back for me in the afternoon now that Winter is with a childminder 4 days a week

Easy coaching session on grassy park trail with some drills and strides to finish

Very easy group run before coaching.....general tiredness from the weekend but no other issues.

Sleep not as good tonight with a few trips to a crying child.

Nap planned for Tuesday afternoon

Ate sine good seafood and caught up with sleep and recovered from the last two days supporting/running at Ring OF Fire

Walked the dog but that's it.

I will try and keep this as short as possible so you don't just end up with a race report that wasn't a race..........

After stage one starting at 1pm Friday today started at 6am.

I was up with Vicci and made the 30 minute trip along to the start line...

Vicci seemed fine and up for day two. I was a little tired after sleeping in the same room as the missus, the baby and the bloody dog for some reason.

Anyway the runners went off and it was up to me and Viccis husband Si to meet her at CPs and supply any food/water etc.

We had a 2 hour wait I think so took the dogs for a run at the beach and had breakfast

Again Vicci seemed good at CPs and we arranged for me to start running at CP7 28 miles in to the 66 for the day.

the weather turned at around 10am to hard rain and 50mph winds on the coast so a big contrast to the day before and conditions were not easy.

The first few sections of my part of the day went without problem with me leading the way navigating when needed and generally having a good time now it was back on trails. There were some very muddy sections, some lanes and some beach front but we made good time and I even spotted a red squirrel for the first time in years!

Vicci started to tire obviously later in the day and we were averaging around 4 miles an hour but spirits were still high and it was only the hills, or beach front that we were walking.

Then once we hit the darkness navigation was a little more tricky only because it was through forest tracks and sand dunes which wasn't ideal...

Then the shit hit the fan a little (a lot) when the tide came in a little earlier than expected with the high winds all day..

With sea to our left and big dunes to the right the waves were now up t our feet so we had to bail up to the sand dunes which took us off course to find an honesty book.....we had to rip a page out and hand it to the next point to show we had not cut the course.

Navigating in darkness in the forest trying to find this thing was near impossible.....conscious of adding more time and mileage to Viccis day it was a little stressful as we ended up losing a full hour looking for this fucking thing.

We were not alone ......I kept bumping in to zombies who all looked like they had lost on the beach for about 5 years or something but turned out they were in the race. Real eye opener to see the struggle that goes on at the back of these things.

Anyway....in they end they had sent out a martial to help us find it as they had been watching everyone on the tracker get pushed in to the woods by the tide. Then this guy couldn't even find it.....why they didn't just let everyone competing just go to the next CP is beyone me but I couldn't say anything as by now I had to pretend I was in the race and not pacing Vicci.

We got the page from the book but now we had 2.2 miles to cover in 45 minutes JUST to make the strict cut off after being hours ahead of it.

This wasn't as easy as it sounds with the terrain being sand dunes then swamp with the last mile being forest track I managed to pace Vicci in with 5 minutes to spare.

She was running well again all things considering but now the hours lost meant it was a race against time.

We only needed to do 7 miles in 2 hours but it was now 2am...we should have been in bed by now and Vicci was flagging....her feet were pretty messed up with being wet all day and then the getting lost part meant her spirit was a bit broken.

We walked the small climbs and I told her I will pace her to the finish but if she dropped behind me it would be game over.

It was all very dramatic with some unforgiving terrain meaning we had to run sections faster than was ideal but we got to the end of day one with 30 seconds to spare but it was 4am.

We had an hour to sleep but with her feet ina real state and lack of sleep there was no way she could have got through the third day unfortunately.

I was quietly happy about this because I would have risked being tired for days afterwards if I had to hike all day on Sunday too.

instead I took the dog to the beach for a stroll around mid morning and because I had picked up a few knocks from the terrain I decided Sunday was a rest day.

The race did seem good one though and I have never done a multi stage so maybe one to have a crack at myself in future (no 4m finishes though)

I joined Vicci at half way on day one for the Ring Of Fire, she was running fine and had dealt with navigation ok but we both felt it was best for me to join her from now as the race had got strung out and she didn't want to get lost.

It was really warm and sunny with the route being typical stunning coastal path scenery......up to now it had been lots of lanes and villages so I was happy to skip that part.

No issues in the first half (my first half) and then once it got dark I pretty much had to do all navigation for both Vicci and two other blokes who had no clue really where they were going...

The running was easy and in good spirits with some great views as the sun went down.

We finished day one at 9:30pm and went straight back to the cottage for food and sleep.

Vicci seemed tired but nothing major......I was the same

Nice route and fun

Easy coaching session on grassy park trails with drills and strides to finish