Training Log Archive: Mark3

1st, boom

After getting back from a wedding at midnight and getting up at 5am I felt that my prep for this race was perhaps sub-optimal. 4.5°C this morning leaving the house felt very chilly but after the bus to the start and a bit of a warm up run to the toilets and back, felt reasonable to start in just a vest. As soon as the race started it was fine.

Started in the front pack, and was 2nd for the first 3k along the canal. This felt fairly fast but I had my watch on the map screen and didn't want to check - this was a good thing as had I realised we were running about 3 hour marathon pace I'd have been terrified and slowed down. Let people come past up the first climb, and into 5th by the top, with the leader just beginning to get out of sight. In 5th but with 3rd and 4th until about 12k, where 3rd and 4th both stopped for a no.2 break within 20 metres of each other in seemingly choreographed juxtaposition. So up into third for the next 4k where one of them (Rob) caught me just before CP1.

We caught 2nd at the CP but hadn't seen the leader for ages so I thought he was long gone; but turned out he'd stopped for quite a while and so wasn't that far ahead. In fact 2nd caught and passed 1st and then disappeared into the distance. Nice run up the Cloud (easy climb; first Clif bar) and then nice descent too. After a couple more kilometres we caught the early leader who confessed to going of a bit quickly. Rob and I eased away so were now 2nd and 3rd, with 1st around a minute ahead.

Tough 'path' (ie nothing) up through a planted field to a stagnant conduit for a bit which smelled grim. Then undulating fairly nice trail up to Hawkslee which was a nice ridge along a track with some good views - getting closer and closer to the leader. Eventually caught and passed him up Croker hill to the transmitter (Clif bar #2) and then I commented to Rob that we just needed to hold it together now...for the next 18 miles or so. He said that (a) it was his first ultra and (b) he'd just been following me the whole time, he didn't know where he was and would have got lost quite a few times if I wasn't there, and so he had no plans to outsprint me if we were still together at the finish. Great, I thought - you're probably going to fall apart at 30 miles but even if you don't, I'm going to win anyway? I'm happy to let you run with me the whole way.

Bit of a nav wobble at CP2 where the gpx and the map and the ground all said different versions of the truth (the ground won). Didn't stop again. Kind of starting to recognise the route now as getting to training run territory. Down to Langley and then up the route I'd researched in advance as being best (random section in the middle where you could leave the Gritstone, so I did as it saved 100m ascent - told Rob about this and gave him the choice; he elected to trust my nav and came with me (good man)) and had Clif #3 up Coal Pit Lane, missing out Tegg's. Down into Rennie and back to the Gritstone with no incident, and hoping but not certain that we hadn't been overtaken on our detour.

Walked up climb to Kerridge and then nice ridge run along to Nancy (home!) before dropping down before the final climb up to Lyme. At CP3 tried to get away from Rob by not stopping again; was ahead for a km or so before he caught me again. On the final climb he mentioned that he was a 2:40(!!) marathon runner. I stopped trying to get away.

Fairly slow pace to the top but kept running, then picked it up a bit to Bowstones and down into Lyme. One last new section after Lyme I hadn't done before to Disney, where we were slowed down by a range rover exactly the same width as the green lane driving slower than we were running. Temporarily missed the turn off the trail into the road to the finish. Rob reiterated him commitment not to outsprinted me and finished 6secs down. Very sporting of him since I think he could've picked it up at any point if he'd been able/willing to read a map...
32 mins ahead of 3rd, and 4th another 17 mins down.

So great result, and very pleased with the time which is only 12 mins off the course record. Hips starting to ache by the end but nothing major. Got round on just 1L liquid despite it being quite a warm day in the end; had run out by the end but not worth stopping by then.

Great to be racing around my neighbourhood, knowing all the paths etc, and having the support from the other Harriers and the three extra checkpoints put on by the club. Went to the pub for a celebratory drink afterwards and was congratulated 100 times by everyone, who were very impressed :) the last Harriers finished in 10:50ish I think - long day for them!

Already entered another ultra next month... Strangely addictive! Plus there's no (long) fell race on that day.

C • well done. 2

2nd.
Undulating rather than hilly, maybe 60 percent tarmac, 40 percent reasonable trail path. Some narrow sections, but fine with this number of people; just over 100 I think.
3rd for a lot of it but three laps within a second of each other showed that good pacing also pays off at 5k.

Easy canal + Middlewood loop. Nice evening. Hamstring much improved prodding-wise; much the same when running.

Still hurting quite a lot but definitely less than yday, so improving, so that's good news.
Will probably skip the race in favour of something easy tomorrow, and then do parkrun on Sat before the wedding.

Doesn't really hurt whilst running just feels a bit weird. But still really painful to the touch. Wondering if it's all the pole-using which has put more stress on my hamstrings. Probably shouldn't have gone from zero to fifteen hours of it in a week, really.

My right hamstring doesn't hurt at all when walking but even prodding it gently feels like it's one massive bruise. Had this with tight quads before but never with hamstring...Will leave it one more day I think; suspect running would be fine but don't want to aggregate it.

Hamstring still hurting :( doesn't feel like an injury though