Ride Around London race report

Just completed the Ride Around London today on the ElliptiGO. It started at Herne Hill Verodrome (south london) with a 6:30 am start meaning being up for 4am! Ouch. It went south out to dorking way and over Box Hill and looped around North West though the home counties along nice country roads before heading East into Essex and finishing at the Olympic water park in Lee Valley.

It was 115 miles in total. I took it fairly steady and was riding with my friend Idai and fellow ElliptiGO owner. It was a good workout (the ElliptiGO always is!) and we completed it in 9.5 hours. Took the first 100 miles very easy and blasted the last 15. That included a few good sharp climbs which got the quads burning including Box hill. Not sure what all the fuss is about with that this hill though as it is neither steep or long, unlike the North Downs Way trail which ascends straight up the face. The road just winds its way up fairly undramatically.

All in all though a very good workout and perfect long run training for snowdonia marathon in 1 month time.

15 mile training run....

Today was long fast run number 4 on the Leighton Tough 10 course over successive weekends. 15 miles in total over this undulating course, and I was hoping to go slightly better than last week and run an average pace of 7mpm . This was the first outside outing of my new Brooks Ravenna 2's which I exchanged at Sweatshop for the ill-fitting Adidas Adistar Ride 3s.



Sweatshop's exchange policy is very good. I'm not sure there are any other running retailers that will take back a pair of running shoes having been obviously worn outside. They didn't make a fuss either but were extra keen to ensure they sent me away this time with a pair of shoes that did fit and suited my gait. It was a different assistant to last time and her words were that I should never have been sold a cushioned non-stability shoe after watching me run up and down the shop floor. My right foot slightly overpronates (which I knew) and the Adidas were doing me no favours apparently. She recommended the Brooks Ravennas 2 which are a mild support shoe perfect for me. I tried it on and immediately knew that these were the shoes for me. So comfortable and just enough support. Sold!



Now back to the run itself... The weather was perfect. Sun out but not hot. And not so windy as it has been in recent weeks. The course profile (first 10 miles of today's run is below). It's a great course and I can highly recommend anyone in the local area or indeed those that don't mind to travel to come and run this race which is happening on 2nd October. Details on our LBAC club website here. As you can see it is undulating but for a road course very scenic too!

I went out relaxed and got into my stride. Mile 1 is straight as an arrow and allows one to get into the groove. I was actually surprised when my mile 1 split read 7:12. A slow start (by the standard set in previous weeks) which urged me to pick up the pace ever so slightly. As the hills came and went I felt strong and the subsequent mile splits reflected this. From mile 2 onwards only miles 7 and 11 were over 7mpm pace. Mile 7 split of 7:14 prompted me again to pick up the pace as I was determined not to let my avg pace slip.

I continued to feel strong especially on the hills, and unlike last week where at mile 11-12 I really started to flag a little, today I pushed on the pace and got quicker not slower. I was buzzing with effort I was putting in. My average pace at this point was 6:53 and I was determined to keep it there in the remaining miles. Hydration and nutrution wise I was working well too. Today was the GU 'Love Expresso' flavoured gel . They pack in the calories for such a small pouch and unlike most gels are actually extremely tasty!

As my garmin beeped at the 15th mile I stopped the clock and smiled. 6:50 avg pace in a time of 1:42.44. Awesome stuff. Garmin Connect details of the run are below.

Next up is an 115 mile ElliptiGO ride around London next Sunday. Should be fun :-)

Leighton Tough 15!

Ouch that hurt! After two weeks of setting PBs over the 10 mile distance I upped the distance to 15 miles Saturday morning on the same hilly road course. The plan over the next few weeks is to get up to 20 miles but essentially maintain the speed.

Today though was 15 and I planned to try and maintain a 7 mpm pace over the whole distance. And it worked out well although it was a pain fest towards the end especially as I had to make up the distance to get to 15 miles by going up and down the steepest hill of the course 3 times! Oh and my garmin also decided at 13.31 miles that the memory was full so I couldn't capture the final 1.7 miles. Slightly annoying but hey the main thing is the training not the numbers! My run courtesy Garmin Connect is below.



This was my toughest fast run to date, and I don't think I've pushed myself this hard for a while, which is exactly what I need if I'm gonna perform in the Snowdonia marathon (SNOD). The course profile for SNOD is below!


I was also trying out my new Adidas Ride 3 road shoes for the first time. They provide good support for a cushioned shoe but the right shoe rubbed on the back of my heel soon into the run, so I'm not sure whether to take back to Sweatshop straight away of put it down to 'new shoe syndrome' and give them time to break in. If I do that though its doubtful I could take them back.

Another day and another speed session...

Another day and another speed session! Is this really the same ultra
runner that just ran NDW100. After a day's rest on Sunday I hit the
local RAF Stanbridge track bank holiday Monday for a swift 5 miler.
And after Saturday's 10 mile PB success I had my eyes on another!

On went the Brooks Green Silence racing flats and around I went for
twenty laps of the 1/4 mile circuit. I wore the garmin but only looked
at it once during the whole session - this was at half way to check my
2.5mile split which was 14:50. So a sub 30 minutes was definitely on
the cards but had I gone out too hard?

I was definitely pushing hard but was running with how I felt I should
so I carried on. It got tougher as the laps mounted up not made any
easier by the strong head wind on the back straight, but I felt like I
was just keeping under 6 minute mile pace.

With 3 laps left I made a concerted effort to give it what I had left
and with that I had soon smashed out 20 laps. And as I looked down at
the Garmin it was mission accomplished. 28:54. Nice. My mile splits
were also very satisifying with progressive splits throughout: 5:58;
5:52; 5:49; 5:44; 5:27. And that's without checking the garmin. There
is definitely a lot to be said for running on feel and going with it!
So in week 1 of my 8 week snowdonia marathon training programme that's
2 PBs posted in my first 2 training runs at 10 mile and 5 mile
distance. Most unexpected but very pleasing indeed.

Next up is some cross-training on the ElliptiGO to work on Wednesday
and Thursday which will total 116 miles. Perhaps with an aerobics
session Wednesday lunchtime. Then it's rest Friday and long run
Saturday where I'm in two minds on whether to repeat the Leighton
Tough 10 route again or go slightly longer and perhaps lay down a road
half marathon or even 15 miles. The trails are also calling but
listening to a recent interview on 'Marathon Talk' podcast with world
renowed coach Bart Yasso he insists that trail runners don't do nearly
enough training on the road which promotes far greater leg speed. So
to get faster on the trails you actually need to hit the roads!

UTMB video - STUNNING

A truly stunning video sequence capturing this weekend's Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc event. Enjoy.

I feel the need for speed

Today was the real start of my training for the Snowdonia marathon at the end of October. With just 8 weeks of training ahead but a good endurance base from my recent exploits my focus will be to improve my base speed over the shorter distance.

Snowdonia is also a hilly marathon as if I had to point that out so I will also be looking at getting in some solid hill sessions in the weeks ahead too. Today though was about speed endurance which I think is my weakness element of my running. It seems I have reasonable speed at shorter distances up to 10k (37min pb in Feb), and I have endurance over the ultra events but there's definitely something missing inbetween which stops me from carrying the speed into mid/longer distance events. With that being the case I set about tackling the Leighton Tough 10 course which is hosted by our club and takes place on 2nd October.

It's all on road and takes in 6 considerable climbs along the way. That said it isn't a slow course and today was about finding out how fast I could go. I rarely race 10 miles or train at this specific distance so a PB was on the cards! My plan was to go out at 7 minute mile pace and hold this for as long as I could and if I could just nip under 1:10 that would be great.

I cycled down to the start at a local school and set off on my way. Checking my avg pace at 1/2 mile it read 6:42. Ok quite quick but I didn't intentionally slow down as a result and kept at it. I felt good and was eating up the hills with relative ease. Sipping some water every now and then, and weather was perfect for this kind of running.

Time went really quickly as i'm obviously use to being on my feet for longer on my weekend long runs. Before I knew it I was cresting the final sharp climb and bombing down the other side before a long flat stretch to the finish. My final mile was 6:00 minutes flat, and my total time 1:06.56. A 6:41 avg pace for the whole course. I was well pleased with this. Weird that my total avg was the same as it was just 1/2 mile into the run too!

I plan to do plenty more of these types of sessions in the next 8 weeks and build up the distance to 20 miles whilst keeping the speed up. Then who knows I might (just might) be capable of getting a marathon PB at snowdonia! It's a real shot as the course probably adds 15-20 mins on to a flat road marathon such as London where I posted 3:30.06 in 2010. But hey if you don't aim high you'll never know what you might be capable of.

And to sign off can I just say hats off to Kilian Jornet who absolutely nailed UTMB2011 in around 20hr40m. That's 104 miles with over 30,000 ft of climb!!! Amazing!! And to my friend Nick Ham who as I write this doing amazing well and is in the top half of the field and about 25hrs in!!! GO Nick hang in there my friend!!! :-)

10 top tips for an easy 100 ;-)

Its already been a week since the NDW100... I can't quite believe it! I'm in a reflective mood and eager to learn from my successes and failures whilst they are still fresh in my mind so that next time goes even better. There may even be a few take aways for others here too. So in no particular order what I have leant for my next 100:

1 - Lycra!! Never leave home without it. The £5 lycra shorts worked a treat! Never ever wear normal running shorts for an ultra again if you want chaf and pain free running!

2 - Sudocrem!! It's the best anti-chaffing product out there bar none! Designed for nappy nash but cheap as chips its way better than any 'running' specific creams I've used on the market. No amount of sweat will make this stuff budge!

3 - Hydration!! Not everyones preference but the 2 camelbak handheld bottles with quick grip holders were great. Easy and quick to refill at aid stations, and you drink more on the run to ensure you stay well hydrated. And because you have two containers rather than one camelpak for example you can have two different drinks. On the NDW on some sections i had coke in one and water or weak diluted energy drink in the other. The coke was awesome!

4 - Tempo!! Going out at a good tempo worked for me. In going out at 10mpm pace and running this pace for as long as I could and as the terrain dictated was I think the right approach. I of course slowed down as the miles wore on and my average pace for the 100 miles was 13:20mpm but the alternative is to go out more conservatively at perhaps 12mpm pace and try to maintain this pace for the entire distance. I think this puts you at a disadvantage from the beginning and the likelihood of then not slowed down is very remote. So if I had the chance again I would do it exactly the same way. However next time I will hopefully be fitter and able to maintain 10mpm pace for far longer!

5 - Support crew!! Having a pacer for the final section especially during the night is a real advantage and definitely makes the time go quicker, as well as keeping you honest and on pace. I'm sure I could have been up to 1/2hr slower without my dad there. Of course not every 100 mile event allows them but if they do use them! And any talk of it making it any less of a challenge is nonsense. All the elite runners have pacers both on the track and in the marathons and ultra marathons so why shouldn't the average Jo too!

6 - Ditch the ipod!! I didnt run with an ipod and not for one minute did I even think that it would have helped to be plugged in. There were many runners on the NDW that did but surely the whole point of trail running is to get out there and enjoy nature and get in the moment. Music can somewhat mask all the positive feelings that rush through your body when running. My advice ... Leave the ipod at home.

7 - Food glorious food!! Despite the name of my blog 'running on empty' it is not advisable for a 100 miler. I got my nutrition wrong for the NDW. You should never rely on what the aid stations may or may not provide. Stuff your drop bags with a good variety of savoury foods that will fuel your fires without. On a plus point I thought the slimfast shakes were really good and I would definitely use them again. My new favourite bar is '9 Bar original'. These things are absolutely awesome and way cheaper than most - box of 3 less than £2 in tescos. Avoid Mule Bars though... these things are horrible and way too heavy.

8 - Injinjis!! I've said it before on my blog but I love the Injinji 5 toe socks. Personally I haven't found a better sock and wouldn't buy anything else now. 100 miles and zero blisters is surely the only evidence needed! The ones I wore on the NDW were the Injinji Compression sock.

9 - Positive Attitude!! I really went into this race knowing it would go well, which I think is partly because of how my training had gone but going in a race with a positive attitude makes all the difference. If you go into a race thinking it won't go that well and that your training wasn't great then it will probably play out exactly as expected...

10 - X training!! Before this year I really didn't cross train that much apart from the occasional trip to gym and bike ride. The ElliptiGO and the 1,600+ miles I put in in 2011 on my weird bike has really made the difference to my training. Most importantly its kept me injury free and long may it continue! So that's my top 10 reflections from the race and training.