Swanbourne Endeavour Pics

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Swanbourne Endeavour Race Report

Well this was like no other 10km race I have ever entered! This was a
race with a difference with an array of barmy army obstacles along the
entire stretch of the route with a final finale which was simply
mental. I don't want to give away too much so get comfortable whilst I
walk/run you through the course and the race itself.

This was a team event and I was part of a 5 strong LBAC squad called
'This is NOT Champneys'. The team time would be the accumulation of
the 5 individual times combined. We had a mix of runners men and
women. With Snowdonia marathon just a week away I told myself that I
wouldn't race this one hard, but who am I kidding. I just don't know
the meaning of hanging back and I wanted to contribute to the team
effort and post a competitive time.

And so with the blast of a cannon to signal the start of this
'nautical themed' XC race we were off!! The first obstacle was right
ahead of us... Haybales that took us over a wall and off the
otherside. And then across a field ahead of us where I found myself
leading. There was no hanging back :-) The next set up was a large
field on an incline that they had roped off to create a maze of
shuttle runs down and back up, down and back up 5 times. This was
already spreading the field and by the end of the 5th shuttle run I
had opened a nice gap to 2nd place. Next up was a few more haybales
and some mud before entering a straight stretch with 2 or 3 pits
filled with water. These were taken at speed with about 2-3 steps into
the water before leaping out the other side. This signalled the start
of what was to come with a constant dunking in various 'water
features' on route.

The next memorable obstacle was a 50 metre crawl through mud along a
shallow gulley with barbed wire just above the head and bum! This
required a shuffle forward flat out on the stomach using the forearms
to pull yourself along the mud and stones with the legs being dragged
behind. I got the technique pretty good but it was really energy
zapping. I snagged my lyrca compression shorts once on the barbed wire
too but fortunately just a small hole resulted saving any embarassment
that would have been caused if it was any bigger! :-O

I eventually reached the end of the gulley and continued on my way for
a km or so along the side of fields. I noticed that I had gashed my
knee on the previous section either from dragging it along the ground
or from catching it on the barbed wire but thought nothing more of it.
Certainly no time to inspect the damage at this point.

My lead by this point had grown to around a minute. The next fun
section was along the length of a nettled filled narrow river which
was about 1-2ft deep. It must have gone on for well over 400 metres at
a guess, perhaps a bit more even as it wound it's way through dence
woodland. I listened out for any splashing from behind but all was
silent.

Out of the river and following the tape in the woods led to the next
obstacle which was a series of logs at waist height which you
alternated between going over and under. Sounds easy enough but the
legs were feeling it a little by this point. Past this and it was a
few more fields and down to the next water feature. The inclusion of a
blue rope across the pond suggested that this one may be a little
deeper than the others! I took the plunge and found myself at chest
height in brown muddy murky pond.... Lovely. I pulled on the rope with
a left over right hand technique and took big strides to carry me
across. A stumble at the end on a sunken ledge had me neck deep with
the marshall just infront of me offering no hint what lay ahead. But
thinking about it now how would he of known. I doubt he took the
plunge at any point. I grabbed whole of some folliage to pull me out
and battled on.

More fields and an extended lead to nearer 2 minutes or so saw me
'plough' on ahead. I was having a lot of fun which was the reason for
entering this event in the first place and I was wondering what else
may lie ahead. My question was answered with another barbed wire
crawl. This one was shorter thankfully with no snags this time!!! I
didn't once look at my watch to check the time or work out how far I
had gone but I had the feeling that the finish line wasn't too far
away now.

A few fields later and I spotted some spectators in the far distance
as I closed in on what would be one hell of a finale!! They had
definitely saved the best for last but had I saved anything to meet
the challenge that lay ahead? Before that however was one last fuel
stop but what they were serving was certainly not evian!! No sir...
Instead we were treated to a shot of rum which certainly got the fires
burning inside. And this wasn't the only fire as I will come to
explain...

First up on the home straight (although it was anything but straight)
was a double height haybale wall to clamber over, next up was a pit of
FIRE that you had to jump over!! I'm not kidding. And with many
spectators looking and cheering on I had to be the showman and elected
to leap over the largest flame. I figured that I was drenched enough
to not be a fire hazard!! This was followed by several scramble nets
that you had crawl under in the mud followed by several several pits
of water in quick succession with a very low beam across them meaning
that the only and quickest way through was to roll down through the
water and under the beam and clammer up the other side. As I was doing
this there were loads of kids all running beside me cheering me on
which felt great. There were more nets, more haybales, more fire and a
tunnel half full of muck and water that you had to crawl through. And
then if that wasn't already enough I was handed a wooden log of
significant proportions with rope handles tied to each end which I had
to carry for about a 200m+ loop. Unbelieveable!

From there I was almost home (but certainly not dry!!). A small climb
later and up and over a wall and I had finished ringing the captains
bell to sound my 1st place victory. Now I know how captain Nelson must
have felt!! What a rush!!!

The warm taste of victory and hot tea at the finish was very sweet
indeed. Whilst time is completely irrelevant on a course like this i
finished in a clip over 48 minutes. 2nd and 3rd came in virtually
together at around 51 minutes. The other 4 LBACers were soon back too.
Jane was 2nd women home!! We exchanged views on just how awesome the
course was and just what a fantastic event this was and had our photos
taken. We have to await the full results to find out if we claimed the
team prize.

The entry fee may have been a little steep but it was a not for profit
race with all the proceeds once costs were covered going to 3 army
based charities so you definitely can't complain about that. On the
knee front I saw the St John Ambulance folk at the finish who took a
look and told me I required a trip to A&E to get it stitched up. You
gotta be joking I thought... It's a mere flesh wound!! Anyway one trip
to Boots later with some steri-strips purchased I sorted out the gash
myself and all should be good for next weekend and Snowdonia!! Bring
it on baby cos I'm ready!!!

Toronto Running Club run

It must be said that my preparation for the snowdonia marathon or SNOD as its often referred has hit something of a plateau. I was going great guns at the start of September getting in some fast local 10 and 15 milers on a hilly road course. However a week in Canada on business has somewhat seen me stop in my tracks.

Not altogether perhaps.... as I previously blogged I did get in a 25 miler along the Ottawa River which I needed due to lack of long mileage but I'm not sure how much good it did me. Since then I did one further run with the Toronto Running Club last Wednesday. This was great as I ventured out of the city and into the suburbs. The club runners were very welcoming and I would certainly recommend the idea of hooking up with local running clubs wherever you find yourself.

I met new people, got a local eyes view and saw areas of Toronto I would never have seen otherwise. Plus the beer and huge burger afterwards was ace! There were 3 Brits in the club running that night and quite unbelieveably one chap called Bob who was in his mid 60s and had run a 3.27 marathon 3 years prior was flying to England in 3 weeks time to visit a good friend... And where does this friend live..? Just 2 miles up the road from me in Leighton Buzzard! How insane.. So I have invited Bob to join our local LBAC club run on the Wednesday he is over. And perhaps Toronto and Leighton Buzzard could become the most unlikely of sister running clubs... How cool would that be!

Back to the training though and with one thing or another I haven't been able to string together a series of solid runs which build my speed, strength and endurance one after the other. Instead I feel like I'm merely hanging onto my current fitness, IF that. What will this mean for SNOD in a few weeks time....? Well firstly despite the far from ideal build up I'm still gunning for a sub 3:30 time. I've no idea if this is possible but I'm committing myself to it 100% So pretty much a boom or bust scenario awaits me!

Perhaps with another week of good running and a solid long run this weekend my confidence may increase. We shall see.... But time is running out...

Ottawa River long run report

Its my third day in Ottawa, Canada. I'm out here on business and getting into the groove of the laid back style of Canadian life (pleasure and business - in that order).

Ottawa is a small city (especially for Capital standards). One million population and strangely it totally shuts down at night beyond 10pm! I arrived on Saturday afternoon picked up by my client and taken to my hotel (the room/suite is MASSIVE!!). I found myself wandering the streets downtown in search of food and it was eerily quiet. I needed to fuel the following morning's long run, and found a steak house. A huge pork back rib steak and chicken BBQ breast with fries later I was really hit the sack. Only 9pm local time but 2am in the UK so it was a long day and I was knackered.

I didn't sleep well and found myself wide awake at 3pm. So actually did a bit of work whilst I waited for the sun to rise so I could go for my run. Fuelled on coffee, banana and pop tarts I headed out the door at 7am. It was 6 degrees but having checked the weather the gloves were on and long sleeve compression top (from Aldi for a tenner) kept the chill at bay.

On Sunday's in downtown Ottawa they close the main Ottawa River Parkway which is the main road that runs alongside the river and North out of the City. This entails a full police road block so that cyclists, roller bladers and runners get free rein of the road. Amazing. Can you imagine that happening in London every Sunday. I think not....

The plan was to run along the Ottawa river which also has a smooth cycle/foot path along a 10m stretch beside the parkway. So an out and back would provide a nice 20 mile training run. I didn't take any photos but I've nicked a few from Google maps of the route I took below. It was a good run even despite the light rain. The first 10 miles were easy at run at an 8 mpm pace. As I came to the end of the footpath I decided to continue along the river along the roads and push out to 13 miles so I would run the full marathon distance. A crazy idea as I hadn't run long in a while but knew I needed to as SNOD is just 4 weeks away now.

My lack of long runs did show as my calves tighened on the return and slowed me down to a 8:30 mpm pace. I think the cold didn't help though and was perhaps the main reason for this tighening. It was a bit of a struggle but I battled on and knew that I needed this run and had to start posting some miles. The return leg was made that little bit easier when I struck up a conversation with two local runners Roger and Laura who I was slowly baring down on on a straight stretch on pathway.

They were lovely and we chatted for around 2 miles which made the time pass so much quicker. We talked about running naturally and also why I was out there on business and then back to racing, and training, and Dean Karnazes!! (Roger/Laura - The book I mentioned Ultra Marathon Man can be found here on Amazon). Its a must read! Nice to meet you both and happy running. I mentioned my blog so perhaps they are reading this!!??

We parted ways as Roger and Laura were out for a 14km run, and I continued into the city where I caught the tail end of a local 5km race for Breast Cancer. I saw them setting up on the way out 2hrs before the start and did consider racing it but I needed to get the miles in and knew I would be in no state to run 5km as part of a 20 miler. How right I was as my legs were shot!!!

Door to door the run was 25 miles. This was strange because I swear I turned around just before the 13 mile point, and on an out and back you don't expect the return leg to be 3/4 mile shorter!... weird! My theory here is that the Americans have fiddled with their satellites which purposely gives out false distance readings (just to Canadians). So if the two nations ever fall out their missiles miss the target! :-O ok ok so the 25 miles had effected my legs AND my brain!

Looking across to Parliament Hill - Photo by PACO PARRON (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/16879836)

Looking back to Ottawa - Photo by sandmonkee (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/332186)

Amazing stone sculptures that stopped me in my tracks - Photo by GHISLAIN BONNEAU (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/26360665)

Sherleys Bay - Photo by Mike Alexander (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1930923)

The turnaround point at Sherleys Bay - Photo by Viktor Terlaky (http://www.panoramio.com/photo/55084199)

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.