Dartmoor Mountain Marathon July 2010

Last weekend I ran the Dartmoor Mountain Marathon, the event that I've been training for since January. Was it all worth it, I can't hear you asking from my desk? Yes it was I would reply if I had heard you. Over Winter and Spring it seemed like the date was never going to arrive and I managed to get enthusiastic and lose motivation in several cycles in the interim. I had planned on following a marathon schedule in training, but having run 17 miles off road barefoot (VFF anyway) several times without problems I didn't bother in the end.

Astonishingly, despite a number of niggles over the first few months of the year, I got to the end of July in the longest unbroken period of training without real injury for ages. I'm not sure if I was just lucky, or whether my crazy new technique of really listening to my body paid off. The tension between getting out for regular training (even when you don't fancy it) and listening when your body says "please lie down now" is a hard one to come to terms with, but I managed it.

I read an article about mega-sessions for body-building (somewhere on the internet, reference later if I can ever find it again). In this article the person in question, apparently a champion bodybuilder, would target a muscle group in one session, blast it in one heavy session and then do nothing more until the following week. The philosophy behind this approach being that strength and tone improvements happen after stress, and in response to it. Repeated stress before full recovery was not thought to help anything other than tiredness (I'm paraphrasing). This seemed intuitively logical and in tune with the 'listen to your body' ethos, so I thought I'd give it a go for my leg strength hill sessions. It seems to have worked really well and I can run clear up near 45% slopes that I had to walk only a few short months ago.

I've also been working on endurance too and this was (and still is) the killer. I could do the 17 mile run in just under 2.5 hours, and could make it back home OK if I took a small bottle of water and a sweetie or two for sugar recharge. I also took to training rides with my local cycle club, however, and they made me feel very mortal and insignificant again. The leg strength training was fine, and I could complete a ride using only the big ring for all but the steepest hills, but after a couple of hours in the saddle with the 'fast intermediate' crew I was totally drained. Eating on the way seemed to make little difference, my legs just emptied and I got used to the 'bonking' sensation and riding in last. Again. I'll just have to keep at it.

It did mean, however, that I hit the DMM pretty sure about my fitness and physical capability. What worried me was my mental capacity to navigate in the moors, on my own, without inadvertently going in the wrong direction. I took about a kilo too much food to ensure that this didn't happen. One of life's lessons - hard exercise supresses appetite, and carrying too much food in a rucksac is a pain in the shoulders. At least I didn't get lost though and was pretty pleased with most of my navigation choices. Most of my errors were through over-caution, slowing myself down to (needlessly) re-re-re-re-check routes rather than actually allowing myself the freedom to go anywhere in the wrong direction.

All in all the event was brilliant, let down only by straining my left leg trying to run on tussocks on the first day and being generally completely knackered moving over the terrain for four hours longer than any of my longest training runs on Saturday and two hours on Sunday! Note to self, the North Downs are not a great simulation of open moor, but at least I should try running for longer if I want to be able to keep it up! Training specificity bah humbug. I'll do it all again next year though.

Next project, track 5k in mid-August. Got the spikes at lunchtime today. After a week of hurting leg (from the sprain on the tussocks) and generally feeling pretty decrepitly tired, today I feel sharp and perky again. Time for more sports!

Return to Form

Today I tested my fitness in the first race of the year. I was pleased with the result.

I've been gently training over the last year or so, retraining myself really - at times it has felt like learning to run again.

I'm not always running barefoot now, but never wear anything larger than a trainer/racer and when these die I'll replace them only with racing flats - for any and all distances. I'll never wear a 1 inch wedge heel again, I don't care how fabulous the expensive and pointless 'technology' in it may be.

I captained a work relay team on a course with 1.4 mile legs. I knew that I was hyped and focused to run a good race, but was not sure what pace that would be - I'm now into my third year where I count as a vet and haven't raced in an event where that counted before. Well, I smoked the course and was well pleased with myself, running it in 7:24. The fastest mans time was 7:14, as second fastest overall I was also fastest vet, with a mile average of around 5:30 minutes per mile.

I don't even feel as if I'm aging! Happy days.

Running Like New

On my last long run I covered 17 miles. It was a good run, I managed an even pace and ran strongly on the ups and downs. Near the end of the run, at around 12 or 13 miles I started to lose form a bit, hunching my shoulders and shortening my stride, especially on hills. I would find myself imagining the distance to go and tightening up. Then I'd try to focus on keeping fluid, just staying strong and on form and everything would free up again. I'd have thought that that would be enough, but I kept slipping out of good style into a scrunch again and it was a battle to keep concentrating. It seemed wrong and irritating that I'd slip out of a style that felt free and easy and into one that felt forced and harder, but there you have it. I vowed that I'd practive this looser style on my next few runs to see if I could slip into good habits rather than poor ones.

In the mean time I came across the attached article at Wildfitness (http://www.wildfitness.com) written by Christopher McDougall (of "Born to Run" fame) about connective tissue and its role in actively supporting musculature rather than just holding it all together. This article seems to be a continuation of his search to run without pain, and he is certainly discovering some interesting people in his journey! http://www.wildfitness.com/pdfs/Mens_Health_Oct09.pdf

Well, I did run yesterday, and I thought through these points of form throughout and it was a bit of a revelation. I felt a bit like a pupeteer as everytime I straightened my shoulders I could feel my torso straighten and my legs lift. I am not sure whether I went any faster, but it certainly felt easier. I also found that my calves were less niggly focusing on my whole body rather than just my lower limbs. I've still got a few months before the DMM, but I'll have to find some races to test my pace on. Yesterday's run was slow because it was very muddy and I had to shorten my pace to stay upright on some sections of the Downs. A road run next time I think.

Underway for the DMM

I have got my act together and started my preparation for the Dartmoor Mountain Marathon in July. Yesterday I ran 7.7 miles barefoot-style in my VFFs. It took me 1:06:09 making a pace of something over 8 minute miles. I felt good, but my calves were starting to tighten. Today I calibrated my iPod Nike+ sensor and afterward went for a short blast - 2.9 miles in 21:36, at a pace of 7:15ish minutes per mile. This was in my Mizunos and I feel as if I've barely warmed up.

I have a little motivational motto now - one of those silly inspirational comments that I read somewhere and thought was rubbish. It goes along the lines of "if someone trained today and you didn't, then they will beat you". So now I have to keep pace with this notional phantom so that they don't beat me. When I get fit enough my next motivational cliche will be "you can practice, practice, practice, but you will never beat me". But I don't think that I deserve it yet.

I am already excited about the DMM. I don't know the area, so have scanned the google-map satellite view of the National Park area and read the Wikipedia entry. I tried to buy the OS 1:25000 scale map of the park but my local map shop didn't have it in. Luckily the OS shop is round the corner fom work so I'll be able to scan the hills in my imagination later in the week.

I've read the kit list several times, I don't know why as I have all the gear I need except a tent and I spent about three hours on Friday and Saturday googling lightweight one and two man tents. I have a few in mind but will try to find a supplier where I can see them before making a final decision. It's going to be so cool dusting my Mountain Marathon gear off again.

Inov8 X-talon 212

I have now given my new X-talons a quick test out and they were extremely promising. I have only walked/jogged on an errand so far - I have not run in them properly. I went out in the snow for a four mile round walk last night and they grip very well indeed. I was pretty amazed, especially as my comparison was a pair of Mizuno road trainers. The X-talons are very light (my size 9s weighed about 230g each rather than 212 precisely, but the Mizunos, themselves 'light' road shoes, were 360g each).

The soles are good and thin, with a slight heel, but nothing to complain about - bear in mind I think ordinary trainers are high-heels. They flex at the forefoot where your foot does naturally, you can feel the shape of ground underneath them, but best of all because they are so narrow they slightly compress the feet laterally and let you edge really hard like a good pair of clibing shoes. These are shoes you should be able to trust on steep and marginal ground - a hypothesis that I fully intend to test when the weather sorts itself out slightly and I can see my local trails again.

I look forward to running the studs flat and having a great time in these light, fast, fell shoes.

Target Acquired

After being indecisive about 2010 goal setting at the end of last year I got my act together this week and entered the EnduranceLife Dartmoor Mountain Mountain (DMM). 55km over two days with over 2km ascent in the B class. It's not until July, but it gives me something to aim for. I've been out for 50 minute runs in the snow over the last couple of days and got out for a two hour walk, doing food shopping, with Katie today rather than use the car. For the first time in my life I've actually set up a training schedule, based around marathon training with two months base building first and a month of running with the pack immediately before the DMM. The marathon schedule has a couple of races included so I'll be finding other sub-goals to train for in the Spring.

Having run OK in ordinary Ascics road trainers for the last couple of runs I decided I was tired of not having proper trail shoes. My Adi Swoops died last year so I went and got some Innov8 X-talons. So far I've only run up and down the stairs at home in them, but I will get them snowy over the weekend. They seem fantastically light, and the studs look good so I'm expecting a sharp ride. I never really liked the Swoops, they always seemed too bulky. I only bought them as Adi discontinued their Lightfoot, a truly responsive minimal fell shoe that I loved and was gutted when they were stolen with my old car - I think I regretted the loss of the Lightfoots more as the car was only an old Vauxhall Astra, which gave me far less joy.

Anyway, I'm all tooled up and looking forward to building up really carefully so by July I will be so sharp I'll have to be careful not to cut myself! Katie will be running the Edinburgh Marathon in May so we'll have to balance our training carefully. The last few times I've run a mountain marathon (either SLMM or KIMM/OMM) I've relied on natural fitness and been fairly laisse faire about training, but this time I'm determined that it will be a stroll in the park. You can never tell on the day, weather and all sorts play a part, but I'm going to be a strong contender.

2010 Starts Early

After a terrible and lazy December I deceided that I needed to get my act together again. I went out for a frosty run yesterday morning. Only a short run on road. I did go and check the trails but they looked too muddy to be fun in VFFs so I stayed on the tarmac. It felt good to be out and running free again. I took around 50 minutes out to cover a variety of quiet roads and well drained paths. Not sure of the distance and don't want to discourage myself by measuring it.

Despite feeling fine yesterday I woke with a feeling in my calves of a moderate to harsh beating with sticks. It took about five minutes of walking before they losened off enough to consider normal walking. I was going to take Becki and a friend climbing today but they said that they'd rather ice skate. That suited me, a steady couple of hours of impact free cardiowork coming up. I love skating but we don't go often enough. The feel for the ice returns quite quickly though. I find it easy to exceed by capability on the ice once I get up to speed but today I concentrated on staying in control. I focused on skating tightly with tension in my legs and it seemed to work a treat, also trying faster smaller push-offs with my feet seemed to give me more control, especially in tight corners - I was in a public rink.