12 Marathons – 12 Months

Off the Pace

Really been struggling this week – pace is way off and just had that “too heavy to run” feeling in my legs a lot of the time. Not sure why but holiday has probably contributed to my lethargy (even if I did run a marathon while I was away). I think I need to go teetotal for a bit and maybe change my diet until things get back to normal. I also need to get my sleep patterns sorted out I think – I’m going to bed far too late and waking up too early. I’ve found getting back into a normal routine after 2 weeks in Canada (where I never even wore a watch) quite hard. Still, work is getting busier for the next few weeks so that will force me into a routine whether I like it or not…

Saturday’s long run wasn’t nearly as long as I’d planned but it was enjoyable in that I just randomly followed every “Public Footpath” sign I came across on one of my usual routes. This took me to some parts of my local area I never knew existed so that was a positive outcome as there’s a fantastic view of the whole of London on a hillside that I’ve never been to in 15 years of living in this area!!

Word is getting round!

Just had my first donation today from someone I don’t know! That has really made my day as it’s the first time someone other than family and friends has acknowledged what I am trying to do.

Thanks Mark, it’s really appreciated.

The Baccalieu Trail

On Sunday I completed marathon number eight. This was my second solo run of the challenge since there was no organised race I could participate in but unlike the Grand Union Canal in February where I had to carry all my supplies with me, this time I had my family in a support vehicle carrying water, sweets and energy drinks! It also meant that, unlike many of my previous races, we could actually get some photographs of me en-route. This was my first international marathon too, being on holiday in Newfoundland visiting family this was an ideal opportunity to do a long run through the fantastic scenery and clean air here.

The route I chose started on top of the hill just south of New Perlican and finished at the Lions Club in Old Perlican, the town in which we were staying. There were two routes I could have taken, the other being along the Southern side of the peninsula. The Southern road would have been considerably flatter but is a lot busier in terms of traffic and not nearly as scenic as the Northern road which takes in all of the coves as it winds through some seriously challenging hills – just see the profile on GB Mapometer to see what I mean!!

Amazing Views

The good thing about hills of course is that all the “ups” have a corresponding down, so whilst I spent a fair amount of time power-walking up the more severe gradients I was able to keep my average pace up on the runs back down the other side. Considering the amount of hills I was still able to complete the run in 4h 23min which is on a par with the trail runs I’ve done in the UK. This was due in no small part to my support team who kept me supplied every few miles – usually on the tops of the hills so that was always a welcome sight to see a water bottle being held out at the end of a long climb.

Presentation

At the end of the run, the local Lions club had prepared a reception for me with a very welcome lunch. The run had been publicised around the local community and they had been collecting sponsorship for a charity they support – The Max Simms Memorial Camp, which provides recreational facilities for disabled children. In total, my run raised $800 for the centre which was very welcome.

Joined by the crew for a couple of miles!

This was by far the most scenic run I have ever done and I certainly felt the difference from the unpolluted air. Seeing a couple of whales breaching in the sea off the coast was an amazing sight too! This will certainly be one to remember and having now run the inaugural “Baccalieu Trail Marathon” perhaps the Lions club will make it an annual event…

Gearing up for Number 8

Only a few days to go before the next run and I’m feeling ok, despite it being so close to the last one. Did a comfortable speedwork session this morning without any problems and will probably squeeze in a short run before the weekend. Sunday is marathon day and like February, this will be a solo run as I was unable to enter an official race this month. Should be fine but motivation is always a problem when running so far solo but we’ll see.

Fairlands Valley Challenge

Well yesterday was a milestone with marathon number seven. I now have less races to do than I have done, which is a great feeling. The Fairlands Valley Challenge is organised by the Fairlands Valley Spartans AC and has been running for a number of years. Similar to the Cheltenham event last month this is a trail run but whereas Cheltenham had route markers (for all the good they did me) this was a completely self-navigated route. Several distances were available, both for walkers and runners, with each being a slightly different route so following someone else was not a good idea unless they were on the 26 mile course!! The instructions however were very clearly written with enough detail for you to orient yourself with landmarks along the way. You did have to keep track of where you’d got up to though as trying to subsequently find your place in the list was quite a task. We were also given maps but apart from occasionally using it to get a rough idea of how far round I was I pretty much relied entirely on the written instructions.

As with Cheltenham, you had a route card to be stamped at each checkpoint (which were also water/feeding stations) and you could effectively turn up and start at your leisure but they did have two organised mass starts, one at 9:30 for walkers and one at 10:30 for runners, which was the preferred option to make the timekeeping easier. After a few miles everyone seemed to settle into similar paced groups, which helped with the navigation and encouragement. This time around I managed to stay on course 100% and each checkpoint distance was almost spot-on with what my Garmin was telling me. The checkpoints were almost like mini cafes with a selection of sweets, biscuits and homemade bread pudding! as well as water & squash. This time around I didn’t stop the watch for the checkpoints so my time of 4h 43m was total time out on the route which is an improvement on last month. This was mainly due to the terrain being much more “runnable” as it used a lot of byways, bridleways and tracks that allowed us to keep the pace up – with the inevitable stop-start every so often to read the map etc…

I found this to be a very well organised event and one I would certainly do again. The free barbecue at the end was definitely a welcome sight after crossing the line too!

Almost Half Way

Well another week gone and only a week to go until the Cheltenham Circular Challenge which will be marathon number six, marking the half way point in my challenge. It will certainly be a good feeling once that one is out of the way! This week has seen me finally getting back on form after what has been around a month of coping with a knee problem. I’m glad to say that it has now completely cleared up and I’m getting no problems now whatsoever so that has been a real confidence boost and has allowed me to start getting some decent speedwork back into my training.

My pace is slowly creeping back up to what it was too. Thursday night’s speedwork was hitting the kind of split times I was getting back at the start of the year and hopefully this is a sign that I will be able to start coming in with sub-4:00 times again. However, I doubt that will be the case this month since it’s a multi-terrain trail run and the course record to date is 3:33:10!!

Today’s run was a pleasant 10 miler in the sun and I maintained an average 8:30 pace all the way round so hopefully I can keep improving on that over the next six months. Not a lot else to report this week really as it’s just been a case of business as usual apart from the fact that my wife has finally got the running bug now and is training for her first 10K in July. It’s a race I’ve always done every year but I’m going to drop out this time around so that I can cheer her on – that and the fact that I have another race that week too so best not to overdo it…

Hydration is Important!

Well it was quite an interesting weekend in terms of training as I learned a valuable lesson in maintaining hydration on Saturday. Having had a busy morning I didn’t manage to get out on the road until about 3pm, by which time it was pretty warm and it hadn’t occurred to me that I’d not drunk anything since a couple of coffees early that morning. I should have realised the mild headache I had when I went out was dehydration but off I went on a planned 14 mile run. I realised things were going wrong after about 2.5 miles when, despite the heat, I hadn’t so much as broken a sweat and my legs were getting heavier and heavier to the point at which I ground to a halt with a feeling of zero energy. I was wearing my hydration pack fortunately and had added ice to it to keep the water cool but I simply could not get fluid into myself fast enough to get myself back on-line. I carried on with a jog-walk-jog but had already decided to abort the session and arrived back home after 5 miles in total – still without breaking a sweat! It was at least an hour later and after 2 or 3 pints of water that I started to feel normal again so that was a good lesson learned.

The following day, having taken on board the warnings from Saturday, I went out fully-hydrated and easily clocked up 13.1 miles. The first 4 miles I spent coaching my wife along who is now training for her first 10k so it made a nice slow start for me (don’t tell her I said that) before I headed off for the remaining 9 miles at my usual average marathon pace.  You can see Sunday’s route here.

I only have 2 weeks now until Cheltenham so will probably do another 13-14 miles next weekend with the obligatory speedwork in between but as this next race is a trail run I’m really not sure what to expect – one thing I know for sure though is that it will be a slow one as I think the course record is nearly 4 hours!!

Training Continues

Well it’s over a week now since Edinburgh and I’ve settled back into the usual routine. My recovery run last Wednesday was quite hard as the knee was complaining a bit but loosened up after a mile or so. Saturday was my first post-marathon long run and I ran a sedate 10 miles without any trouble so that was a good confidence boost. This week has come on leaps and bounds. My usual post-weekend short run on Monday turned into just under 4 miles of speedwork, helped mainly by the fact that I’m suffering no discomfort whatsoever in my knee so it looks like the physio has really done the trick. I will definitely be keeping up those glute and VMO exercises going forward  the anterior knee pain has gone!

Anyway, planning to hit the speedwork again on Weds with some quality intervals and then aim for a 16 miler at the weekend as Cheltenham is only 4 weeks away. I’ve been looking at the route and whilst it’s probably going to be one of the most scenic races I will do this year it’s certainly not going to be one of the fastest! However, the rest of the family are going to walk the first two stages so I should hopefully get to the finish about the same time they do. Not sure if they kids realise they’re doing a 13 mile walk yet but glad I’m going to be running ahead!

One week to Edinburgh

Just completed a 10 miler in the sunshine this afternoon. My knee is still a bit stiff but it’s not slowing me down any more so I’m just hoping it will keep improving as I go. I also just passed the 500 mile mark since I started recording my progress back in November so a bit of a milestone as that’s when I effectively started this website too. I shudder to think how many miles I’ve racked up since I started running seriously!! Looking at the months ahead I think I should definitely crack 1000 miles by the time I’ve done Luton in December, which was another little personal goal of mine

Anyway, just a few medium-easy runs this week in the lead-up to Edinburgh on Sunday. I’m not going to set a target time as I don’t know what I’ll be like by the time I get to mile 20 having not done any serious long runs since Stratford but we’ll just see how it goes. I’m hoping that the significant downhill element of this race will give me a little boost to make up for it though.

On the fundraising front I’ve had a little flurry of donations recently which has boosted the totals up considerably. I’m up to £1458 plus another £378 in gift aid across the four charities so that’s about £2964 left to go if I’m going to hit my £1200 target for each one. Many many thanks to all who have donated so far and please keep spreading the word.

Back in the game!

First run last night since I had my knee trouble and so far all is well. Just went for a gentle 4 miler to see how things have been healing and apart from a bit of mild discomfort at the start I was able to get round without any of the problems I was having before. My knee actually felt better afterwards!

My visit to the physio in the morning was quite enlightening. Basically I had no biomechanical problems that he could diagnose – everything seems to be aligned quite well thankfully. However he did suggest some VMO and glute strengthening excercises to ensure that nothing goes awry in future. As far as the pain was concerned, that was pretty cut & dried as his tests revealed that the back of the patella was roughening up and that was aggrivating the tendons so not a lot we can do about that other than allowing the cartilage to regenerate and zapping it with ultrasound to help it along. The eye opener (and probably a contributor) was the tightness in my calves. Seems like I’ve only been stretching the main calf muscle and not the secondary as I was hopeless at the mobility test for that and it explaines the achillies tightness I get when I wake up! So, lots of new stretches on that one…

Anyway, just need to start building the distance back up over the next couple of weeks – I think speework and hills might have to be neglected for a bit as I try to regain my endurance ready for Edinburgh at the end of the month. Other than that I’m just glad to be back out on the roads again!