Tuesday 29 January 2013

Jumping to Hyperspace

Friday on the M74
This post is actually about the West Highland Way Race training weekend at Balmaha, but as the apocalyptic forecast and actual bad weather contrived to poke a stick in the spokes of the Ainslie wheel, I couldn't let it pass without comment.
Snow induced gridlock in Dumfries saw what should have been a 25 minute nip home turn into a near 2 hour frustration inducing crawl. A fortuitous call to Ian Gray and a diversion via Lockerbie allowed us to dodge a stranded lorry on the Moffat road and eventually reach the M74. Relief was however short lived as the same blizzard that caused the closure of the M6 threatened to engulf us too, crawling along the single open lane was a slightly "hairy" experience. But the weather Gods demonstrated their fickle nature and just south of Glasgow, no snow and clear roads.
Oak Tree Inn
We made it to The Oak Tree at Balmaha just after 8pm and in the words of Burns settled "fast by an ingle bleezing finely, wi reemin swats that drank divinely" or more prosaically we enjoyed a fabulous meal and a couple of pints next to the log fire. Our party consisted of Frank and Dawn from Dumfries Running Club, Choppy, Ian, Caroline, Sean and myself from Dumfries Harriers and Ann as a non running replacement for Andy. Andy had inexplicably opted for a 76 mile run through the Great Glen plus a night in a tent, rather than our more sedate 30 miler plus 2 nights in a lovely warm hotel, proper hard core!
 
Photo courtesy of John Kynaston
The weather Gods took pity on us, after the tough drive up and last years appalling weather, 10am Saturday was bright, dry and not too cold. Around 40 runners gathered for Ian Beattie's briefing and just a shade after 10, we were off. For probably the first and last time, Ian and I were leading a pack of ultra runners on the West Highland Way, well we were leading until the steps up past Craigie Fort, then the more Gazelle like types shot ahead.
 
The out and back run to Inversnaid is 30 miles, but in keeping with the laid back nature of the day, people were running anything from 10 miles to the full 30. Within the first couple of miles it was obvious this wasn't a day we'd be keeping our feet dry, snow, mud and puddles combined with a poor jump over the stream at Milarrochy, meant this could be a long day at the office. I was running variously with Choppy, Ian Minty, Iain Wallace and Peter McDonald
and we managed to avoid both last year's unintended route deviation round the point at Ross Wood (Anderson's Folly) and stayed upright at Beattie's Bridge, where Andy hit the dirt last year.
Rowardennan, courtesy of John Kynaston
The run to Rowardennan was pretty uneventful, with most runners taking a stop here, I opted to keep going and after a brief solo spell found myself running with, or more accurately behind Iain Wallace and Peter McDonald, both WHW race veterans. I'd never net Iain before, but recognised him as having overtaken Caroline on the home straight of The Devil race last August. Peter and Heather had stayed in the same hotel as Ann and I before last years D33, so it was good to catch up.
Last years training weekend was the first time I'd run on the WHW and I remembered the last 2 miles into Inversnaid as difficult and technical, having now got a lot of trail miles under my belt, I really enjoyed this section. I'd dropped behind the guys, but found I was running strongly and easily. I'd recited Tam O' Shanter at a Burn's Supper recently and found that by reciting this in my head on this section, it flew past.
I quaffed down a tub of rice pudding (yummy) and my first ever Clif bar (unattractive but strangely tasty), my Garmin tells me I stopped for around 7 minutes before heading back south. Our group spread out pretty quickly with the "gazelles" soon disappearing, so it was good to see the runners still on the outward leg, I said hello to Caroline, Ian, John K, Frank Skachil and lastly Norma Bone, a fellow WHW race first timer.
I wasn't savouring the prospect of a 15 mile solo return to Balmaha so I was very pleased to catch up with Iain and Peter again, with about 10 miles to run Peter dropped back with an niggling problem exacerbated by properly soaked and cold feet, and I ran all the way back with Iain, who most impressively had run up from Balmaha on Friday and was planning to run back on Sunday too.
Unlike last year's training weekend when 30 miles was the longest I'd run, and I was properly broken afterwards, the run back felt good. Although my overall time was only slightly faster than last year my pacing was much more even and I felt good when I got back to the Oak Tree.
Choppy and Sean were waiting in the bar to greet the returning runners, Choppy sensibly opting to turn at Rowardennan on what would be his longest run since the Berlin Marathon, Sean logged a 22 miler, pretty impressive for some-one who's longest previous run was 13 miles. Choppy was less than impressed with my demand for a pint of milk, rather than the proffered Guinness.
 
With everyone back safely, showered, changed and rested it was time for more of the excellent Oak Tree Inn cuisine (and no I'm not on commission when I say that) and the opportunity to break my self imposed alcohol "holiday". The only bad news of the day was that Ian Beattie had been taken into hospital by ambulance, so Sandra was understandably upset, get well soon Ian.

Pretty much the whole bar was filled with fellow runners, emphasising the "family" feel the WHW race has developed. I had a really enjoyable evening with friends old and new. Choppy had tears rolling down my face, with his tale of trying to swallow a green Jelly Baby whilst running, and promptly regurgitating same via his left nostril, hence the photo above.
 
Our plan for a Sunday morning walk up Conic hall was kicked into touch by the weather and a trouble free run south, saw us back home just after 12 noon, where I promptly demonstrated my improved fitness by falling asleep on the couch.
 
Cheers

Tuesday 22 January 2013

It's all about the West highland Way Race

I started to write a post reviewing last years running, but as I was falling asleep whilst I was writing it, I decided to spare everyone else that particular tedium.
Take 2, 2013 goals would have been a short post as it’s all about the West Highland Way race really.
Take 3, deep soul searching reflections on last year, life, the universe and everything, nope lost the will to live on that one too.
Take 4, New Year’s resolutions! Trying not to do as much travelling and nights away, since my first full week back at work saw 4 nights away and 975 miles of driving that was a full on fail.

So here goes I'm just going to witter on about running in general for a bit. Having said it’s all about the WHW race I've already signed up for quite a few races, namely

Highland Fling
West Highland Way Race
Devil o the Highlands
Loch Ness Marathon

I joined in the Marcothon in December, to keep up my mileage, but in truth by the time I got to day 21 I was just grinding the miles out, not enjoying it at all and certainly feeling there was no quality in any of my runs. We'd booked a family skiing holiday over Xmas and when we arrived in La Plagne on December 22nd to find 2 metres of snow outside and a dead hotel treadmill inside, I was actually quite glad. To those that were on the Marcothon Facebook page, thanks for some great banter and apologies for some of the execrable poems I posted and well done to everyone who both participated in and completed the challenge.

I had a great time skiing, although I'm not sure if the rest of the family shared my enthusiasm I suspect they'd have preferred a "traditional" stay at home Christmas. I returned home exhilarated but exhausted and was hardly able to move for 3 days and was straight back to work on January 2nd so holiday over it was right back into the routine.

Whilst the internet abounds with marathon training plans there is a distinct lack of plans for a 95 mile race so I confess I was at a bit of a loss until I came across George Reid's D33 training plan. I've adopted George's suggestions for back to back weekend runs building to 33 miles and am aiming for 3 midweek runs totalling another 25ish miles. Weeks 1 & 2 I've managed to stick with this, logging 55 miles each week, week 3 will fall slightly short as work intervened, week 4 should be back on track as we've got the WHW training weekend at The Oak Tree at Balmaha on Saturday 26th. I'm really looking forward to this weekend, a whole hotel filled with ultra-runners!

 Whilst I'm pretty chuffed with my mileage, these pale into insignificance with Andy B' 76 mile weekly average, but he is 10 years younger than me and he's training for MDS! I have however followed Andy's lead in forswearing alcohol for the next six months (although I'm allowing myself 2 days off this pledge after the WHW training run and after The Fling), yes I know it's cheating but I have to be realistic!

I've listened to all John Kynaston's WHW podcasts as well as Marathon Talk and Talk Ultra, and if I've drawn one consistent conclusion it's that there is no "Magic Bullet" for Ultra training. It's pretty much all about putting in the training miles consistently and then not cocking it up on the day by either a-  going off too fast or b- failing to feed and hydrate.

So it's not about the shoes, the backpack, the latest fad diet, the latest trendy training session, or the  compression gear it's (mainly) about putting in the miles beforehand.

I'm now going to contradict myself by saying we tried a different training session at last night’s club run, and did 6 short full on hill sprints mid-way through a 13 mile run. I really enjoyed it, despite the fact it was a steep hill (Suspension Brae for the Doonhamers) it was a proper all-out effort and it seemed to use completely different muscles, definitely one I'll do again.

I think that's enough rambling for now, I'll keep you posted on the WHW training weekend; let’s hope the weather is slightly kinder to us than last year’s event.

Cheers