Saturday: still feeling the after-effects of the cold, still guzzling various remedies. Much better, and I was quietly confident that I’d wake up on Sunday with no real problems.

And as it transpired. I wouldn’t say 100%, but definitely good enough, and nothing on the chest – so I went for a run around the block. My usual 4.5mile loop, wearing new boots – Saucony Kinvara 3. Ran with the Garmin but didn’t look at it until I was a couple of miles in, just ran as I wanted to, applying a bit of effort but not too much. Shoes felt great, and I was feeling quite OK at around 8 minutes/mile – which is pretty quick for me. I did the whole loop in 8.07 minutes/mile, and felt good afterwards, no real problems. Looking forward to running on the NDW around Dorking tomorrow morning with John Pickup.

And then Monday came around. I met John around Dorking station, at the start of the loop. We got going pretty early, and both felt good. We talked about stuff, getting to know each other as we’d only met once before. We talked about John’s recent Pilgrim ultra success, and about how he hadn’t trained much for the six weeks following that; and how he was now getting back up there for the forthcoming 3 Forts Challenge – which I’m running too. We also talked about my upcoming ultras. And then! I realised we were about 25 minutes in and I hadn’t taken in any water. This isn’t what I’d normally do; ordinarily when I’m running on my own I regulate my water and food intake pretty well, but this time I just forgot. I had a drink and resolved to drink more regularly from then on.

The countryside around Dorking really is stunning. Some of the views make you want to stop to take them in. At one stage John pointed out a hill that looked an awfully long way away, and that that was the third of a few big hills we’d be climbing today. It reminded me of the run last December between Marathon and Athens; when we recced it we stood on a hill near the Acropolis and looked in the general direction of where we’d be running from, and saw a mountain way, way in the distance – and then worked out via the map that this was, in fact, a small hill about halfway – the actual mountain (Mount Penteli) was the much larger, darker shadow even further back. This sort of view really brings home how far something like 26 miles really is – it’s a REALLY long way. So bugger off, anyone who thinks that running 26 miles is easy. It’s not!

The running was good – great, in fact. We both felt good and strong, and while John ran up all the hills I’d already resolved to walk up the steepest, but that seemed to work OK as I caught him up again (most of the time) on the flat or downhill. There were some really good hills around there, with picturesque views – Holmbury Hill, with the iron age fort remains on top, is a favourite of mine by car so it was good to have run there. I remember John racing with some mountain bikers to reach the top, and sprinted off into the distance to the fort area – beating them too – but I deliberately held back and conserved my energy, not being too aware of what was yet to come.

On Leith Hill, which I’d previously cycled up once or twice so I knew of its magnitude, we made good progress getting up and to the summit, where there’s a tea shop. I really fancied a drink because my backpack, the UltrAspire, has a bladder which makes the water taste funny after a while. John bought us a coffee each, and we stood and drank it – a massive mug of REALLY good coffee. We probably spent about five minutes standing around, drinking and chatting, and then we resolved to head off back down the other side. After a few minutes, though, I started to feel weird. I felt a little bit nauseous and dizzy, and my calves started to cramp. I stopped and walked for a bit, and not for the first time that day John did too; he could see I was flagging and was happy to run/walk at my pace. I carried on for a time, running a little bit and then walking when I felt dizzy or crampy again, and eventually I had to sit down because I knew I was going to be sick. The whole coffee came up, pretty much in one go. I felt much better almost immediately, and got up soon after and started moving again. The cramps continued periodically, so I was now walking and running the whole way, but there was only one more hill to cross before the descent into Dorking and back to the car. I took an S! cap at some stage when I though I could keep it down, to get the electrolytes in. I don’t remember much about this part, except John telling me there wasn’t far to go, and the whole of that part of the run seemed to take forever. I think it may be that my brain had decided that I was at the finish already, and so it shut down my body a bit, but there was still a decent way to go through Dorking and up to the station where I’d parked.

We got to a small convenience store that was open, and I said I wanted to go in to find a toilet and get a drink. John offered to go get my car and drive it back to me, which he did while I went into the shop. The shop owner wasn’t happy to see a dishevelled runner come in and refused to let me go to the toilet, so I bought some Oasis and went outside. I felt an overwhelming need to lie down, so I did – on my back first and then, because the pack was in the way, rolled onto my side into the foetal position. I must have looked pretty tragic. I lay there for a while, and then sat up and sipped some Oasis. My legs were still pretty locked with cramp so standing was painful, but I did a bit of stretching and it loosened up a bit. John brought back my car (thanks again, John) and then after asking if I was OK he made off for the station. I got in the car and turned the engine and heater on, and sat there for a good while with cramped legs, with my body uncontrollably shivering – I just couldn’t stop. It was quite cold outside but not that cold, and so I must have had something wrong with me. We’d run 21 miles, up and down some hills but not particularly taxing – I’ve certainly run longer and harder before and not had this reaction. After 20 minutes or so my shivering had died down and I decided to sort out my cramp – so I turned off the engine and got out of the car. It felt freezing cold now, but the stretching felt good. I bought another Oasis and drank most of that, texted Sarah and then started to head off home – I felt at that point like I was safe to drive and the cramping was under control, and the drive home was thankfully uneventful.

The rest of the day went OK. I recovered after a couple of hours and I felt great. So not sure what happened to be honest – could it just be that initial lack of water intake sparked off the cramping, and then the coffee was just too much for my system? I was ill again in the coming days so it’s possible some illness was coming at this stage, but I’m just chalking it down to experience. One thing’s for sure though, I need to do this run again (or something very like it) soon to practice drinking, electrolytes, food etc for longer distances, and make sure this was just a one-off.

Total miles planned: 37.5

Total miles actual: 34.2

Planned an LSR Saturday, anywhere between 22.5 and 30 miles. I knew with the missing miles in previous weeks that I wouldn’t reach 30 miles, that would cause all sorts of problems, but I’d see what I could do.

However, I had session #2 of Running School on Saturday morning, and that meant a couple of miles on and off the dreadmill, so I decided to put the LSR back to Sunday morning. The school helped me continue to think about form – leg strides, heel height, knee driving and also a little about arms and overall posture. All good things to work on. It still doesn’t feel like it’s going to be easy to replicate that good form when running slowly over 50+ miles, but it feels good to do – and the exercises tuned to improving my form I’m convinced will help.

On Saturday a couple of Bosh friends of mine, Luke Ashton and Kevin Smith, were running the Thames Path 100. It was the first 100 mile race for both of them, and much of Bosh were rooting for them on Facebook. Around 7pm I could see via RunKeeper Live that Luke was heading towards Shepperton, so Billy and I drove out to see if we could find him and wish him well. We stopped in Shepperton when we could see a couple of runners with head torches, and had no real idea if Luke had gone on already or was behind these two guys. We waited in the cold for five minutes or so, and then saw a headtorch moving towards us, and then when we could actually see it was indeed Luke, it was too late to wave to him. So back in the car, drove half a mile and waited – as he approached, Billy waved his Bosh flag and we shouted some words of encouragement. Luke came over and shook my hand, looked a bit dazed (I think he was about mile 60 at this point), and I told him he was about fourth and a couple of guys were just five minutes ahead. He said “Is that all?”, then thanked us and ran on. Billy shouted “Good luck!”, and was pleased to get a couple of thumbs-ups in response. I realised afterwards that this was the first time I’ve met up with someone in the middle of an ultra. He looked strong and up for the rest of the run. We got some fish and chips and went home. When I got up in the morning, at 6am for my COD LSR, I loaded up Facebook and found out he’d come second in the race, some four minutes behind the winner. Amazing, inspiring stuff.

So, dedicating my LSR to Luke, I set off, toast and jam in hand, UltrAspire pack on with a litre-and-a-half of water, a couple of gels and a bag of assorted nuts, raisings, flapjack pieces and Jelly Babies. Slightly annoyed that I couldn’t find my 2XU tights, or gloves, but still – I would go far today.

Rather cold, I headed down the towpath towards Guildford. Felt bright and breezy and soon warmed up. I got to about five miles in about 45 minutes and started to feel a stomach ache coming on. I would normally go for a… number two… before heading out on an early morning run, but I hadn’t this morning for some reason. It was hitting me quite quick and I knew I had to do something about it. I was in a quiet area, I hadn’t seen anyone all morning, and there was a handy remote clearing that was reasonably free of brambles. Cursing myself for not packing any TP, I sought out a few big dock leaves and did the quick business. Feeling much better, I decided to turn back at that point and head back past my house and towards Walton Bridge on the towpath. That would mean I get to my house at about 10 miles, and then see where I go from there – but importantly if my stomach got bad I wouldn’t be far away from home and a proper toilet. I had a gel and some food, and then a couple of miles later stopped for the call of nature again. More dock leaves desecrated  🙂  However, I really did feel OK then, so when I got back to the canal lock close to my house I felt good about running towards Walton.

I’d run to Walton Bridge before, it’s about five miles from home and it’s a nice run – mostly towpath with a little bit of tarmac as you go through Weybridge – and it has the added bonus of ending up next to the Thames. I hadn’t realised this beforehand, but when I saw the sign “Thames Path” I realised that this was the same bit of route that Luke and Kevin had run the night before. Muddy as can be, and really quite difficult to run on – like a skating rink in places – I thought about how tough it must have been to have gone past here a total of three times at something like miles 10, 50 and 70 of a 100 mile race. Respect. I felt good, and ran to just over 15 miles before turning back toward home, knowing that pushing on could cause problems – particularly injuries, which I fear most of all with the ultras coming up!

I got back home with 21.5 miles on the clock, pretty tired but happy. I’d taken 3-and-a-half hours, but that’s not too bad particularly with a couple of poo stops. On the negative side, I realised I still had quite a bit of water left in my pack, which with hindsight wasn’t great; and although I’d eaten both gels and taken an S! cap, I still had quite a bit of food left.

Next day, I rested (again at work) and went for a sauna and steam at the local gym. Felt great. Slight niggly pain in left Achilles, but nothing to worry about.

Tuesday I rested again, and in the evening I started to feel a little rough. Slight sore throat, slight fever. Uh-oh. I knew what this meant. On Alick’s advice Wednesday I went and bought echinacea and lots of vitamin C to blitz my system. Continuing to rest, I also made a big decision about diet. I realised that over time I’d been eating quite poorly. Most mornings I’d have a pastry of some sort and a cup of coffee, then a sandwich (a good quality sandwich, but still a sandwich) at lunchtime. In the evening we usually eat well, but overall during the day I had been eating very little fresh fruit and veg, lots of carbs and protein but not many vitamins. Little wonder, then, that after a big run my immune system could be down, and surrounded on the train, tube and at work with coughing, spluttering people, I get another bug.

So I determined, from Thursday, that I would eat better. Porridge, muesli and/or fruit for breakfast most mornings, or at least avoiding pastry. Big salads for lunch. Cut down on snacks. More fresh vegetables in the evenings where we can. I rested the rest of the week, doing some core strength exercises on the Friday. I bought Manuka honey and started having a couple of spoons of that per day, I bought coconut water, chia seeds and lots of other good stuff to follow some good recipes from Scott Jurek’s book Eat and Run. Not sure where this will take me, but I figured I’d been eating badly, so to try eating better for a month at least would be good for me.

Total miles planned: 34

Total miles actual: 23.5

Better.

Saturday and Sunday were frustrating running-wise, because I just couldn’t risk going out. On the plus side I spent the time with my family, getting up early with my son to play (and have him beat me at) FIFA 13, and generally chilling out.

Monday, I had the day off on holiday from work and around lunchtime I went to Horsell Common determined to do a 10-mile walk. I couldn’t run, but I wanted to do then next best thing: a good-paced walk, at least 4 miles per hour. 2 and a half hours on my feet, good ultra training I thought. It was muddy as all hell, flooded in the most part. I trudged around, feeling like I was the only one on earth for most of the time – there must have only been half a dozen people in the whole place, but then again it was thundering and the air had that strange colour so I’m not surprised people stayed away. I tentatively stepped for the first hour, and then once my feet had got completely soaked I didn’t really care, so just splashed through the almost knee-deep puddles in places and had great fun.

Note: the DryMax socks I’d bought are definitely not waterproof. Neither do they claim to be, but they do say that they will keep your feet dry, which isn’t the case. Still, I had no blisters afterwards, and I did the 10 miles in just over 2 and one quarter hours, so pretty good overall.

Tuesday I rested (at work), and Wednesday I went to the gym to do some 4 miles of intervals on the dreadmill. It was the only time I had, really. Thursday I did some core work, and Friday another 4 miles. All good.

Total miles planned: 34

Total miles actual: 18

Washout week.

Illness developed into a chest infection, so with antibiotic meds from the doctor I prescribed myself rest for the week. I went to work as normal, but no physical exercise until I felt much better.

Thursday I did a spinning class. Friday I felt OK, so I did an 8-mile run in the evening, around the roads near home. Felt like a real grind, a struggle to get through it. Think with hindsight I shouldn’t have done it. Live and learn. Norman Conquest 50 is on my mind.

On the positive sid, the whole time I’ve been ill I’ve been doing a lot of reading about running ultras. The Ultramarathonrunning.com site has a bunch of links to valuable information, and I read through most of them – it made me feel better and took my mind to a place where I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself or dying to get out for a run. Recommended reading: http://www.ultramarathonrunning.com/training/index.html

Total miles planned: 30

Total miles actual: 8

Bah.

Up and down week. Did really well at the G3 on Saturday, plus a 2-mile cooldown with a lady who’d come second in the race – so maybe a bit quicker than my normal cooldown pace, but felt good anyway. Then on Sunday I felt great, so went for my planned LSR – ran along the Thames Path to Walton Bridge, a towpath route mostly that ended up around 12 miles total. So already in one weekend I’d done just over 20 miles. Great.

Rested Monday, and then on Tuesday morning I didn’t feel good. I had a sore throat, and a slight fever. Took medication, went to work, and came home normal time. On Wednesday and Thursday I stayed home from work, in bed mostly. On Thursday afternoon I felt better, so went for a four-mile run and felt OK afterwards too. But I clearly wasn’t – that evening, and the following day, back to sick again. So after a great start to the week, it didn’t go so well overall.

Total miles planned: 27.5

Total miles actual: 24.8

This was a great week. Alick set me a bunch of activities using running-log.com, and I tried to stick to them as closely as I could.

The first, on Tuesday, was intervals

– 90 seconds <8min/mile
– 30 seconds easy

With heat, no water (although lots earlier in the day), too many tourists funnelled around St James’ Park as it gets ready for the jubilee concert, it didn’t quite work out that way. Instinct says that it started at good tempo but slowed down over time, which bore out later when I looked at the Garmin results. Did 19 reps, having done 4 minutes at <8min/mile pace when I started (watch/Andy interface malfunction 🙂 ) 4.39 miles in 38 minutes overall, faster averages just over 8min/mile. Felt pretty good, slightly fatigued. Good stretches after.

Wednesday – hill simulations. 5WU followed by 8 x 4 as; start steady in minute 1 building to 100% effort in final minute. 1min rec slow jog between efforts. This replicates the increased gradient of a short steep hill! Power at the end!

This was great. Nailed it, I think – as in I did 7 sessions and increased tempo to below 8m/m for the last minute. 7 because, yes, again I started my Garmin in the wrong mode, so the first of 8 was manual. Did the session in Horsell Common with a backpack & 2L reservoir, so new place and new equipment. Great surface to run on though, especially through the woods and across the moor-like areas – suspect good for fell training (although pretty flat). The time/distance below includes 1 mile at ~12 minutes of jogging back to the car after session finished, during which I twisted my ankle! It’s OK though, RICEd & heading off to bed for repair. So without that final mile, the total was 4 miles in 35.5 minutes.

Alick had words about me hydrating with a backpack for a tempo run, but I really wanted to get used to running with it. He’s right, but TBH the Horsell Common isn’t the best place for this sort of session anyway – but what the hell, it was great fun and enjoyment is a big part of it!

Had a couple of days of just stretching and strengthening, plus a short jog around the park with a colleague who wants to get into running – fit as a fiddle on a bike, but shins burn up after just a short run.

Then Saturday – heavens. Ran with Alick and Alfie, his dog, around Newlands. Bit of a breakthrough this one, but I had mixed feelings afterwards. Intended to run around 9 miles with 3 or 4 big lumpy hills in there. Ran at a reasonable pace for the majority of it, 9:30 average, keeping it light up and down the slopes. Nailed it all, so pleased to still be around Alick to the end… almost. Gave up on the final hill, only a few hundred yards from the car park as it turned out. So disappointed, all those moments of realisation that I’d beaten these hills around my favourite running place suddenly lost because I failed the last slope. Damn it. I’ll be better next go.

Also need to get better at hydration. Hydrate before and after anything 10K and below, use a water bottle if need be. But I probably don’t need it. Anything above 10K, especially with hills or in the heat, bring the Camelbak or backpack with reservoir.

Late 2011 I got talking with Alick, a local dad who I saw swimming in the local lake and running home. He’d done some long endurance stuff – a couple of Iron Man 70.3s and a full Iron – and regularly trained in the Surrey hills around Guildford. We planned to run together the next Sunday morning. For some reason he couldn’t make it, so I went alone and found a route that had mostly roads and some son-of-a-bitch hills. I ended up doing that same run, in Newlands Corner on the North Downs, every Sunday for several weeks, waking up at the crack of dawn or earlier and getting down there, running and then buying pastries on the way back for my family and bewing coffee just as they were just waking up.

That’s really important to me, the family thing. My wife and I work in London during the week so we don’t see each other or the kids except for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours most evenings, so the weekends are special. I never considered before that it would be possible to a) enjoy running, or b) to enjoy it and fit it into a schedule without missing much family time, but with crack of dawn runs both of these were becoming real. Of course that meant no lie-ins, and somewhat earlier nights at weekends which played havoc with my late-night video gaming schedule (!), but running won that little battle. I never thought I’d say that.

After a few weeks of my little route, Alick joined me – and I realised there was a whole new area of Newlands Corner I didn’t know about. Actually, that’s an understatement, I knew very little of this vast piece of rolling Surrey hills. However, tragedy struck soon afterwards: Alick got injured and had to wear an air boot, and I wanted to take a look around this new place – so again every weekend I went down to Newlands on a Sunday and had a snoop around – sometimes running tracks that I knew, but often just running an ad-hoc route, taking my time, finding my way around, sometimes running 15-16 miles and then trying to find my car again. One particularly special morning, the morning when I think it really turned from a pastime to an obsession for me, was in November. Just checked back on Facebook, and on 4th December this is what I recorded:

Started off this run trying to recreate last week’s loop. At about 5K I decided to veer off-course and explore, which meant negotiating my way across a very narrow (like, 4-inch) beam across a river, getting lost in Blair Witch-type woods, …running accidental loops-within-loops, running through a llama farm, almost being shat on by an enthusiastic horse, constant stopping to look for or ask directions, and ploughing through consistently and unendingly boggy fields. And the hills, oh the hills. Slow. But fun! Great fun, funnest running yet. Get well soon, Alick, the trail is waiting next week!

In the absence of a training partner I kept on going with Newlands, each time finding something new or a new trail to follow. On a breakout from my usual area I found St Martha’s hill, at the summit of which is not only St Martha’s church but also, in a darkly comical way, a graveyard – after climbing the long steep hill to reach it I often wondered how many of the occupants were dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

I kept records of each run via Garmin, sharing them with running friends on Facebook. Then Sarah spotted some races scheduled for early 2012 at Newlands, the G3 Series. Each a different route, between 10K and 12K. I entered all three, in a moment of madness; in January, Feb and March. There were Garmin routes available, so I programmed one into my watch and went running it one day. It became like orienteering – following a map and (electronic) compass to find my way around. The elevation gain on this 10K run was in the region of 240m (~700 feet), which was an eye-opener for a race. But how enjoyable? Very. Lots of fit people, stood near the back, Sarah & kids there to support me and buy me coffee at the end, cold conditions. Over in 69 minutes. Lovely. The second and third runs were equally enjoyable, except that #2 was in -6 degrees, and #3 was in thick snow.

But that’s possibly the most wonderful thing about trail running. With road, the surface is pretty much always the same (except when it’s snowing, admittedly). But with trail, each season, sometimes even each week, is different – the running surface, the views, the air, the soundtrack, the challenge.