Sunday 27th February - Beinglas Farm to Kingshouse

We had agreed that we would all park at the Drovers for just after 9am and JK would meet us there after  he and Ross dropped of the bus at the Kingshouse. I had arrived earlier as i though i would be good just take in the views, beats waiting in Glasgow, the weather was perfect Just after 9 everyone arrived, JK, Ross, Neal, Ritchie and Gavin with Marco just arriving in time for the photo shoot. We set off and very soon after  we  had split into two groups, Ritchie,Marco and Me then the rest of the guys, we were travelling along at a fair pace going through 10 Miles in just over 1h30m, and continued this through Tyndrum, we arrived at BoO in 2h 50m throwing in some sub 7 minute miles along the way( mile 16 and 19), by now Marco and Me had opened a small gap on Ritchie but to be fair he had a long run from yesterday in his legs, i stopped for a toilet break  at BoO and was just heading back onto the last section when Ritchie came through he continued running up the hills towards Marco,we knew he would get a second wind on the last part over Rannoch Moor. as i continued towards Victoria Bridge Both Marco and Ritchie were out of site, around 25 Miles i was starting to struggle but i could see Marco in the distance but no sign of Ritchie, i guessed he was well away. i continued on knowing that it was only a further 6 miles to go, my legs were paying the price for going to fast in the middle section, as i reached the top of the last hill i could see the Kingshouse in the distance, only two miles to go and all down hill, i arrived to see Marco and Richie waiting for me, we discussed times and it turned out there was only 10 minutes between us, i ran 4:47 (average speed 9:04 pace) with Marco 5 minutes less and Ritchie 5 minutes over Marco. we went inside to sit in and have a hot drink whilst we waited for the rest of the Guys, next in was Neale  followed by JK and Ross then Gavin, we had a chat and some food before JK ran us back to the Drovers. All in a great day out.

Week ending 20th February

Photo Courtesy of John Kynaston

On Saturday Morning i was out at 7am, back on the Forth and Clyde Canal, the underfoot conditions were bad with surface water in many stretches, on the  way out towards Bonnybridge i met a new runner to the ultra distance, David Allan, David a local from Bonnybridge who owns a furniture restoration business has entered the GEDM, a nice introduction to the distance, I wish David every success in his ultra running career, we had a chat on route what our plans were for the season ahead. i stopped my watch when i went for a toilet stop and forgot to restart it, only realising  just over 4 miles later. i about turned at the sign for High Banton and headed back home, i managed to get in 25 miles in just over 3.5 hours.
   I recieved a text from Sam organising a 2 hour run from the Nicholson at 9.30 on Sunday morning but i had to be back early, i met John and Marco for a run over the Kilpatricks as they were setting off at 7, this was ideal as we all had other things to do, John arrived first on his motorbike followed by myself then Marco, we waited 10 minutes in case anybody else arrived, when nobody turned up we got on our way, this was my first time over the one of many courses that Marco has, weather conditions were great but  the underfoot in sections was a bog with still a lot of snow lying, we were going along at a steady pace stopping for John's Customary picture at one of the trig points then we continued on. we had a good chat and i managed to pick up some points for the WHW and how to get other information on my watch  we completed the route,just over 19 miles in 3.5 hours then we had a final photo shoot at the car park before we left.
  It has been a good weekend with 7 hours of mixed running totaling 45 miles, so now i can look forward to my next run on the WHW next weekend, it looks like we have a bus load turning up for the run from Beinglas farm to the Kingshouse.

GPS

Does your watch ever decide that it does not want to play, well mine has did this the last two mornings, yesterday, it had me running in Hogganfield Loch during my 11 mile run and today, i went through my first mile in just over five minutes, i hear you say thats not bad at 5am but i know the mile marker is still a bit off. tonight when i downloaded today's route it has me starting nowhere near my house and again had me running in the Loch, i hope the satellites sort themselves out for tomorrow. map provided

Easy or Lazy

This week was my one in six weekends that i have to work so it means that it will be twelve days before i have a day off , for the first time in a while apart from having the cold have i had such an easy week of training, some might say lazy more than easy but i have enjoyed doing only 3 runs of wait for it just over five miles each giving me the dizzy heights total of 16.10 miles, i decided to do a time trial of five miles,my first 5 on Wednesday was very easy with the second on Friday clocking in at 30.15 followed by my third today in 30.02. hopefully in the coming weeks i will take it well below the 30 min mark.

Race plan complete

For some time i had it in my head that i would like to compete in 7 SUMS events, on reflection this has been a bit ambitious possibly in my first full season however i have taken stock of what i want from the season and so i have opted for 6 events, i will use the D33 and Fling along with some training weekends for my build up to the WHW, the Stride because i ran the inaugural one and would like to see how many in succession i can do, the Devils to complete the triple crown and the RAW because i thought this in my opinion is a course that i enjoyed. The main aim is to try and run well in all events without feeling fatigued, i know that i should have ample recovery time between the first 3 events of six weeks each, this then reduces to four weeks for the stride followed by three weeks for the devils and then back up to six for the RAW. I have set myself a season target of 55 hours, only time will tell how realistic i have been so i will wait to see how this compares after the final race.

Week ending 6th feb 2011 update

Today was going to be an easy run after yesterday's 33 miles so i got my self out at 8:30 and headed for Gartcosh,as i came into the village i met Andy heading over for our run, he was walking over after his 20 miler yesterday, so we had a quick chat then i said that i would see him back at the centre and continued with my loop which was going to give me 5.5 miles. I arrived at the centre for the usual start time of 9:30, all the crew were there,Sam, Andy, Tam, Marie and Tom, only a couple of the guys missing so we set of on the trail at the back of the centre heading for the marshland around Lenzie Moss, we left Marie and Tom as they were going for a long run before they fly out for a week to Tenerife, we headed back to the centre where i said farewell to the guys and headed home in just over 18 miles. So with my usual 2 days rest (Mon and Fri) and 2 days off with the crap weather, i only managed 3 days training, so my diary for week ending 6.2.11 is:

Monday - Rest
Tuesday - DNR
Wednesday - 14.01
Thursday - DNR
Friday - Rest
Saturday - 32.70
Sunday - 18.29

Total for week 65.00

D33 training run 3

What a week it has been, everyone has been talking about the weather, well i took Tuesday off due to the  weather,i tried a run on Wednesday morning at 5am, during my 14 mile run i was soaked and blown about, i knew that after yesterday it wasn't going to get better over so i took Thursday off rather try and run in the strong winds, what the heck it won't harm your training but does reduce the mileage.
   I Knew the Glee club were setting off from Drymen car park today at 08:45 but unfortunately i could not make it as i had to be back for 10am, so i was out at 5 o'clock heading for my long run round darkest Lanarkshire, the day started fine, it was quite mild then as i left Airdire the rain came bouncing down, i was soaked within minutes, nothing else to do except continue on, i came through Newhouse,Holytown, New Stevenson and into Motherwell heading for Strathclyde Park, i continued along the loch side coming out the far side into bothwell then Uddingston, by this time i was dry again, by the time i hit Bargeddie i went through Marathon distance in 3:23, not bad for an early morning run, so it was up the hill past Drumpellier Park back into Gartcosh then Muirhead and home. i finished just short of 33Miles (32.70) in 4:15 so i know that i am in good shape for the D33 in 6 weeks