Mid-Channel....

Mid-Channel....

Friday 28 May 2010

The Ups and Downs of endurance training! The Ups........

Where does the time go! I feel so much has been going on that I haven't had a chance to write about because I am so busy! However, really that should probably be the time to blog the most so I can capture it in a little snippet each day as opposed to having to write epic tomes each time I am on here! So, the long and short of it was that I didn't pull out of the Marshman plus. I did write to the organiser to ask if I could but he was unable to refund my entry instead suggesting I rolled it over to next year. However, next year I am going to be much more focused on the swim side of things so I decided to bit the bullet and go for it!

A last minute B&B was booked in Folkestone - an interesting place that seems on the edge of the world and I set off on Saturday afternoon so I had time to register that evening. Registration was a doddle and I headed back to the B&B to setttle in for the evening. I cannot rate this B&B highly enough - it was lovely and extremely good value for money. The owners were super helpful even providing me with a cool box breakfast for the early morning start I faced.

Up at 4.30am and headed to the race start. The race is a 2,600m swim, 80mile bike and 20mile run. For the first time I actually felt I was cutting it a bit fine in terms of being ready as I struggled to yank on my wetsuit but actually I had plenty of time and the start was a few minutes delayed anyway. I didn't have the normal morning picnic I would to prepare myself for the day ahead as I ran out of time but I stuffed a few fig rolls into my mouth and hit the lake. Everyone was chuntering a bit that the lake was freezing so I waded in gingerly but actually it was fine. I surprise myself a lot in the water. I am ALWAYS freezing cold on dry land - I always have hoodies, jumpers etc galore even on the warmest days and am often found to continue wearing my coat through dinners in restaurants much to Adam's chagrin! However, I seem to manage pretty well in cold water and this time was no different. The water was cold but not take your breath away cold and I got settled in near the front. The hooter went and we were off. I found myself alone quite quickly - not fast enough to stream off with the lead group but too fast for the chasers. Having no feet to follow I just found a rhythm and concentrated on sighting. The course was a bit random as, at one point, you had to go diagonally across the lake which caused me no end of amusement (though also a bit of concern that maybe I was wrong!) as people's sighting was pretty terrible and most just headed straight over to the opposite bank and then swam up it instead of traversing diagonally across. Anyway, swim done in 44mins and I was out on the bike.

I set off pretty rapidly and felt good for the first few hours. Whilst a lot of the course was fast and flat some of the areas by the coast were extremely windy and my average speed dropped dramatically. This came around the 50mile point just as the HIM athletes turned off to the finish. The Plus athletes however had to face another shortened circuit again with the horrid windy section to complete the 80miles. I think the course ended up being a bit short and I was starting to feel a bit fed up of the bike actually by the end, however I was pleased when I finished around 4.25 for the bike.

I really REALLY did not want to run then. I figured I could use the hamstring niggle as an excuse, take away the fact I had a good swim and bike and head home to curl up on the sofa for the afternoon. However, I knew it was important to get some of these long bricks in and test my body when it was tired so after a short pit-stop I headed out onto the run. I promised myself just to run the first 9mins (I was going to practice my 9min run/1min walk strategy for the souble) and if I hated it I could turn around and walk back to transition. Strangely, and this has NEVER, EVER happened before, I felt ok going out onto the run AND, I started PASSING people. Yep, that'd right, elbow-out jogger shuffler, moi! Amazing. The run/walk strategy was extremely effective - I felt fresh and strong for the first 2 hours and then kept on pushing on without the normal massive reduction in pace and motivation. All I had to do was to run 9mins I kept telling myself. And it worked. So, long as I was extremely strict about keeping running again - as soon as it hit the end of tenth minute I had to run again, no matter how slowly, it worked brilliantly. And I finished the run in 3.11 including my little pit-stop. Considering my stand alone race 20mile time is 2.53, I was astonished. Cannot rate the strategy highly enough. These ultra-runners have been onto a good thing for a long time!

So, all in all, I managed to put a little sprint on at the end to finish under 8 and a half hours. A really good race and it had me full of confidence that you can do good things from a reasonable base of training. However, I do need to now ramp it up again as that base is not going to see me through the next two months aswell! A good day!

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