Final proper training run 07/07/2012

The aim of this final distance session was to give all my kit a final test and get in some reasonable mileage including as much ascent/descent as possible. After what's become common place now in our English summer; flooding, I decided to stay on the tarmac for Saturday's run. There's only so much practice your feet need at being wet and muddy!

At one point on Friday I wasn't sure if I'd be running or paddling. As you can see by the couple of snaps below, courtesy of saddleworthnews.com, it certainly came down as per the forecast:

Well i Hole, Greenfield

(There's a cracking movie clip of a tractor driving through the above at full speed on the site)

http://www.saddleworthnews.com/?p=13184

Allotments in Uppermill (I think?)

Back to the run: I ran from Uppermill to Dobcross and up Wall Hill, at the top I stopped and stripped off t-shirts number 2 (Home Instead/Dr. Kershaw's PR t-shirt) and baseball cap as I was sweating buckets. It was far too warm and muggy for running, let's hope it's a little cooler on the day! From there to Scouthead, down Cooper st to Grotton and back up the hill to Lydgate. Right turn and down to Stockport rd, then down through Rough Town to Manchester rd. Up to the Royal George pub, turn right and then left off rd through the little crops of houses and up to Moor edge road and back down Freizland lane.

From there it was the trusty run up Manchester rd to Dove Stones and up to Chew Reservoir, tag the wall at the top and straight back down. Into Greenfield and up over Kinders and back to Uppermill.

It was a proper tough run with the potential for a heart attack at the top of a couple of those hills. I ran as much as I could but am man enough to admit defeat on some of those climbs; yomping replaced running.

Here's the route info (click on any of the images to enlarge):

See the full route here

I was really pleased with the distance and time, although it wasn't a pace I could maintained for much further, it was good final training session; just over a third distance with nearly half of the elevation required for the event itself. An average moving speed of 6mph with full kit up those hills has put me in a good positive frame of mind for the 28th - I'm ready (I think).

Over the next 2 weeks my plan is to do some leg strength work in the gym, get in a couple of 5 mile runs with no back pack and do a bit of core strength work for good measure. The final week before the event I'll do next to nothing - bliss :o)

Just to give you something to read I'll do a bit of kit reviewing and anything else i can think of next week.

The sponsorship money is on the up no with £190 collected, only £810 to go! Please dig deep if you can.

Cheers

Mick

Two runs for the weekend of 30/06/12

Saturday
Tom talked me, Gaz and our gaggle of kids into doing a run4fun (1 mile) run in Alexandra Park in Oldham. We all thought it was a great opportunity to get out and show the youngsters how it's done. Around 300 people took part; all ages, abilities, shapes and sizes! The weather was pretty good for a change and fun was had by all.

Tom and myself turned up looking uber professional in full running gear and Gaz played it cool "it's only a mile" in jeans and a jacket; it may have only been 1 mile but those adidas samba didn't do much for his knee's after last weekends marathon training session ;o)

There was a live DJ, choreographed warm up, Chaddy the Owl & a life sized squirrel (who looked a little warm at the end when he took his head off!). However you'll have to take my word for most of that because I never thought to take many photo's at the time, forgetting the blog opportunity - doh!

Here's a couple of pics of the kids:

Harry & a couple of his running pals proudly display medals

Harry & Chaddy (Oldham Athletic mascot)

Sunday

In light of last week's monster session and the subsequent suffering of the thigh muscles I decided to try and get out and do some specific hill work. However it proved to be very difficult, if not impossible, to replicate the terrain of the Lakeland 50. The hills around Saddleworth are steep enough and nearly big enough but the paths/tracks are pretty good and soft underfoot, which for everyday use and injury prevention is great, but for practicing the rocky, hard packed climbs and descents of the lakes doesn't compare. Add to the mix all that bloody rain that we've had and you're hard pushed to find anything other than muddy bogs as soon as you leave the tarmac. Anyway, it wasn't for the lack of trying!

I set off (yes, in the rain) from Uppermill and ran to Greenfiled. From the main rd, it was straight up Kinders lane/Haw Clough lane to where you run out of tarmac and then off rd straight up the steepest/most direct route of Pots & Pans hill. Once on top, straight over and down the other side to Crowthers Farm onto the A635. It was at this point that I realised today wasn't the day for off road, distance running as my feet were already soaked, even with the Sealskin socks on. So from there it was down to Bin Green & Dove Stones Reservoir. Around the res to the other side and then up the killer drag (tarmac rd) up to Chew Reservoir. Tag the top and straight back down as fast as possible to try and get my muscles acclimatised to the impact of a hard packed steep and long descent. I'm conscious, at this late stage of the training and with the previous injuries I've had over the last couple of months (that seem ok - touch wood) that there's a fine line between conditioning the muscles and picking up another injury. I did push on though as i felt good and surprisingly strong which makes a change!

The tarmac road descent from Chew Reservoir,

much better to go down than up!

From Dove Stones it was back into Greenfield and back up Kinders lane but this time staying on the tarmac and following the road over and down into Uppermill.

It took me 2hrs 17mins (moving time; had a couple of backpack re adjustment stops) to cover 13.3 miles. The elevation gain over the route was 1093 metres which is about a third of the Lakeland 50 route but it didn't anywhere near as punishing as last week. 

http://goo.gl/maps/rBCv

I felt good when I'd finished the run and I'm aiming to do one final decent length run this weekend and then I'm going to start to wind things down gradually until the race on the 28th. I'd heard somewhere, a long time ago when I was working in the fitness industry, that the training you do today won't have any real impact on increasing your fitness level for at least 3 weeks, so don't bother trying to cram it in but rest instead.

The only personal experience I have of the above is when I was training for the London Marathon in 2004. I'd followed quite a gruelling training schedule and although I was running well, I felt knackered and my legs felt weak and heavy. As a result of overdoing it and being run down I got tonsillitis 3 weeks before the marathon and couldn't possibly do any running for 2 weeks. Conscious that the big day was only 1 week away and still recovering I did 2 x 3 mile runs at a steady pace in the last week just to keep my legs moving. I was worried about my lack of final preparation but on the day of the marathon I felt great and easily (well maybe not easy - time fogs the memory a little) achieved my target time.

So I'm going to give that approach another go. They say you get wiser as you get older; I'll be proper clever just before I drop dead! 

Cheers

Mick

Kentmere to Coniston 24/06/2012

With only 5 weeks to go, we decided that it was about time we got over to the Lakes and ran some of the actual route. As we'll finish the course in the dark (hopefully), it made sense to familiarise ourselves with the second half of the course; we may be a tad tired after 10 hours running leading to a higher chance of a navigational cock up & related sense of humour failure!

We got to Consiton a little later than planned thanks to a screw in one of my car tyres and called the pre arranged Mr Taxi driver to pick us up and drop us at our start point in Kentmere. We started running at around 1045 in the torrential rain and climbed up and over to Ambleside. This was our first introduction to what we'd actually bitten off. We knew it would be hilly (obviously) but our plan was that we'd walk up the steep hills and run the down hills and flats. What we didn't know was how rocky the paths would be, which shouldn't change the uphill speed but does mean that you pretty much come down the other side at not much quicker than walking speed for fear of breaking your ankle/neck, especially if wet with studded trail shoes on! The other observation is that ther isn't much flat. it's mostly up or down.

Frank & Gaz making hard work of a little hill :o)

A rocky downhill path, typical of those across most of route  

Pause for a quick product review from Frank:

Karrimor Trail shoes, bought from Sports Direct for £35 and a bargain at half price:

"Probably a perfectly good item for use in the dry. In the wet, however, these trainers have the potential to perform as well as Bambi on ice!" Thankfully Frank bounces quite well! 

By the time we got to Ambleside, around 1215, we were ready for a fuel stop and dived into the nearest cafe, avoiding the fifth or sixth downpour of the day (the sun did come out later, long enough to give me a red neck - a typical 'can't make your mind up' British summers day). Pints of tea and jam crumpets were the prefered choice of champions! Half an hour later and a quick pint in the Queens (wishful thinking!) we were off again, up and over, in the direction of Skelwith Bridge.

A cup of tea and a slice of cake - proper job!

No pub stop = sad faces

From Skelwith Bridge it was the very indirect route through to Coniston via the middle of nowhere. See map below. It tooks us about 6hrs 40 mins and as such we are looking at a predicted full course time of approximately 16 hours (give or take an hour or 4).

On the way up to

the top of the world

Here's a link to the route of the full 50 miles, which is split over 2

seperate pages for some reason? http://goo.gl/maps/sjsm

So what did we learn:

* Most of our kit (with the exception of Franks trainers) is good for the job

* We are of an acceptable level fitness and none of us had too many niggles at the finish

* It's going to be hard

* We're all going to really ache the day after

* We're not going to sign up for the 100 mile event next year - definately!

* The next 4 weeks of training is going to focus on running up & down from Pots and Pans (very steep hill in Saddleworth)

* Gaz is pretty good at map reading

* & it's going to be hard - again!

If you like what you read, please spread the word & remember it's all for charity, please give a couple of quid!

Cheers

Mick

Fletchers Mill and sore nipples! 17/06/2012

It was just me and Tom who managed to get out on Sunday afternoon. We kept off the tops because of all the rain that's fallen over the last few days - another lovely wash out summer!

We set off at around 2pm in the direction of Dove Stones but with no particular route in mind. The aim was to get a minimum of 10 miles in.

From about half way up Church rd in Uppermill we cut through on a footpath to Gellfield/Knowl Top Ln and followed the road till the dirt track peels off left (just before the road drops down into Greenfield). We then followed this in the direction of Dove Stones and it brings you out on the A635 at Binn Green car park where you can cut down some steps to the Res. From there we ran up past Yoeman hey and Greenfield Res with a view to crossing the stepping stones and running back down the other side but neither me or Tom relished the prospect of getting wet through in the rapids, so we ran up to the dead end at Greenfield Brook (photo taken) before re tracing our tracks back to Dove Stone.

Tom & the view looking back down the valley from Greenfield Brook

After running around Dove Stone we dropped back through the drive of what was Fletchers paper mill (see below) and along to the Royal George pub and back through to Uppermill on the bridal path. Approximately 11.2 miles in a little over 2 hours. The leg felt ok and I'm sure I'll be fit and ready in 5 weeks!

http://goo.gl/maps/UZ71

Tom had a minor issue (he may not have thought it minor) from Saturday's run when he got wet though and developed a nice dose if 'nipple rub'! It sounds ridiculous but if you've ever had it you know exactly how painful it can be. If you wear a loose fitting/rough material top and it gets wet/or you run for long enough the material rubs a layer of skin off the end of your nipples. You don't always know about it until you get into the bath/shower and then you very nearly go through the roof with the meeting of water on skinless nipple! I've only had it a couple of times and now generally wear fitted tops that don't move about as much to avoid the problem. So well done Tom for battling on, at least you didn't get to this stage:

Ouch!

Fletchers Paper Mill - a bit of local history
If you're interested, over looked by Dove Stones, is the former Fletchers paper mill (in red on the map above) where i worked back in 1993 for 2 years. My job was to work at the end of one of the paper making machines and look after the big reel's of paper; the 'reel end' - a very appropriate job title!

Anyway without boring you to tears about the factory, i googled it for some info and came across the site below. It would appear that people like to visit these kind of places and take photo's etc and then publish them for others to see. To be fair, although not my cup of tea, they've produced some cracking pictures of the place (which doesn't seem to have changed much :o) along with some local history. There are quite a few different posts on Fletcher's, I've just linked to one of them:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=60044
(for some reason when you follow this link it comes up with a 'Database error' when it does just click the 'refresh link'. Alternatively copy and paste the link above into your browser and it should work fine).

By all means have a look at the you tube clip also but it's a bit Blair Witch with dodgy music!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gWZGI2LT3I


If you like the Blog, spread the word and i may just hit my target of £1000 for Dr. Kershaw's hospice!

Off to the lakes on Suday for a proper test run with Gaz & Frank!

Cheers
Mick

Mad Sunday Run

Apologies for not posting sooner but with injury leading to short runs, a busy work schedule and a quick trip to the Isle of Man to watch the TT, I've either not had much to say or not had the time to write it. So I've tried to compensate by writing a decent post for you below:

I was away watching the TT for 5 days last week. It was my first time to the Isle of Man and it was a great experience, I would definitely recommend it for anyone who has the slightest interest in bikes. I've watched World Superbikes/Moto GP/British Superbikes etc but they really are nothing compared to the TT. If you were aloud to get any closer to the action, you'd be sat on the bikes with the riders! Although the course (public roads) is closed, you can get right up to the action on the roadside. There is, of course, an element of risk in sitting on the side of the road as bikes come whizzing past at speeds in the region of 170 mph but viewing spots are relatively well thought out to limit the danger.

I've uploaded a couple of short (30 seconds ish) video's which I took, to You Tube if you're interested in getting a feel for it. It looks as though the clips have been speeded up (even to me) but if you look at the people on the side of the road, you can tell they haven't been. There's also a couple of pictures to show just how close you can get:

Bray Hill: 160 mph speeds through a 30mph speed limit,

traffic light junction on a bend. Only the brave!

A straight section on the run into Ballacraine

Rider Gary Johnson on the straight after Bray hill (I've got my arm stuck out

over the wall, just in case you think I'm stupid enough to stand on the pavement!)

The shutter speed on my phone's camera isn't quick enough (surprisingly)

and as such I've some weird distorted images of bikes 

So while I was out in the Isle of Man we spent Saturday afternoon with some friends in a place on the south of the Island called Port Erin. A lovely little village/town, very scenic, great beach, even better pub! As we'd gone there in the car and the beer was too good to stop drinking, we decided to leave the car and collect it the next day. We hadn't decided how exactly we were going to get it but I'd taken my trainers and figured I could always run down from our hotel in Douglas so long as I wasn't too dehydrated. As it happens I was fine in the morning after calling it a night at a reasonable time and because it was throwing it down there wasn't much else to do. So I donned trainers and waterproof jacket, grabbed a bottle of lucazade and set off.

It's the longest run I'd done in a while and I felt it. Not so much on the fitness but more on the legs. Most of the route was on tarmac and I was running in a pair of race trainers which provide less cushioning. I'd bought them for casual use rather than running, however when your running trainers are in the boot of the bloody car that you're on the way to collect (slight oversight), there isn't much choice!

It was a pleasant enough run and I always enjoy running in one direction, rather than doing a loop, for the constant scenery change. There was one section of road though, for about a mile, between Newtown and Ballasalla that had no pavement and there were a few moments when I feared for my life. A combination of overhanging tree's, blind bends and fast flowing traffic; mostly Vallentino Rossi style bikers, didn't make for a relaxing section. The Isle of Man is a fast, busy and dangerous enough place during the TT fortnight, without throwing into the mix a runner wearing a camouflaged outfit of black shorts and tarmac grey t-shirt!

Anyway I survived and although the run clocks up about 15.5 miles on google earth I probably did at least an extra mile thanks to the locals at Ballasalla who sent me off road down some track towards Castletown. They said it would keep me off the road and out of the traffic, what they didn't say is that the path splits several times and disappears completely in a couple of places - you can always trust the locals! I also took a wrong turn when I got to Castletown; funny how sometimes, for no reason at all, you are convinced that it's left not right. In this instance I knew I'd gone wrong when I got to the Sea!

I took my phone to use as a sat nav but only used it when lost because of the extortionate data charges. As such I've plotted the route from memory on google earth below:

http://goo.gl/maps/O2w9

The beautiful bay of Port Erin on the Isle of Man

Just in case you're wondering about the title of this post; Mad Sunday is so named because it's traditionally the day that the race course (37 miles in total) is open for the public to ride/drive around. Over the mountain section of the course (10 miles ish) it's one way with no speed limits - a free for all; as you can imagine, the day usually lives up to its name - MAD!

Me, Gaz and Frank are only six weeks away from the big day now. We've still got a lot of preparation and hard work to come and it's all for a good cause. So, if you like the post, and I can tug at your heart strings, please make a contribution to Dr. Kershaw's hospice by clicking on the Just Giving link above - thank you!

Cheers
Mick

Still running ...... just not very far!

Apologies for the lack of a post last week but things aren't really going to plan. I'm trying to keep positive and motivated but it's a bit tricky when injured and frustrated.

I've been out about 5 times in the last 2 weeks but only covered around 20-25 miles in total. I've compensated a little by use of a rowing machine in the gym but its not quite the same thing.

I'm spending a lot of time on core stability exercises and stretching in the hope that miraculously I'll go for a run any day now and find that I'm as good as new (as well as 10 years younger and a stone lighter!).

I'll keep plodding on and will report back on my progress. Apologies once again for the lack of anything interesting: the training hasn't really panned out as i hoped!

Well done to Kirsty and everyone else who completed the Manchester Great Run today
http://www.greatrun.org/events/event.aspx?id=4

Here's a couple of guys after my own heart:

Primary reason for running: Stress relief!

Poor core strength: May causes minor instability?

Cheers
Mick

First run after a 2 week rest 06/05/2012

So, I've had 2 weeks off resting my 'piriformis syndrome'. The first run back was on Saturday and before you read how it went i just need to explain that i think I've misunderstood something:

Carb Up - definition (source; wiktionary.org)
To consume a large amount of carbohydrates, ostensibly for energy; generally a practice of athletes, especially runners and swimmers.

Carb Up - definition (source; Mick)
To consume as much cake and biscuits as possible, whilst simultaneously doing zero exercise; generally the practice of an idiot who wants to feel like he's running with lead boots on!

Need i go into too much detail on how refreshing it was to get back out and about? It wasn't that bad but for 7.5 miles i did feel a bit 'heavy' shall we say. Details of the run a little lower down the page.

After visiting Dave the physio on Friday, prior to running we'd come up with plan B; do some core stability & strength exercises and hope it goes away! Dave had been thinking about my recurring injury issue's while i was resting and decided that he wanted to assess my core stability. He had me jumping around and balancing (or trying to) on a giant beach ball and quickly came to the conclusion that i have quite (very) poor core strength combined with the previously diagnosed stiff lower back, tight hamstrings and week gluteal (bum) muscle's. He suggested that a bunch of exercises will address the route cause of the problem and then Bob'll be your mothers brother!

I started the exercises yesterday and I'm aching like mad today, mainly thighs and mid section (that'll be the core i suppose). However my injured leg/bum doesn't feel any worse, it may even feel a little less stiff, so I'll continue and see what happens.

This weekend had been pencilled in for a decent length, group run but for one reason or another it didn't come off. I'm not sure if the others got out, as I've not caught up with them yet.

I went from Uppermill, up the bridle path and then road to the Diggle Hotel, up Boat Lane, across the A62 just before Standedge Cutting. I then followed the track, then road back to the A62, crossed it again to get onto Harrop Edge Lane, followed it down through Dobcross, back to Uppermill, up Ryfields Drive and back onto the bridal path. A nice run out, apart from the lung busting drag up Boat Lane, which gets longer every time you run it! It felt good to be back out and I'm going to gradually get the mileage back up again now. Screen shot and link to route below:

http://g.co/maps/wcgtn

View from the blue marker looking back towards Diggle/Uppermill

The other exercise the physio dropped into conversation as a 'this could help' was - running backwards uphill - hmm! Now you're going to look like a right d!*# wherever you do this but i figured less people will look and point if you do it in a less public place, while out and about. My quiet place happened to be Ryfields Drive; a nice steep, private, dead end road. It was, shall we say... novel but if it works then why not. I only passed one person (i don't mean overtook, he was going the other way) and i was determined not to say anything and then right at the last moment i blurted out that "it was ok and that i wasn't mad, i actually knew i was running backwards and the physio told me to do it, it's because I've got an injury" etc. He just nodded and smiled, as you would!

Cheers for now
Mick