Garmin psycology

I've been taking it quite steady since my 30 mile training extravaganza the other week, running little and often. The light nights make it easier and I managed a full seven days of consecutive running which I've never ever done before.

Still last Sunday evening I remembered that I am actually meant to be training for an endurance event so I went for a bit of a longer run, albeit it with no real plan. I had vague notions of going up Traprain Law, a volcanic hill rising out of the East Lothian farmland, but this felt kind of ambitious and I'd settle for just checking out some new paths on the way.

It was all going fine. I got to the foot of the Law, and realised it was getting late and there really wasn't time to go up so headed back. I'd done over eight and a half miles so new I'd have racked up a decent distance by the time I'd got home.

I'd just started the return leg when my Garmin gives a funny kind of a beep. Low battery. Now however much I like to pretend to myself I'm above this kind of stuff, the idea of having some unlogged miles put the fear of God into me. So for no really good reason my run changed from a leisurely saunter along the river Tyne, to a serious struggle to beat the battery.

The next thing I know I'm tearing along the trails in a way that's totally unnecessary for someone who is on a long run and meant to be thinking about tapering. I was going so speedily I clearly put the wind up what I think was a red deer, which rather than tangle with something as menacing with me thought it would make more sense to leap out at me and bound into the river whilst barking like a dog. The resulting adrenaline certainly helped me along, I'm used to watching out for the buzzards but didn't think I had to fear the herbivores.

On getting back to the road some serious running was done, head down and fast, just over seven minute miles. Whilst doing all sorts of hard sums in my head. If the beep meant 20% battery left and I'd run for 84 minutes the if I reached the North Berwick turning in 18 minutes then everything would be OK. Whole mathematical castles were built on the shakiest of foundations to convince myself that it was all going to be OK as long as I kept going, and fast.

I made it back to the outskirts of town, properly knackered and reckoned it was safe to slow so I did. And made to the end of my run without hearing the dreaded beep of a dying Garmin. It ran out 30 seconds after I stopped, and I was left pondering the sheer ridiculousness of it all, unable to work out if the added intensity to the second half of my workout was a good thing or not.

Then I looked at the times somehow in spite of feeling like I spent the whole way home on the edge it was still a very slight positive split, the fast miles had left me drained and the final three were very slow.

All of which goes to show that Garmins can do funny things to you, I'm somewhat stupid for allowing it to, the deer was daft for jumping in the river and no-one really emerges with  much credit.

The land of the ultra-runner

Today I had my first experience of the land of the ultrarunner. That place beyond 26.2 miles which I'd never previously seen before.

The Plan

Simple - run three ten mile loops from my house. The race I'm training for, the Clyde Stride, is split into four segments of 10 miles each with a drop bag at each. So the idea was to test out the food ideas for these drop bags as well as my ability to do the distance and give me a better idea of pacing. I'd selected a mixed loop of trail and road to try and match the race itself, and tried to mirror the terrain as best I could. My fairly ill informed guess before setting off was that each loop should take about 1h 30, and a time between 4h 30 and 5h would be a good result.

What happened

It all went scarily like clockwork, I struggled a little to get going and was a little daunted by the distance to go. The first time my garmin beeped it was quite sobering to think I would hear the thing beep 29 more times before I stopped. I also felt a bit full running so soon after breakfast. But this all passed in about three miles and I settled down into my stride. I ran nine minute miles at first which felt about right and I speeded up slightly as I got into things.

The first lap passed easily after that, and after a quick pit stop I grabbed my headphones and tuned out to a mixture of music and podcasts for the second lap which also felt fairly smooth.

I started the third lap at a similar speed to the first and still felt strong. The marathon passed in 4h 05, and I passed into the mythical land of the ultra. It felt much the same, my legs were still getting a bit sore and I was ready for the end. Although I was pleased that I felt better than I did at 24 miles in the marathon. The last 3 miles I began to slow a bit and I was glad to stop. But overall I felt I ran fairly smoothly.

0 to 10 miles - 1h 33
10 to 20 miles - 1h 33
20 to 30 miles - 1h 36

Total 4h 42

Food

On 1st leg

• 2 slices malt loaf with butter (right at start)
• 2/3 ninebar (around 30mins)
• Energy gel (around 1h)

At first stop

• 2 slices malt loaf with butter

On 2nd leg

• 1/2 bounty (around 2h)
• Energy gel (2h 30)

At second stop

• 1/2 scotch egg
• 1/2 bottle flat(ish) coke

On 3rd leg

• 1/2 bounty (3h30)
• Energy gel (4h)

This all worked pretty well, there was nothing that made be feel bad, although I didn't want things in quite the same volume as I has envisaged - the idea of a whole scotch egg appalled me.

The other thing I learned was that if you put coke in the bottle for my bottle belt, and it isn't totally flat. Then the pressure will build up as you run and the drink fizzes, until it shoots out a fountain of coke onto you elbow - much stickiness. To be honest I think having one bottle of coke and one of water left me short on water and feeling thirsty - not sure I'll do this again.

I took the gels on the move, but walked up a nasty little hill while eating foot on the run.

Animals

Buzzard (again), baby deer (took me ages to work out what they were), baby bird that couldn't fly marooned on the forest floor, hare, mouse.

Conclusion

I was ready to stop by the end, but I think your body gets used to the idea of what it is doing and had I being doing 40 it would have gone on, albeit maybe a bit slower. I'm pretty sure I can do the 40 mile distance and that I have a sensible food strategy worked out, but you never know how it will go on the day. I need to have a bit more of a think about pacing though...

Flirting with my injury

Its been a funny couple of weeks running wise.

I'm running my first ultra in July so it's starting to seem quite close, and I've been trying to step up the amount of training I'm doing. I've probably not been doing too much extra mileage, but I've been doing it in bigger runs. I'd also taken to doing some of my shorter runs over my local hill, with some barnstormingly fast descending - by my standards anyway.

At the end of May I did three runs of 18 miles in the space of 10 days, and my body pushed back suggesting this was a bit much.

I've always had a few issue with my right hip, and this is an injury I've flirted with over the years, thankfully without it ever blossoming into a long term relationship. It seemed to view my three long runs in quite quick succession as an invitation to take things to the next level, and quite cheekily induced its friend my right knee to join in.

I'm not used to experiencing pain when I'm running to the extent I want to stop, so took this as a sign I needed to ease back. I don't really know what is wrong with me. Dr internet seems to keep talking about something called an IT band, but running too much doesn't seem to help and running sensibly seems to keep things under control.

So I had the best part of a week off, and have run only slowly and steadily since then. The key focus is that I need to do a long (30 miles(ish)) run soon as prep for my ultra. In all honesty I'm not sure that physically I need it, but I've had it planned in and I think my confidence on the day will suffer if I haven't done at least one marathon + length run.

So nice and slow running with resolutions to do lots more stretching and to work on my core strength seem to be helping. I listened to a podcast last week in which Marco Consani sagely remarked that no-one stretches when things are going well - I emphasised with this.

Had a lovely run in the sunshine on Tuesday evening complete with baby llama, although I feared for the worst when I saw a buzzard near the start (not a good omen previously) I felt OK so hopefully moving in the right direction.