Hitting the ground running!

I arrived in Sydney at 09:00am local time after 39 hrs of travelling via london and Kuala Lumpar. Check in at my hotel was not until 2pm so rather than hanging around I went for a walking tour of the surrounding area and met up with a friend from back home 'Rob Costello'. Rob was planning a lunchtime run so I decided to join him and shortly after checking into my hotel we were running under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, around the Opera House and through the Domain / Botanic Gardens before returning to my hotel 6 miles later.
Tomorrow i'll be joining a meet and train group for an interval session and might even be racing a 5K on Wednesday but will take it easy on both days.

The North Face 100K

You can check out a video from last year's race by clicking here and race updates should be available by clicking here on Saturday 16th May + 10hrs.

Traveling Light

The training is more or less done and I've spent the last few days sorting out my race kit and preparing my drop bags for the various check points.  The compulsory kit list imposed by the race means i'll be carrying a lot more than I'd like to so I'm trying to travel as light as possible by selecting my compulsory items based on weight.

The green jacket in the above photo is the Salomon Fast Wing Hoodie which I'm hoping will be allowed as my compulsory rain jacket with hood but as a back up I have the Montane Lite-Speed  jacket which claims to be the lightest weather resistant hooded jacket in the world.  Saving a few grams on a jacket might not sound much but when you add up all the grams saved it can make a big difference.  I've weighed all of my kit and have made a saving of over 1Kg as well as cutting down on bulk by substituting with lighter items.

I'll be wearing my trail shoes while traveling and carrying my race clothing in my carry on luggage just in case my main bag goes missing en route to Australia.  Most items can be replaced but not your race kit and especially not your racing shoes.

I remember when traveling to Jordan with Mark Pollock for the Dead Sea Ultra his bag went missing and we didn't get it back until after the race.  Luckily he had followed the wear and carry your race kit but he was missing a small tin of vaseline which was in his main bag and turned out to be irreplaceable. 

Djouce Mountain

My plan for this weekend was to spend as much time as possible in the mountains concentrating on ascending / descending rather than distance while carrying my race day kit. on Saturday I went to Glendalough and did my usual run on The Spink and although my climbing was strong I felt a lot of pain in my IT band while descending so I walked the down rather than increase my chance of injury and I cut the session short. I had planned on running it 3 times by reversing the route each time and avoiding the long flat stretches.

On Sunday I went as planned to Crone Wood in Wicklow with Tony and we went for a mixed run on road, trail and mountain peaking on Djouce mountain. The attached graph from my Polar HRM shows the profile of our run and yet again I climbed strong but was very slow while descending. Shortly after arriving home I felt fully recovered but the problem is still there so maybe I should take it easy over the next few days and leave the hills until race day. It's probably better to arrive at the start line slightly undertarined rather than injured.

Easy Miles

23 miles into the London Marathon I felt some discomfort in my left knee which gradually got worse and shortly after finishing the race it felt very sore and as I cooled down it became uncomfortable to walk.  I self diagnosed it as being iliotibial band syndrome (IT band) a very common running complaint but one I had so far managed to avoid.  First thing on Monday morning I booked a lunchtime massage and it's only now 3 days after the race that I was able to walk without any pain so I decided to try an easy run.  Went out for an easy 3 miles and although I know I could have gone longer I thought it best to err on the side of caution and gradually get back into it.  My plan for this weekend is to spend as much time as possible in the mountains and concentrate on climbing and descending rather than distance.

Flora London Marathon 09

I arrived into London on Friday evening and shortly after booking into my hotel I started my carbo loading routine with a Pasta & Pizza meal before having an early night.  Remembering how busy the Marathon expo was last year I decided it best to head out to collect my race number and timing chip early on Saturday rather than rushing later on in the day.  Met up with Steven Seaton at the Runner's World stand and chatted for a bit before I did my numerous laps checking out all the stands at least twice which is one of my favourite things about Marathon running.

After an hour or so at the expo I headed back to my hotel via Greenwich Park and the Royal Observatory where at last I finally had my chance to stand on the Prime Meridian.  This has been one of my things to do since I stood at the geographic North Pole and the point where all the earths lines of longitude meet so that's another job done.

Race Day can be quite busy and because the Pacing team were meeting quite early my day started at 6am to allow for breakfast in my room, a quick shower and time to check out of the hotel before heading for the first train to Greenwich at 7am.  Met as planned with the Pacing team at 8:30am and following a quick chat we were assigned to our starting areas and I then made my way over to the Blue Start and Pen 3 at Blackheath.  

With this pace and distance I can manage with a minimum amount of fluid and my pre race plan was to drink only a mouthful of Lucozade at each aid station spaced 5K apart to keep my carbohydrate stores topped up and not bother with the water at the 1 mile intervals but that plan was based on the original weather forecast which mentioned clouds and showers.  The day couldn't have been more different and as I made my way to the start line I was thinking on my feet and the original plan changed.

The day was a lot hotter than I expected and this is when experience pays off as I knew in advance how much fluid I would need based on the air temperature and after meeting a few of the runners that would be using my services I assigned one to supply me with Lucozade Sport at every aid station and another to get my water if required. 

 

The first mile was to be our slowest at 8:33 min pace and over the next 5-6 miles I made up the lost seconds by running at times of between 7:50 - 8min with the occasional slower mile of no more than 10 seconds over.  After the half way mark we had established a good steady pace following the race line and i was drinking at every aid station and sweating it out as quickly.  Some of the group were starting to suffer but at mile 20 there were still a few familiar faces and a few more runners that we had passed decided to join up with us.  We talked our way up to mile 23 and then dug in for the final push.

The support all along the course has to be seen to be believed but on the approach to mile 25 the crowds seemed to get bigger and louder and although I've done this race a few times I was still distracted by the crowd and I missed the 26 mile mark.  I was looking around and double checking my watch and then I heard the BBC announcer calling for a big cheer to welcome in the Runner's World Pacer and I then crossed the line in 3hr 29min 30sec which overall was 29 seconds ahead of time.  My average Pace for the race was 7min 59 seconds and you won't get much closer than that..

Meet the Pacers

Well its that time again and tomorrow I head to London to take part in the London Marathon as part of the Runner's World Pacing Team.  My mileage this week was relatively low with one short Tempo run of 5 miles at 6min30 pace.  I felt that I needed this short fast run to loosen my legs up and make up for not fitting in my usual long and semi long runs.  You will maintain endurance with some speed work but you won't build speed from endurance work.