Otley AC

Not a lot happening really ... I've had to let the Run To London take a backseat for a couple of days while I catch up with secretarial duties for Otley AC.

At the moment this mainly entails processing the application forms of over 50 juniors ... inputting their details on our database and also on the England Athletics database before arranging for the club's treasurer to pay England Athletics £5 per junior.

Very laborious.

Iron Horse 100

All the best to Dan Rose in Florida's Iron Horse 100 tomorrow. I know he's not running (well, not the entire distance anyway) as he's recovering from a shin injury.

I know he'll be sensible and only run a short distance before stopping to avoid making things worse. He then plans to help as a marshal/feed station assistant which is very good of him. In many ways helping at an ultra is harder then running.

Hope you're back running for the Mohican Trail, Dan.

Another Cold

Feel a bit ill today - nothing major, just a cold. Actually I've had this cold for a couple of days now but today it seems a bit worse. Typical, I go two years or more without so much as a sniffle then I have two colds in four months. Or is my memory playing tricks.

With the benefit of hindsight I should have known on Saturday morning that I needed to take it easy. Up until Friday my average waking pulse (28 day mean) had been 45. On Saturday morning it was 49, Sunday 51, Monday 50, today 46. So it appears I'm recovering - doesn't feel like it though.

Didn't run on Saturday but did fartlek and strength training on Sunday.

On Sunday I started vitamin C supplementation as recommended by Frank Horwill. On Monday I continued taking lots of vitamin C (but not as much as on Sunday) and today I plan to do the same. The question I have to ask now is: "without all this vitamin C would I feel worse?"

Yesterday's 13 miler went OK except that my legs began feeling very heavy in the last three miles or so. Today I have another 13 miles planned but each mile to be slightly quicker than the preceding one ... don't know whether to have a day off though - what do you think ?

Tomorrow is a planned rest day.

"Do I stay or do I go"

Slight Changes

Just made a few slight changes to the stuff on the left hand side - please have a look, there may be something that interests you, or a link you haven't tried.

Please let me know if any of the links don't work or are broken.

Croft 6 Day Race

Sad to report that on the third day Sharon Gayter has had to pull out of the Croft 6 day race in Darlington. Apparently she had a stress injury to her shin ... it isn't too serious but three days is just too far to go when not 100%.

I'm sure we all hope she recovers quickly.

Forgot to mention a few days ago [thanks to Alan Young for reminding me about 90 minutes ago]. There is now a website for the Commonwealth Ultra Distance & Mountain Running Championships. Have a look and see what you think.

Also updated this page.

Updates

There's a new six day race in Britain starting tomorrow. It's to be held at Croft Circuit in Darlington and has been organised by Sharon Gayter who's also taking part and chasing a record or two.

With the weather we've been having in the UK recently I don't envy the runners. I wish I was there though.

This page has been updated with the latest newspaper article about my Run to London.

Also updated my Personal Bests page to make it easier to read and understand ... hopefully there'll be as many changes in 2009 as there were last year.

Ice shoes

People recently have been asking what shoes I'm wearing as I don't seem to be slipping and sliding around on the ice around here.

Well, the first pair I've been using is Nike Shox Saya. I've used them in my last two 24hr races and the cushioning is absolutely brilliant. The grip on the ice is good too. The only problem really is that the uppers are not waterproof.

My second pair of 'ice shoes' are Nike Air Max Bounty. This time the uppers are waterproof and again the sole has plenty of grip for me to be able to run steadily at about 7:30 to 8:00 per mile.

Not sure about tomorrow's Rombald's Stride though. It promises to be particularly bad going over Ilkley Moor ... especially the descent into Ilkley itself. The shoes mentioned here will not suffice for a 20+ mile hilly trail race on frozen ground. See Simon Anderson's blog for more details.

Ice and snow

Because of the icy conditions underfoot I had to slightly alter my training today. I was going to do an acceleration run (where each mile is slightly faster than the previous mile) on the route of the Otley 10. I decided though that narrow country lanes, ice and hills don't mix very well.

For those unfamiliar with the Otley 10 the first four miles are flat. The next four miles involve 680 feet of climbing (210 metres). Mile nine is downhill and the final mile is uphill to complete the loop.

I ran in the other direction instead. The temperature, as yesterday, was -1 degree Celsius (30 degrees Fahrenheit) and I was mildly amused to see other folk out and about without gloves ... I'm running in three pairs and struggling for the first 20 to 30 minutes.

Had a fantastic hot bath when I returned home and a large cup of fresh coffee. Fay had some from Sainsbury's ... Continental Blend. I don't usually drink supermarket's own but I thought I'd give this a try - it was good, I really enjoyed it. Not sure where the beans actually came from but I'd guess there was quite a lot from Indonesia in there.

Also in the bath was some stuff from Lush. They make fantastic bath and shower products, the things with cinnamon and other spices I find particularly good for recovery after long runs (or on a cold day).

I also use chocolate milk to aid recovery. In this case I drank almost a pint whilst making the coffee.

The plan is to run twice tomorrow but we'll see what the weather brings.

Good run in bad weather

Very cold here at the moment with lots of ice about (and a bit of snow too).  Ran over 11 miles this morning at about 8 minutes per mile ... very pleasing in the conditions.  It's not easy running with cars skidding past.

As usual I had, on my hands, two pairs of thermal gloves and an old pair of socks. They were still cold for the first 3 or 4 miles though.

Remember my post last week about recovery ? Well Scott Jurek has an excellent post on his blog about that very subject.

Still undecided about the Hull 24 hr race this year. I've won it for the last two years and it would be good to defend my title BUT I think it's a bit close to the Commonwealth Championships and as the latter is this year's priority I need to make sure I'm properly recovered.

I've just read a good article in last weeks Athletics Weekly magazine about Chris Finhill.  There seems to have been quite a bit of ultra running coverage recently in that mag ... about time too.