one week and counting

As race day approaches I've found a few interesting snippets of information ...

American ultra runner (and fellow ex-cancer patient) has written a fantastic preview of the race on his blog.  Unfortunately he won't be in Katowice this year but I had the pleasure of spending some time with him at the last World Championships in Brive.

The start list has now been confirmed and is available on the IAU website.  The most interesting name on the list is one Yiannis Kouros.  I don't think he's in the kind of form to win the race but one thought stuck me ... will it be the first time he's not finished first in a 24 hr race ?

Also missing this year will be Amy Palmiero-Winters.  An amazing woman who runs with a prosthetic leg after being involved in a motorcycle accident back in the mid 1990s.  Very close to 200 km (124 miles) in Brive but still about 15 km (9 miles) below her best ... truly inspirational.  If she can run 24 hrs there's nothing to stop you ...

The official race website is http://www.run24.eu/en,news.html and it looks as if there may be live coverage.  The IAU website will also have regular updates, interviews and other information.

I'm sure many press releases have gone out over the past few days from runners, associations, sponsors and others.  One source of internet news local to Yorkshire which I've recently found is The Yorkshire Times.  An excellent site for anyone born and bred in God's own county.

training, races, retiring ... and questions about drinks

Recent training has been good in the warm winter sunshine - the temperature here has regularly been over 11 C (52 F) whereas the average is only about 7 or 8 C (45.5 F).  It's all starting to come together and I've added hill reps to the training schedule.  In fact I find myself choosing the hilly route almost every time I go running at the moment - it's good for strength though so I'm not complaining.  It will also come in handy if I choose to do a hilly ultra in June.

Early next week I'll be doing my first 20 miler (32 km) since late August last year and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've no idea yet where I'll be running but those three hours will be fun if the weather stays as it is.

Sad to read about William, Anth and Torill all having bad races recently for various reasons in Espoo and Evreux.  I'm sure they'll all bounce back, learn from the experience and have some good performances later this year.

Received news yesterday that it's extremely likely that I'll be taking part in a 24 hour race in eastern Europe in early September.  Nothing definite yet (the wheels of officialdom are turning slowly this year) so I can't say any more than that.

On a similar note many of you will be aware that the IAU is pushing very hard to have a 24 hour race included in the 2018 Commonwealth Games which will be held in Australia.  If that does happen it will be a fantastic opportunity and experience for all the athletes.  Not just for ultra runners but for all the other sports and media people who will get an chance to see first hand what we do and the extreme levels of fitness, endurance and camaraderie involved.  Fay said recently that I'll be retired by then ... don't tell her but even though I'll be 54 when the Games take place I'll be trying my best during 2017 to make the team.

Retire ... don't be silly.

A couple of thoughts recently came to me when reading the label and website of a well known brand of isotonic sports drink:

100ml contains 6.4g carbohydrate (of which 3.5g are sugars).  What is the remaining 2.9g ? and
if I aim to take on board 60g glucose per hour during a 24 hr race will 100ml provide 6.4g or 3.5g of that ? and
500ml bottles of liquid and 390g tubs of powder have slightly different ingredients and nutritional data, why ?

Hope someone has an answer or two (or three maybe) - for ultra runners nutrition is important ... everyone else thinks we're bonkers !!!

Thanks to everyone recently for the birthday greetings via Facebook or otherwise ... much appreciated.

here we go ...

The trip to the physio provided some excellent news.  The stress fracture to my left calcaneous has fully healed now and the achilles tendinosis in the same leg is well under control.  So much that it's now easier to get fitter than it is to relapse ... so long as I keep up the good work regarding rehab.

That's ice, exercises and being sensible.

Elsewhere in the news congratulations to Lizzy Hawker who was recently awarded the title 'athlete of the year 2011' by the IAU.  Mainly because of her outstanding run in Llandudno at the Commonwealth Championships where she set a new world best performance (24 hr road) of 247.076 km (153.526 miles).

The fourth issue of Nordic Ultra e-magazine is now available.  Another good read, see for yourself on their website.

Yesterday Keir came home from school with the news that he and some other students have been selected to visit Auschwitz concentration camp in May as part of their history A level course.  That will be an amazing experience for him and I know he'll get a lot out of that trip.  It now seems very likely that he'll be going to either Queen's University, Belfast or Ulster University from next September ... so long as he gets the required grades in the summer's exams.  We all know he's capable but it's just a question of proving it to the examiner.

recent race

Over the past few days there has been lots written about the Commonwealth Championships in various places and here I attempt to bring them all together.

- lots of stuff on the IAU website
- this appeared on the IAAF website
- UK Athletics put something on their website after being prompted by me
- England Athletics has some stuff too
- Welsh Athletics has something here
- the news from Scottish Athletics is here
- Multidays.com has a piece that also includes a short video clip
- blogs which have some good stuff include William Sichel and John Kynaston (with two excellent videos)
- finally there's some stuff on the two official Commonwealth Championships websites ... here and here

As for me ... well I'm recovering nicely at the moment despite my left shoulder being still painful at times.  Today I've started looking around for a race or two in the first half of next year before the World Championships in Poland (if I'm selected of course).

Latest news ...

The IAU have recently announced that there will be no World Championship 24 hr race this year.  Their website has all the details but it's a shame for a number of reasons:

- after having an annual event every year since 2003 it seems sad to miss a year.  That means that the 2010 world champions will be the title holders until September 2012.
-  Soochow in Taiwan was the setting for some very good performances down the years, not least of which was the women's world best by Mami Kudo (254.425 km ... 158 miles 162 yards).
- at the moment it looks likely now that I'll be in Barcelona in mid December.  But the race website is in Catalan and the translation tool I have doesn't seem too keen on that language ... can anyone help please.

At least now I can safely concentrate all my training efforts on this year's Commonwealth Championships in Llandudno.

future championships races (but not this year)

My rehab is progressing well after a so-so day on Saturday when my left knee ached for 30 minutes or so every once in a while.

Renewed my acquaintance with the 2I's* and yesterday was fine and today has been really good too.  This morning I managed alternating running and walking for 55 minutes and my knee still feels great.  I've stopped doing a couple of exercises though which may have been making the situation worse, standing quads stretch for instance.

Also, I've decided to add walking to my training schedule.  Ultra runners actually walk quite a bit during extra long races so it does make sense to include a bit of training for that side of the race.  I know a few others have done this (William Sichel for example) but for some reason I haven't ... until I began reading the biography of Arthur Newton referred to in a previous post.

Recent news from the IAU website:  venues and dates have been chosen for the following major competitions:

World 100k Championships ... Apr 2012 ... Seregno (Monza-Brianza), Italy
World 24 hr Championships ... Sep 2012 ... Katowice, Poland
World 24 hr Championships ... May 2013 ... Steenbergen, Netherlands

A couple of things to aim for then but Pam Storey may not be too pleased.


* ice and ibuprofen

nutritional ranking !!!!

In my last post I mentioned the official IAU World Rankings and the fact that if every race was included (not just those with an IAU label) the list would be slightly different.

This German website included all those other races and shows that for 2010 my unofficial ranking rose to 37 from 44 in 2009.  Very pleased with that but I know there's still a lot more to come.

Also ... there's a very good post on Andy DuBois blog about nutrition and ultra running.  I'm not sure where my thoughts lie regarding this one.  I recognise the need to metabolise fats efficiently during a race ... but how to train the body to do that, and is it worth the effort anyway ?

lots of stuff in this post ...

A few bits and pieces to get though in this post ...

The official world rankings have been issued on the IAU website.  The performances on their list only include those set at officially labelled races, ie those with doping control and a proven accuracy regarding course measurement.

My name appears at number 30 on the list which I'm very pleased about.  Over 80% of the performances ranked above mine were set at last year's world championships which goes to show just how high the quality of that race was.  I'm sure that a few people will have runner farther than me in an unlabelled 24 hr race though so my 'actual' world ranking will be a bit lower than 30.  Fuller details will be on the German DUV website ... I don't have time to check it out right now though (apologies for that).

At the moment I'm reading a very good biography of acclaimed ultra runner Arthur Newton.  The book is called Tea With Mr Newton and was written by Rob Hadgraft ... and published by Desert Island Books.

The book is very readable, even for someone without much interest in running, and the author obviously loves the subject of long distance running.  I look forward to reading shortly his other biographies of some of the great distance runners of yesteryear (even though their races were a bit short for me):  Deerfoot, Walter George and Alf Shrubb.

Recently I've been looking at this ultra running website and found a few great articles about training and nutrition.  I've certainly found them helpful and plan to incorporate one or two of the author's ideas into my own training and racing.

There is a great line in one of the pieces by Sunny Blende, MS, sports nutritionist:
" An ultramarathon is an eating and drinking contest, with a little exercise and scenery thrown in."

I would certainly agree with that. In a single day in Perth last September I drank over 7.4 litres (13 pints) and consumed a total of over 5800 kcal made up of 95g protein, 1211g carbohydrates and 55g fat.

Finally I feel the need to briefly report that one of Keir's friends from primary school was hit by a car on 31 December in Otley and killed.  Keir is still quite shocked by what happened but our thoughts go out to the 16 year old's parents at this sad time.  A link to the story in the local newspaper is here.

changes ...

A few hours ago I came across an important piece of news on the IAU website.  It's about Brugg now being unable to stage  the World Championships next year.

This could mean a complete change to my training plans.  Of course I won't know until the new date has been chosen, and according to the IAU website that won't be until a new venue has been decided upon.

Whatever the outcome, for the moment I'm going to continue training as though nothing has changed.  I'm still at the stage where things can be altered but obviously that will only be possible for a few months.

And then there's the Commonwealth Championships next September.  Hopefully the new date will not clash with that event.

It may be that the new date enables me to more easily fit it one or two other long ultras in 2011.  We'll just have to wait and see.

... and then there's the Iron Maiden tour.  Fay is insisting we go to the gig in Newcastle.  Forty pounds each for tickets.  Then there's the hotel, travel, food, merchandise ... all in all not cheap.

I hope the new World Championships date isn't 23 July.

the future

It's now almost three weeks since the Perth Ultra Fest and I seem to have made a good recovery and I'm now well on the way to finalising next year's racing plans.

For this I have been using various calendars on websites such as multidays.com, 100 Marathon Club, IAU, Beyond Marathon, ULTRAmarathonRunning.com and others.

I have also lined up my first couple of shorter races in October ... see this page for details.  I've also noticed that one of the ultras on my 'to do' list is sadly no more - Worschach 24 hr race in Austria.

To end this post I've recently come across this piece by fellow ultra runner Greg Crowther in which he speculates about the reasons people run such long distances.

leaving soon ...

Well, this will be the last post on my blog before the World Championships.

The last couple of weeks have gone extremely well.  Tapering hard with no long runs but plenty of speedwork and a much reduced overall weekly mileage. Eating more food than usual too ... and losing a bit of weight [not that he had much to lose - Fay].

On a slightly different, rather sad note, it has just been announced that the race director for Brive has recently died.  See the IAU website for more details.

Also on the IAU website is the news that they will be offering live updates throughout the race, along with interviews and other items of interest.

The race website is likely to have live coverage throughout the event for those that are interested.  The race starts at 10.00am local time on Thursday (9.00am UK time).

I've also just found out that England Athletics have posted qualification details for the Perth Ultra 24 Hour Six Nations Home International Team Race which should be read in conjunction with the word document, a link to which can be found on the right of the England Athletics page - beneath the logo.  At the moment I know I have the qualification so I'm not thinking about that one.  Just the one in a few days time - if the Icelandic volcano is kind to us.

first open race this year

First race of the Harrogate League last night - in Ilkley.  The weather wasn't too good.   It rained the whole time, not too warm either.  Overall though my impressions this morning are that I ran it like a hard training session rather than a race ... I felt comfortable all the way around the 4.9 mile course and never really pushed myself.

I know there is a big hill between about 0.75 and 1.75 miles but my time of 33:01 just about sums it up for me (6:45 per mile).  Not brilliant but a good training session nonetheless with less than two weeks to go now before the big one.  Full results are here and other details are here.

Thanks to Ilkley Harriers for organising things - it was worth being out in the rain for over an hour just for the food ... wonderful.

Ah yes , before I go, the full list of runners for the 24 hr World Championships has been released.  There are 153 men and 81 women on the start list.   If I hit my target distance and everyone else equals their pb I'll finish 25th.  My lowest ever placing in a 24 hour race - my previous lowest was 13th (in my first one).

For those that are interested the list can be viewed on the IAU website.  Click on the arrows to the right of (30 Apr).

To end on a positive note - in percentage terms that predicted finishing position is slightly better than my performance in Keswick last year.

world 24 hr challenge 2010

I've just been looking at the IAU website on which are the up to date world rankings - thanks to Andy Smith.

Looking carefully at the statistics shows that if those were the finishing distances and positions in next year's World Championship then the UK men would finish as fourth team behind Australia, Germany and Russia.

That is a fantastic thought and surely on that basis John Pares, Stephen Mason, Jim Rogers and myself will be selected for the race which is on May 13/14 next year at Brive-la-Gaillarde in France

world 24 hr challenge 2010

I've obviously not been looking.   It's been on the IAU website for a few days apparently but yesterday I received official confirmation that next year's World 24 hr event will be at Brive-la-Gaillarde in France on May 13 and 14.

The website for last year's race in Brive is here.

Now then ... what do I have to do in Keswick to be selected ? 235k perhaps ... can I do that ?

Of course I can ...

PS - very well done to Sharon Gayter who had a great run at Badwater.

World Challenge & European Championships

When I've had the time this weekend I've been keeping up to date with the World & Euro 24 hr race in Bergamo, Italy. All the details have been on the IAU website ... the final results are here.

It appears that a lot of people ran less than expected. Stephen Mason stated that his target was 160 miles (257 km) and for the first 9 hours or so he was on schedule ... he then faded badly and finished with 133 miles (215 km). The three British women also had bad runs and none of them managed 200 km.

Possibly this was because of the warm conditions (25 decrees C during mid afternoon and 10 degrees C at night). It obviously isn't as simple as that though. Eoin Keith broke the Irish record with 237 km (147 miles). He set the previous record at Tooting Bec last year when conditions were much cooler ... brrrr (235 km/146 miles). Congratulations to him on his new record and on his sixth place finish.

World Challenge & European Championships

All the best to Sharon Gayter, Vicky Skelton, Pauline Walker, Lynne Kuz and Stephen Mason who are representing the UK in Italy this weekend at the 24 hr World Challenge and European Championships.

I believe they fly out today, the race is Saturday and Sunday, and they return home on Monday.

You can keep up to date on the IAU website by clicking on 'Live Updates' which is near the top, in the middle.

There's a good womens team going and if they all perform well they could bring back a medal ... hope so.

World Challenge & European Championship 2009

The International Association of Ultrarunners have just announced that the 24 hr championships for next year will be held at Ciserano (in Bergamo, Lombardy), Italy on the 2nd and 3rd of May.

I believe there is a very good chance that UK Athletics will be sending a team to this event so I will be keeping an eye out for any selection criteria which may (or may not) appear on the UKA website.

In some ways having these championships in early May is good for me because in theory I could use the Tooting Bec race in October to gain the necessary qualifying standard to this race and also, as planned, to the Commonwealth Championships (Keswick - September 2009).

One downside though ... and I think it's a big one ... my wedding anniversary is on the 4th May (and so is Fay's birthday).

On a different note, Keir will begin studying for his GCSE's in September and his favourite subject is History. One of the topics he'll be studying is medieval Christianity in Britain (the rise and fall of the monasteries). We thought this a good opportunity to visit Fountains Abbey, near Ripon, tomorrow. And I thought it a good opportunity for a long run in the countryside, ie run home (I'm sure I can devise a route of approx 24 miles).

Performance Tights

Yesterday I emailed William Sichel to ask his opinion on whether compression tights would be too warm to wear in summer. I can definitely see the benefits but shorts in warm weather seems far more practical and comfortable.

His reply didn't answer my question but did confirm my thoughts in an earlier post about the Hull 24 hr race not having an IAU label and therefore very unlikely to be recognised for major championship qualification purposes.

Over the past few weeks I have come to think that the selection criteria for the Commonwealth Championships (autumn 2009) will not even be published before summer therefore I have at least two further attempts to post a good distance.

I've just seen in Athletics Weekly an advertorial for the Vasque Ultra Running Championships. Although this is definitely a step in the right direction by the magazine all the races are off road and some promotion for track and road ultras wouldn't go amiss, particularly as major championships and records are all (of necessity) road/track courses.

A couple of questions

Added a couple more links (1) Abichal Watkins' Multidays website, and (2) the governing body for ultra races ... International Association of Ultrarunners.

With the World 24 hr Challenge now taking place in Korea in mid October - will this effect the quality of the field at the Self Transcendence 24 hr race in London (18 Oct)?

The Hull 24 hr event doesn't carry an IAU label. Does this mean that a runner who posts a massive distance will not have that result ratified for purposes of qualification for championships?

Official 24 hour ranking list

Recovery not going too well over the past couple of days. Yesterday and today my ankle has been feeling tender (although not at the moment). It could be either: the 'Deep Heat' which I've started using again, or slightly too much cycling, or too fast a progression on the ankle strengthening exercises (now with weights in a ruck sack).

At the moment I feel it's a combination of the first and last so for now I'll stop using the 'Deep Heat' and neither increase number of exercises nor the weight in the ruck sack.

Just had a look on the IAU website and the 'official' 24 hour rankings for 2007. I'm at number 123 (UK number 7) with my London distance.

Apparently they disregard all races without an IAU Label ... which includes Hull (and lots of others apparently).