injury updates ... stats ... other stuff

Quite a bit to get through today so ... here goes ...

My rehab from the calcaneous stress fracture and achilles tendon injury seems to be progressing very well at the moment.  Until Sunday evening I was a little unsure as to whether the ankle was actually getting any better.  But then, from Monday morning, things seemed to click into place and I'm now confident that my rehab is going to plan.

It appears that the many hours spent massaging, icing, stretching, etc are finally paying dividends and that got me round to thinking about 2011 ... and then 2012.

Last year began with a knee injury which limited training during the whole of January but after that things went exceptionally well apart from the two important races.  In the first of those it was a momentary lapse of concentration that cost me the winner's trophy (and the course record by almost an hour).  That's something that needs to be corrected in the next year or two.  You can read that story on this page.

The second (and most important) race was a different story entirely.  I was in very good shape for that one but, stupidly, I stuck to my pre race plans and almost everyone else was adjusting theirs to take account of the very windy weather in Llandudno.  Having said that, if a very bad run produces 220km (136.7 miles) what would a very good have produced ?  There's something for me to think about.

So ... two big races completed and two important lessons learned.

Now, for everyone who's interested in the numbers, here are a few from 2011:

running
over 2444 miles (3933 km) in the year ... 46.9 miles per week (75.4 km per week) ... very nearly an hour per day

cycling
almost 18 minutes per day on average

stretching
almost 14 minutes per day on average

strength training
over 25 minutes per day on average

rehab stuff
over 18 minutes per day on average (not including ice)

In total my training and rehab took over 830 hours last year ... that's over 2 hours 16 per day which doesn't include changing clothes, showering, etc.


My end of year 24 hr ranking is correspondingly a bit disappointing and the stats read:

World ... 72 (down from 37)
Europe ... 49 (down from 26)
UK ... 5 (down from 4)
England ... 4 ? (last year 3)

Full details and year by year comparisons can be found over on this page.


OK ... on to other stuff now.
I was saddened to learn yesterday of the recent death of the great coach Frank Horwill.  I'm sure I've talked about him in previous posts but his wisdom and writings have been a large source of information about all thing training related.  I highly recommend that all runners read the articles on his club's website - here.

Local athlete Racheal Bamford (who lives about 200m from me) recently represented the North of England in the Nos Galan 5k in Wales recently.  She finished first woman on the uphill course with a time of 16:44.  Fantastic ... well done to her ... and she's going to get quicker.

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.

bad weather

Training is continuing as normally as possibly in this prolonged spell of snowy and exceptionally cold weather. The photo below, taken by Martin Bland, is from a large city not too far from where I live.

A quicker training run isn't easy at the moment but ... things are progressing very well thank you.


Just heard on the tv weather forecast that we've got at least another ten days of this snowy and cold weather.


On a slightly different subject ... statistics from this well respected German website referring to 2009 show that my ranking for 24 hr races has progressed from number 56 in the world (2008) to number 44.


Similarly my European ranking has moved from 45 (in 2008) to 32 but my UK ranking has fallen from 3 to 4 [because of Richard Quennell's fantastic run at Tooting Bec in October].

Overall these stats show a marked improvement from me ... but I know there's much more to come yet.


Now for the weird and unexpected stuff.


During my Run To London I covered 218 miles (350 km) in 45 hours.  If I had covered that distance in a 48 hour race my rankings for 2009 would have been:


world ... 8
Europe ... 6
UK ... 1
England ... 1


Well impressed by this and these stats give me lots of hope for a good debut in a proper 48 hr race in 2011 or 2012.

rankings

Sorry about not posting for a while ... not had a lot to say recently.

I've decided though that I could informally and unofficially include my Run To London in the yearly 48 hr rankings produced by the DUV website.

I ran approximately 218 miles/350.836k in 45 hours on the roads between Otley and London.  According to the DUV website 350.836k would rank me at number 7 in the world if it had been a 48 hr race.

Please note that this is unofficial.  The Run To London was not a race and shouldn't be included although I was aiming for a decent time.

The actual figures can be seen on the Rankings page.

Happy New Year

Hello all ... time for a brief look back at what was, for me, a very successful year's running.

JANUARY TO MARCH - injured but doing lots of cross training to maintain fitness.
MARCH TO JULY - training hard for the Hull 24hr race where I ran a pb of 221 km. Training included an age graded 5k pb in May.
JULY TO OCTOBER - training for the Tooting Bec 24hr race included my best age graded 10k time for ten years. In London I ran over 228 km to break through the 140 mile barrier and record a qualifying distance for next year's Commonwealth Championships.
OCTOBER TO DECEMBER - minor knee injury in November. Planned to run in Athens 48hr race to raise funds in aid of Orchid but then lost my job and funding from a High Street retailer.

Overall then a very good year but December I could have done without.

From the d.u.v. website I've extracted the following stats for 24 hr races in 2008:

World ranking (road and track races) ... 56
World ranking (track races only) ... 14
World ranking (road and track races - M40) ... 18
World ranking (track races only - M40) ... 5

European ranking (road and track races) ... 45
European ranking (track races only) ... 11
European ranking (road and track races - M40) ... 12
European ranking (track races only - M40) ... 3

UK ranking (road and track races) ... 3
UK ranking (track races only) ... 2
UK ranking (road and track races - M40) ... 2
UK ranking (track races only - M40) ... 1

England ranking (road and track races) ... 2
England ranking (track races only) ... 2
England ranking (road and track races - M40) ... 1
England ranking (track races only - M40) ... 1

Using the same website the following stats refer to IAU labelled races. This means that my OFFICIAL 2008 rankings will be:

World (road and track races) ... 39
World (track races only) ... 5
World (road and track races - M40) ... 14
World (track races only - M40) ... 2

Europe (road and track races) ...31
Europe (track races only) ... 3
Europe (road and track races - M40) ... 10
Europe (track races only - M40) - 1

UK (road and track races) ... 2
UK (track races only) ... 2
UK (road and track races - M40) ... 1
UK (track races only - M40) ... 1

England (road and track races) ... 2
England (track races only) ... 2
England (road and track races - M40) ... 1
England (track races only - M40) ... 1

2008 was obviously a good year racing wise but 2009 may not be quite so good.

Please also find updates to the stuff on the left of this page and also to this page and this one too.

Two New Pages

The first of the two new pages is possibly the most important of all except this particular page.

If you would like your company's logo and/or a link to your company's website on this site please read the new page here. Individuals, of course, are also invited to read this new page too.

The second new page shows how my World, UK and English ranking has changed from year to year, beginning in 2006 which was when I first ran an ultra race. That page can be viewed here.

I've also found an interesting ultra running article written by fellow ultra runner Adrian Stott. He writes briefly about the various training techniques used by the top Scottish runners of the past 30 years.

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).