Washburn Valley Relay

Friday night was the annual Washburn Valley Relay and I ran for Otley Mixed A on the four mile stage 2.  This has always been one of my favourite events as it takes place in one of my all time favourite running places - and it's just seven miles north of where I live too.

My stage comprised one complete circuit of Fewston Reservoir and I've raced along those paths seven times previously.  Those previous times were:

19 June 1999 ... Otley AC handicap ... 24:03
25 May 2000 ... Otley AC handicap ... 24:57
6 June 2000 ... Washburn Valley Relay ... 24:17
6 June 2002 ... Otley AC handicap ... 27:12
24 July 2003 ... Otley AC handicap ... 27:23
14 June 2004 ... Otley AC handicap ... 28:17
17 April 2007 ... Otley AC handicap ... 26:23
16 July 2010 ... Washburn Valley Relay ... 25:47

My time this year was most surprising as it was my quickest in over ten years.  I was not expecting that at all - the path around the reservoir is undulating, twisting and very narrow in places - how I managed to pass thirteen people I'll never know.

My team, which also comprised Sharron Smith and Renee Saxton finished 16th overall (out of 50) and second mixed team behind Pudsey Pacers.

Also, for the first time this year, there was a relay for junior runners on a 1.1 mile circuit.  Overall a brilliant event at which I met up again with Helen Barber and Tony Hazell who played such a large part in last year's epic Run To London.

Thanks to everyone for organising and helping stage such an enjoyable event:  Nick Hodgkinson, Julian Mawson, Chris Stacey, Andrew Robertshaw, Hugh Pearson, John Armitstead, Beate Schmidt-Rohlfing and I'm sure there are a few more whose names escape me ... apologies to them but well done.

long runs

Training going well now.  Last weekend's problems are long gone and this morning's 23 mile fartlek went well.  The route was (from Otley):

Menston - Guiseley - Rawdon - Calverley - Leeds Liverpool Canal to Saltaire - Baildon - Guiseley - Menston - Otley

For those of you who live round here you can see that the route included Hollins Hill - at about 18 miles.  Not fun after 2h 25 of running.

On Friday 23 July Keir is going camping in the Yorkshire Dales with his friends for a few days.  I've offered to take him to Skipton on that morning so that I can run home again.  My route will probably include a large section of the Leeds Liverpool Canal - to Apperley Bridge or beyond.  A total of about 32 miles when I get back to Otley.

I'll be in Skipton bus station at about 9.30am and if anyone would like to join me on my run home you'll be most welcome.  I plan to leave at about 10.00am (unless I have a coffee before leaving Skipton).

back to normal

Training over the past couple of days has gone very well indeed and I'm now fully recovered from last week's experience.

It's been strength training, stretching and cycling today ... and a run of over 22 miles first thing this morning.  No problems at all.  Morning heart rate back to normal too after being elevated over the weekend.

Feeling good now ... confidence returning fast.

Oh yes ... Spain 1 Netherlands 0 [but Netherlands were very lucky to finish with a full team].

Filey

Had a good few relaxing days in Filey on the east coast of Yorkshire.  A small town with lots of nearby trails for walking and/or running.  The weather was very hot (often over 27 C or 80 F) but windy most of the time.

On Thursday I had a bad day though.  Went for an early morning run (7.00am) of about 6 miles through Gristhorpe and Muston before returning to Filey.  Very hot and humid even so early in the day but all went well.  Later that day though - about nine hours later - I began to feel ill, very ill.  It's obvious to me now that it was a heat related illness.

Normally I'm very careful with hydration, shade, suntan lotion, etc but had lapsed whilst in Filey and things had caught up with me - severely.  After four hours or so of vomiting and feeling bad I went to bed and woke up on Friday morning feeling more or less normal but vowing to be more careful in future.

Back home on Saturday and went for a for a run in the afternoon and began to feel ill again as soon as I did something other than steady running.  Came home again after only 10 hill reps instead of the planned 20 and rested for the remainder of the day.

This morning I feel fine and I'll go for a run this afternoon.  I had planned to do 6 miles at about 6:40 per mile but I think I'll just run steadily instead - it's far too windy to run so quickly anyhow.

On final thought for today.  Who'll win the World Cup this evening ... Spain or The Netherlands ?

training, web changes and the seaside

Training going very well at the moment.  Lots of running, cycling, stretching and strength exercises.  Quite a few races too (speedwork).

I also realised a few weeks ago that this site is getting a bit out of date on a few of the pages and it generally needed a good makeover.  So ...

The following pages have seen a few changes recently:

 - this home page
 - Future Races
 - My Races
 - My Personal Bests
 - Rankings
 - Help & Advice
 - Sponsorship
 - contact details

Please feel free to have a look around while I'm away for a few days at the seaside with Fay and Keir.  See you in a week or so.

If any of the links don't work, on any of the pages, please let me know.

Harrogate League

Last night was the final counting race in this years Harrogate League.  After five races between the end of April and the beginning of July Harrogate H & AC have won the team title.  Well done to them.

However the women and women's vets from my club, Otley AC, have done remarkably well to finish first in both categories for the first time ever.  Brilliant result.

Last nights race was 4.8 miles from the village of Hudswell in Swaledale.  The results show that I finished 38th in 32:12.  I'm happy with that ... the last time I ran this course was two years ago and my time on that occasion was five seconds quicker.  The results also show that this was my best result from this year's five races.

The route was basically 1.5 miles uphill from the start followed by two undulating miles then a final 1.3 miles downhill to the finish.  I started steadily and passed loads of people near the top of the hill but even more people during the third quarter of the race.

The hills suit me at the moment as I'm doing lots of hill training and feeling very strong.

Many thanks to Swaledale Road Runners for organising the race - and the food at the George & Dragon was as good as ever.

news ... news ... news ...

Just three short news items today:

(1)  The Planet Ultramarathon website has an interesting post about solo running and the logistics of keeping records of those feats.  After my Run to London last year my main thought would be that some people do those kind of things just for fun.  They may be interested in the record aspect of it but do not want to get tied down with all the red tape and/or paperwork and/or other requirements that may be needed to absolutely prove they did what they claim to have done.

It is a good idea to have a body recognising these achievements though.

(2)  The German website (DUV) has been uploading lots of ultra race results lately.  Some of them going back to the 1970's.  This website is proving to be a great repository of results and provides a brilliant statistical service for the last six years over a wide range of distances and times.  Well done to Jurgen, Bertram and Andreas.

Good to see Alan Young at number thirteen in the British 24 hour rankings for 2010.

(3)  William Sichel has uploaded loads of podcasts, many of which were filmed with the Athens 1000 mile race in mind.  They contain an amazing amount of information and show just how meticulous ultra runners have to be with their preparation and racing.  Amazing stuff which is well worth a look.

Park Run

Took part in the Bradford Park Run this morning.  It's a fairly new weekly 5k race around Lister Park in the Manningham area of the city.

I've not been to that park for a few years now and I'd forgotten just how wonderful a place it is.  Well worthy of being Britains Best Park (2006).

Anyway ... back to the race.  I decided to run to the start this morning as the weather was so lovely.  It's about 8.5 miles and I left home shortly before 7.30am aiming to arrive in plenty of time before the 9.00am start.  There were loads of other runners out and about and I must have seen a dozen or so within the first 30 minutes.

At Lister Park I was told that this week the route would be slightly different because of other events happening on parts of the course.  We would be running a slightly slower route which incorporated a fairly long steep climb parallel to Emm Lane (two and a half times !!).

No problem ... I don't mind hills ... I'm quite strong on the hills ... as long as the surface is tarmac and not moorland.

Set off on the slow side, not having raced anything so short for twelve months, but after half a mile (or less) I settled into a pace I felt I could maintain for the next twenty minutes or so.  After about a mile we came to the hill and, as expected, I pulled away from those running with me (Andrea Dennison and ... ) and caught some of those ahead of me.  One person flew up the hill though only to be reeled in about 400m after the top.

A similar thing happened on the next lap, except there were less people to catch, and for the final half mile or so I tried to increase the pace a bit and almost caught the runner in front.

Overall I'm happy with my time of 19:29 on a hilly course.  Age graded that's 17:33 which is only 5 seconds outside my age graded best.  And that was set on a pancake flat course which hadn't included a nine mile warm up.

club handicap

Yesterday was the latest in a long line of Otley AC handicap events.  This was was a 10k event starting and finishing at Leathley, near Otley.

Just to make things a bit more interesting (for me ...) I decided to incorporate it into a long run.  Leaving Leeds at about 5.15pm I ran the 11 or so miles to Otley before embarking on the 4.3 miles from my home to Leathley.  I arrived just before 7.30pm and was told I had eleven minutes before my allotted start time.  Good timing.

I started with Mick Jeffrey, John Armitstead and Michael Pickard and together we began the 3 mile climb towards Almscliffe Crag.  For much of that distance Mick was about 20m in front with John and myself giving chase.  At about 2.5 miles we caught Mick and opened up a slight lead whilst also catching most of those runners who had set off earlier.  The steep downhill stretch between 3.5 and 5 miles proved quite hard work [I had already run 19 miles by this time].

The final mile or so was interesting as Mick Jeffrey managed to catch me again and made repeated attempts to pass.  He finally managed it in the final 10m or so.  Having not run this course before I was caught out slightly by all the twists, turns and undulations as we approached Leathley.  Still, he did very well and I was pleased with 43 minutes in the heat (about 23 degrees C) on a very hilly route after running 15+ miles to get there.

After a few minutes recovery I said my goodbyes and ran the 4.3 miles home for a nice round 26 miles.  At home I decided to try a new recovery drink.

I have used Lucozade Sport recovery drinks in the past but I think they taste really bad so stopped using them about six months ago.  However, recently I had an interesting idea ... instead of mixing the powder with water I could mix it with fruit juice in the hope of a better taste.  I mixed tropical flavour powder with orange juice and the taste was massively improved.

Also at home I found it increasingly difficult to walk, climb stairs, etc.  My right ankle was quite swollen and painful.  Took two ibuprofen before bed and woke up this morning completely pain free and able to move normally.  Very strange.

Commonwealth Championships

Just found an important announcement on the Commonwealth Championships website which reads:

"It is with great pleasure we announce the sanctioning of the 2nd Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Running Championship by the Commonwealth Games Federation.

Norm(an) Wilson. Chairman of the Commonwealth Championships met with delegates of the CGF and secured the sanctioning last week. He says, "This was not a straight forward process. I had to do a lot work to ensure this application was successful."

The event is scheduled for either 2011 or 2013. The Commonwealth Championship committee is currently looking at bids to host the event."


This is excellent news.  The five days I spent in Keswick last September were incredible.  The whole atmosphere surrounding the events was fantastic and the friendliness amongst athletes from different disciplines was truly amazing.

Definitely something to look forward to.