Challenge 66

Fantastic achievement by Andy McMenemy over the past 66 days.  He been running 50km every day since 16 March ... in each and every one of the official UK cities.  And he's been raising money - lots of it, I hope - for ABF The Soldiers Charity.

I've been following his progress on the Challenge 66 website ... and reading about a couple of the more serious injuries he's endured which would have caused most runners to head to bed for a fortnight.  Ultra runners don't do that though ... instead, before the start of his adventure he made sure he had a very good team around him which included a top quality physiotherapist with specialist sports injury knowledge.

I'm sure he'll be the first to acknowledge that doing something like that is impossible without some good helpers. A big well done to everyone involved.

plans for the next two weeks

On Monday the plan is for a nice and steady run of about 27 miles (43 km).  The idea is that I'll catch the X84 bus from Otley at 7.15am and arrive in Skipton at 8.10am.  Then for a cup of coffee and a snack before running along the Leeds Liverpool Canal to Apperley Bridge near Bradford (via Bingley and Shipley).  From Apperley Bridge it's up the rather large hill to Rawdon and then to Otley via Guiseley and Chevin End.

View Larger MapDriving Directions

A good route I think and if the weather is as good as it has been for the last few days it should be really enjoyable.

If anyone would like to join me for part or all of the run please feel free to come along.

The following week, at the moment, looks like:

Saturday ... 10 miles (16 km) fartlek
Sunday ... 10 miles (16 km)
Monday ... 19.8 miles (31.9 km) fartlek
Tuesday ... 19.8 miles (31.9 km)
Wednesday
Thursday ... 8 miles (13 km) hill repeats
Friday

The problem with this is that Otley AC are holding their monthly handicap on the Tuesday on one of my favourite courses - around Fewston Reservoir to the north of Otley.

I could change that week's schedule so that it becomes something like:

Saturday ... 10 miles (16 km) fartlek

Sunday ... 6 miles (9 km)

Monday ... 19.8 miles (31.9 km) fartlek

Tuesday ... AM:  19.8 miles (31.9 km) ... PM:  4 miles (6 km) handicap

Wednesday

Thursday ... 8 miles (13 km) hill repeats

Friday

That sound feasible to me.  Especially as Wednesday is free from running.  What do you think ?

Congratulations to Sharon on her recent British record in Athens and also to Andy McMenemy who's doing a marvellous job at running 50 km every day for 66 consecutive days.

Challenge 66

Some of you may remember that when I undertook the Run to London, almost two years ago now, one of the key members of my crew was Andy McMenemy.

He helped me so much during the excessively hot Sunday afternoon ... and on into the night.  Even holding me upright at times so that I could doze and run at the same time.He was also instrumental in getting me running again 15 minutes after passing out while changing my shoes after about 39 hours of running.

Absolutely brilliant ... I couldn't have done it without him.

Well now he's got his own charity thing going and it's definitely worthy of support.

Taken from his website (www.challenge66.org):

"On the 16th March 2011 Andy McMenemy will commence his toughest challenge yet, to run 66 ultra marathons in 66 consecutive days from each of the 66 official UK cities. There are 6 in Scotland, 5 in Ireland, 5 in Wales and 50 in England, and by undertaking this feat of epic proportions Andy will challenge the official Guinness World Record which currently rests at 52. Andy is proud to support ABF The Soldiers’ Charity who are celebrating a successful 66 years of delivering outstanding support to British Army personnel and Challenge66 is being dedicated solely to the charity to help raise funds and awareness of their work. Challenge66 will be coming to a city near you so dig deep and make a difference as every little helps."

I wont be able to run with him in Leeds or Bradford as 50k is much too far after January's knee injury ... but I may be able to run in York or Ripon at the end of his adventure.  I'm sure he needs all the help he can get with raising funds for a cause which means a lot to him.  Running in one of the cities would also be a great help.  Th logistic issues surrounding something like this must be immense ... but in some ways the army are the best people to help with that.

Great bloke ... great cause ... wishing you all the luck in the world Andy.


PS ... no idea why the top half of this post is in upper case letters.  There are obviously some web gremlins somewhere.

training plans

I Hope you all enjoyed reading the account of the Run To London. Some of the photos, I think, are excellent but my favourite is the one below which was taken by Huw Illingworth. I'm on the right and Andy McMenemy is on the left. I'm not sure if anyone will understand why this photo means so much to me but I'll try and explain briefly.

In the photo I've just completed 300k in over 39 hours and on I go into the night with Andy in tow. It was well after midnight and I was feeling low at this point ... but still I plod on.

I think Huw just captured the moment without thinking about it too much - he must have been exceptionally tired at this point too having been on car duties for (too) many hours.

Anyway, that inspirational photo is now firmly installed on my PC desktop.


Training now begins in earnest for the Commonwealth 24hr Championships in Keswick on 17/18 September. The plans have all been written and, on average, I aim to run about 6 - 7% more miles per week and be on the bike three times a week instead of twice. Strength training will probably be about 10% less than last summer but hill reps will make up the difference hopefully.

Official selection date has now been put back to Monday 29 June 2009 although as I already have the 'A' standard from last year's Tooting Bec race I'm very confident of being selected.

I've also got some shorter races planned - they can be viewed over on this page.