The Tough Ten Challenge

This race is described as...

"The 10 mile course uses sections of (closed) tarmac road along the seafront and coast, a section of the Promenade, woodland paths and trails within Worlebury Woods, and a little of the beach. In parts is it flat and fast; in others there are short climbs and long down hill sections."

The race was bigger than I had at first thought with 1250 entrants. I travelled down with a friend, Martin, and we met a few others that I knew whilst at the race. This included a friend Simon and his wife Sarah. Simon and I used to be very close surf buddies. There wasn't many a Sunday that went by without us heading down to the Devon/Cornwall coastline come what may surf-wise. It was great to see Simon at the race - Do all land-locked surfers turn to recreational running?

The race itself went pretty well. Despite feeling pretty fatigued from training going in to the race, I felt quite strong throughout the 10 miles.

I mostly walked the big hill up into the woods, and this tactic seemed to work well versus those who attempted to run the whole way. They made a bit on me on the ascent, but I very quickly caught-up and overtook once at the top.

The descent down the hill was a chance to let go, only in semi-control:


I finished in a time of 69 minutes which put me 97th out of 1070 who completed the course.

My average pace was 7:05/mile (8.45mph) which was OK.

Here's a picture towards the finish:


Back to the serious stuff now - plenty of training miles!

Raising money for...

The NSPCC is a UK based charity specialising in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children. It is the only children's charity with statutory powers, enabling it to act to safeguard children.
If you would like to donate to NSPCC in support of my attempt at the ONER, please either visit my ONER-NSPCC Justgiving page (to donate a fixed amount), or if you would prefer to sponsor me per-mile, download my sponsorship form and send it to me at the address below.

CLIC Sargent is a UK based children’s cancer charity, supporting children, young people and their families through cancer. The care they offer includes: * Nurses * Social Workers * Play Therapists * Home from Home * Research * Financial support and advice * Holidays
If you would like to donate to CLIC Sargent in support of my attempt at the ONER, please either visit my ONER-CLIC Justgiving page (to donate a fixed amount), or if you would prefer to sponsor me per-mile, download my sponsorship form and send it to me at the address below.

Address for sponsorship forms:

Luke Taylor
55 Fremantle Road
Cotham
Bristol
BS6 5SX
UK

I have a cunning plan Baldrick...

"Is it as cunning as a fox that used to be Professor of Cunning at Oxford University, but has moved on, and is now working for the UN at the High Commission of International Cunning Planning?"

Erm, perhaps not. But it is a plan. And here it is -


As can be seen, the main basis of the plan is the long run on Sunday, followed by another long'ish run on Monday evening. The mileage during the rest of each week will be made up of various sessions at various times.

I have tried to create a plan that increases my training volume gradually, and provides a recovery week every third week.

I e-mailed my plan to ed_m, an ultra runner who I got to know via the TriTalk triathlon forum. Ed very kindly commented on my plan. This has helped give me confidence that my plan is probably about right. However, as Ed said - "...ultra training more than shorter stuff can vary depending on the individual & recovery times etc."

So far, I have been sticking to the plan (early days I know!). Yesterday I completed a 19 mile run, and backed that up today with another 8 mile run - In the snow!

I'm just really pleased to have completed the last 10 days without any further Achilles problems.

I'll finish this post with a photo of Laura completing a snow angel:


And a picture from my phone, out on a run on Saturday 7th February:

Ups and downs of training

The first month of training has had its ups and downs. The most positive aspect has been Suzi's brilliant support for me doing a long run every Sunday morning. I get up and out at 6:00am, taking some sandwiches and a drink with me, and then return at about 9:00am, still with the day ahead with the family to look forward to.

The runs start in the dark for the first hour or so, but I'm finding that there's plenty of ambient light or moonlight to light my way out along the towpath, beneath Brunel's Suspension Bridge alongside the River Avon (hence the picture). The route continues along to a village called Pill, where I join-up with the A369 that returns to Bristol. There are lots of woods and parkland (Abbots Pool, Leigh Woods, Ashton Court) on the return leg to ensure that most of the run takes place off-road.

My training so far this month has been as follows:

• 14 Dec - 20 Dec = 34 miles
• 21 Dec - 27 Dec = 28 miles
• 28 Dec - 3 Jan = 11 miles
• 4 Jan - 10 Jan = 36 miles

As you can see, and to be expected, there was quite a dip over the Christmas and New Year period whilst family took precedence.

My training plan is roughly developing as follows:

• Run 4-5 days per week
• Sunday long run (building-up to 5+ hours) backed-up by another long run Monday evening (I help with the BAD Kids track night, and run about 4.5 miles to Filton Sport Academy) with a longer loop on the way back (building to 3+ hours)
• Weekday lunchtime runs to include hills work and a small amount of speed work
• Plenty of core exercises and regular weights (low weight / high reps)

The main negative aspect of this month's training has been that towards the end of my last long run, my right Achilles flared-up again with Achilles Paratendinopathy (inflammation in the Achilles area). This is something that I've had before, and looking back it was caused by:

1. Increasing my overall training volume too quickly (I did a hills session followed by a tempo session followed by the long run, all in 4 days) when my body just wasn't ready - the muscles were OK, but not the tendons
2. Not stretching properly after my runs

My treatment has mainly consisted of:

1. Not running, but doing general leg weights instead
2. Eccentric calf lowers to strengthen the Achilles
3. Lots of stretching

I'm hoping that I've caught this problem early enough that I can restart running after a week's lay-off.

I'll make sure I continue with the exercises to strengthen my Achilles, along with lots of stretching, which should hopefully prevent any reoccurrence.

There was some very useful information on Achilles Tendonitis in my training bible - The Lore of Running by Dr Tim Noakes.

Looking ahead, I still want to reach my first goal of completing about a marathon distance as a training run by sometime in March (without any further injury!). The pace will be about 10 minute miles, equating to about a 4.5hour training run. That will give me April/May/June to extend this to 6+ hours.

That's the plan, but this is a journey into the unknown for me, so we'll see...

And so it begins...

It started as an idea. Then a dream. Could it be for real? Could I achieve 78.6 miles in 24 hours, along the very hilly Dorset coastline?

Well, only one way to find out - start training! I have 8 months until the event.

I have discussed the race with Suzi and have her support to train for the event.

First things first, I need a plan. So, just to begin with, I have set a goal of being able to run/walk a marathon - as a training session (so being OK the next day) - by March 2009.

I'll update this blog at least monthly with my training progress.