Race Report From MK Marathon

OK so the worst is over and now it’s all about recovery and getting some miles in on my bike.

Last weekend I ran the Milton Keynes Marathon and managed to get round in 4:20. I’ve never run this distance before and as usual my training left a few too many miles in my legs and not enough on the road. That’s to say I’m a lazy bugger and hardly did any training. A review of my running since the 11th of October showed the following:

• Training Runs = 14 (4 of these were races)
• Total Distance = 203.7km
• Ave length = 14km
• Longest Run = 22.84km

This equates to 2.3 runs per month and the longest run was just over half the total race distance on one of my “long” runs.

Perfect preparation in my book. The night before the race I check the weather forecast. Gale force winds and pouring rain “perfect couldn’t be better” at least I wasn’t going to overheat. Betty took one look at the weather and said I’m staying bed. I can’t say I blame her, I was sorely tempted to stay in bed myself.

Sunday morning comes and I’m on the start line, thinking bugger this, what am I doing ? I’m a fat, old, bloke that doesn’t like running, who hasn’t done enough training, what could go wrong? The front of the race heads off and I’m still fighting with the bin liner I’m wearing to keep the lashing rain and driving wind off. The plan was to start at 6min km pace and try to get faster towards the end of the race. 14km in and I get a cramp in my right calf muscle (I still have it today) and I’m running a bit quicker than the plan but I’m feeling knackered. If it wasn’t for Paul Weller, Radiohead on my iPhone and the fact that I didn’t know where I was, I think, I would have packed it in right there. I hit the 23km mark and I have got less distance to go that I’ve already run, I can make this I’m thinking. 32km mark and there’s only 10km to go. It’s in the bag, no way am I not going to be able to run just 10km. 2km to go and I can see the MK Dons stadium. At this point I’m thinking of my brother-in-law, he is an avid Wimbledon fan who would rather toast his balls on the fire than enter the MK Dons stadium, perhaps I’ll send him a photo of me at the finish!! Just Joking Jason.

Well as you already know I made it to the finish line in 4 hours 20 mins and now I can rest easy knowing that I can run a marathon. I can also cycle over 100miles and I’ve also swum 3.8km. All I have to do now is do them all in one day and I’ve got a Ironman tattoo coming.

Not for a few years yet though!!!

What’s Worst than Running a Half Marathon?

Running one when you get to 21km and you realise there is another mile to run!!!!! That’s what (the Feckers).

So I was down in the New Forest last week to take part in the Festival of Running. I drove down with Paul Fitz. We planned to run the Half Marathon. Well they had some rain the night before and had to change the course due to a brook that had become a stream and was a bit deep to run through. This meant we had to walk two miles to the adjusted start to take account of the new course. It was a hilly flint path race and two laps. When I got to the 21km mark I realised that there was still a mile to go to the finish (sod), It shouldn’t have bothered me as I need to run longer in prep for the Marathon in April. But it just seems so unfair to have to run further than the stated distance. Still the weather was great and both Paul and I had a good time.

Next week Beth and I are of to Italy for some cycling can’t wait.

Here is a picture of my Garmin details

Is it better to live one day as a Lion? or a lifetime as a Worm?

I was reminded of this quote by a good friend Mr Weatherall. We were having a bit of e-mail banter about cycling in the cold and dark. I remembered a quote from Red Dwarf, it is from a scene where the Cat say’s to Rimmer it’s better to live one day as a Lion rather than a lifetime as a Worm.

This had me thinking about the risk we all take in life, and do I really think about what I’m doing, or do I just do it, and after having done it think “phew that was close”.  I guess someone who likes to descend the pot holed hills in Berkshire on a pair of 25mm wide tyre at 60kph it must be the latter.

Having said that, I now find my hart rate increasing  when coming in to land on planes, combined with a mild level of stress. Years ago I really looked forward to the take off and landings when flying. Is it an age thing? probably yes, as I get older I think more about what could happen. Even though I know the odds are low, it still doesn’t stop me worrying about it, a bit.

I remember skiing in the Alps many years ago in Val D’Isere. I was with a couple of friends that happen to be brothers. Now these two were competitive and would play a game of dare where we did more and more stupid things, I guess that’s just what brothers do, still back to the Val D’Isere. It had snowed overnight and we were looking to ski off piste, we came up to a roped off section with an avalanche warning and we all agreed that it was too dangerous to duck under  the rope. Skied 20 meters down the piste and cut back into the avalanche area.

Would I do the same today? Probably not.

I have no answers to the question but it does give me an excuse to post the photos from the recent trip Betty and I took to Val D’Isere and here they are.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I knew I was right about this running thing

I have often told Mr Allison that you should only run when being chased by a lion and a quick review of the rules of cycling have proven me right again.

Rule #42 // A bike race shall never be preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run.

If it’s preceded with a swim and/or followed by a run, it is not called a bike race, it is called duathlon or a triathlon. Neither of which is a bike race. Also keep in mind that one should only swim in order to prevent drowning, and should only run if being chased. And even then, one should only run fast enough to prevent capture.

So you could be correct in thinking, but you do Triathlons, (you numpty)??

Not only that, I have entered the Milton Keynes marathon, in April. One of the big attractions for me is that it finishes in a football stadium (Look away Jason) yes the MK Dons.

So running is now my thing, you can keep the Squash, Golf, Swimming and the ski season is almost over.

Yes running that’s the thing!!! I currently struggle to run more than a few miles but need to get the training in for this Marathon so you will see me in the Beeches at Burnham plodding around on Sundays.

A friend at the triathlon club (Ian Lee-Emery) suggested a pyramid set for training. You basically slowly increase the distance and time you run up to about 20 miles and then taper down as the big race approaches. This sounds like about as complicated as I want to get. (My Training usually involves doing what I normally do and hoping for the best)

But now you can all track my progress by following my Sports Tracker feed I load most of my runs into this site, and give me a kick up the arse if I’m not cutting the mustard.

Here is a record of the running I have done recently. I’m  pleased to see that I have just got over the 100km mark. I know this is not a lot compared to some of you who read this drivel but it’s a lot for me.

Date	Distance (km)	Time	Ave Pace	Description
30/10/2011	10.8	01:08:41	9.39 kph	Hangover run with Gope
02/11/2011	6.7	00:35:50	11.2kph	Quick Lunchtime run
06/11/2011	21.2	01:51:57	11.3 kph	Marlow Half Marathon
13/11/2011	9.33	00:40:30	12.6 kph	TV XC race
14/12/2011	6	00:31:10	11.4 kph	Quick Lunchtime Run Huntswood
22/01/2012	13.4	01:19:38	10.1 kph	Run In The Beeches
29/01/2012	18.6	01:58:52	9.41 kph	The Beeches to the sound of VeloBeats
12/02/2012	19.9	02:25:10	8.22 kph	Cookham and back via Hedsor Hill
	105.93	10:31:48

To Ride or Not to Ride? That is the Question

So the back garden looks like this on Friday morning

This leads to the big question shall I ride on Saturday morning? Anaken has asked me to lead the B ride. There has been a bit snow melt on Friday but overnight temperatures were forecast as -11 so any standing water would turn to ice overnight. When your tyres are only 25mm wide this leads to a quick dismount and a rapid contact with the frozen ground. Still I had told Darran that I would guide the B ride.

Much to Betty’s dismay I headed out of the house at 8.30 in full winter gear. Skiing Gloves plus inner gloves, two pairs of socks and overshoes, thermal leggings and four tops.

It turns out the main roads were OK. I headed over to Windsor for the start of the ride, to find only Darran (had a sick note from his Mum) and Simon (the A ride guide). A quick chat and we headed for the Chocolate Cafe for a coffee and some more chat.

Simon and I headed out about 20 mins later with the Sun shining and a chilly -7 but it slowly warmed up to an almost tropical -2 by 12 O’Clock and we had a great 75km loop out to Henley and back. (you can see the details below)

If you want to see the full details

follow this link

When I got home I was reminded of the rules of cycling of which there are many but in short you just need rule 5 to get by in cycling and life, it is abbreviated to HTFU. And states the following: Harden The Feck Up

Enough said, I’m off for a Run.

Link to the Rules

Our Guide has been shot by a Tusken Raider

A couple of weeks ago the regular BTS A ride were out and about, boldly following our leader, Darran. He is the regular A Ride leader and all-round good egg and was leading his disciples and followers of the true Cycling faith on a tour of the Chiltern Hills.

Unbeknown to Darran there had been reports of Tusken Raiders in and around Cookham and Marlow. Add this together with Darran looking like a slightly more mature version of Anaken Skywalker (before the helmet and black suit) although come to think of it Darran does have a black Helmet and wears a lot of Black Cycle clothing.

Anyway back to our storey we were out in the badlands of Cookham (a bit like Tatooine) and were in fall flight down Winter Hill into Marlow. When a Tusken Raider took a pot shot at Dazzer and he went down like a sack of spuds on the hairpin bend. Some said they felt the ground shake in Windsor but I couln’t comment on that.

The call went out to International Rescue and Gope and Katey Walker (not related to Anaken) launched Thunderbird 2 (you can fit some major kit in the hold of Thunderbird 2) and dragged Darran out of the danger zone and off to hospital. Now this caused some concern to the regular A riders (there was even some mention of rule 5) and lots of muttering about how Darran had let us down. What were we going to do now without a guide? Turns out we followed Chris for a while but soon bored with that we split up into smaller groups and made our way back to the Chocolate Cafe in Windsor.

Now this has left us with a longer term problem Darran has bust his thumb and can’t ride for about 6 weeks. It looks like we are just going to have to take turns at leading the ride. In an attempt to get some consistency into the guiding I have uploaded a couple of You Tube videos that show you how to plan a route using Google Maps and how to convert these into a Screen shot and a GPX File that can be loaded into a Garmin device.

Hope you find them usful

How to Plot a MAP using Google Maps

How to Convert the MAP into JPG and GPX File

You decide

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Anybody Fancy a swim?

Here is a bit of video of me trying to Swim in the Bay Of Biscay a few years ago.