No. 3 - Colworth Challenge

What a week.

At the beginning of the week I was still struggling with knee and calf pain so decide to miss the Market Harborough 5 race.

I was away in Co. Durham on Wednesday night, beautiful surroundings for a run, but was still struggling, and with some very steep hills all I could manage was a very slow run-walk.

I had some treatment on Thursday night but Friday morning I still wasn’t sure if I’d be able to run in the Colworth Challenge. But by lunch time all pain had eased off and I thought I’d give it a go – Thanks Andrew McKenna

Pitched the tent in just about time for the start of the 5 mile race I found that I had no pain, but also absolutely no speed. Ended up pushing about as hard as I could but legs felt very heavy, still I love that course so it was a good start to the weekend..

After a very cold night in the tent and with very little sleep , I’d decided to take it easy for the Saturday 8.1 mile trial race as I knew the footing would be difficult. Got around OK but the knee had started to hurt again hurt.

After a much better night woke up Sunday morning with pain again, but I was determined to complete the event so strapped the knee up ready for the half marathon, and decided to take it easy and just get around. Got around without too much pain, and having got home realised that I’d still managed to knock 6 mins of my previous best for the event.

As always it was a great event, well attended by club members and it was great just to spend a bit of time with the family.

The week end was rounded off nicely with a BBQ.

Now looking forward to the 44 miler Lizard Point to Lands End coastal trial run on Saturday. Given the start time the priority for the week is sleep!

http://www.justgiving.com/Colin-Harris

First Ultra

So one week on after my first ultra race, my thoughts.

I said it was going to be a learning experience, and it certainly was!

First of all I thoroughly enjoyed it, as I thought, it was great to not be chasing a PB and to just enjoy the run out in the countryside. Even in the really heavy rain.

All in all an excellent event organised by Go Beyond

The only real problem, and it was a major frustration, was the navigation which I really struggled with. I suspected this might be the main difficulty, but I had no idea it would be such a problem. In the end, after a "few" mistakes I covered an 5 extra miles! The main issues were the the scale of the map, the degree of usage and a lack of preparation. Not that this was ever about time but I must have lost at least an hour. Must work on this before Trans Britain in September!

On the positive side, I seem to have judged the pace just right, even with the extra miles, I was still doing 10 mms by the end. Also I now know I can run 40 miles, nice t know with the 44 mile Quarter classic coming up in two weeks

The following day the legs were pretty tired of course and I had a reasonable amount of knee pain, but I was ready to run again by Wednesday. I did 12 + miles of reasonably paced off road running across Thursday & Friday with no ill effect. The plan was then to do 20 yesterday and then 10 today, but I started cramping in the last 9 miles yesterday, and the knee pain came back so gave running a miss today.

Plan for this week - Further rest day tomorrow, 5mile race at Market Harborough on Tuesday, the Colworth Marathon challenge (& camping) over the weekend.

1st Ultra

Having decided to take part in the Trans Britain marathon later in September (156 miles over 6 days) I'm taking part in my first Ultra Marathon tomorrow. 35 miles around Northamptonshire in the Shires and Spires Ultra. http://gobeyondultra.co.uk/events/northants_ultra

I'm surprisingly relaxed about the prospect even though the furthest I've run so far is a standard 26.2 road marathon, and I haven't been able to put much training in lately, I'll have to rely what's left of my marathon fitness . I think the most difficult thing is going to be the navigating, just bought myself a compass, but I'm not sure it's going to help.

Anyway really looking forward to it even though the weather looks a bit iffy. Better go get some sleep.