Training Peak

The day after the Meon Valley I was sent to Surrey to help deal with the flooding. I was there for 9 days in total, working long hours and apart from a couple of very slow 7 milers I did nothing. I even missed my opportunity to work at the Brighton Half Marathon helping out the race organisers who are fellow club runners and friends from The Worthing Harriers.

The Peak of my Training was intended to be a gentle gaunt along the South Down Way from Winchester to Eastbourne, 100+ miles over 4 days, staying at home every night. Unfortunately due to being away my planning for this never got started. I had booked 2 days from work so figured I could combine this with my weekend and run at lest 4 x 20 milers which some of my MdS buddies have been doing.

From my week away working anything between 12-18 hours I was exhausted but pushed myself out of the door.

Day 1 - Headed to the gym, I only managed 10 miles with a pack before I called it a bad idea and gave up. Therefore attended a Yoga session to try and loosen up. I'm a Yoga concert particularly P90X Yoga (Google it)

Day 2 - 10 miles off road then headed to the gym and 10 miles on the treadmill. Pretty tough and mind numbing but the miles ticked by.

Day 3 - 20 miles with a pack, I ran from home to Brighton. I met a really nice 70 year old on the sea front and we ran and chatted for miles, this helped the time pass quickly. I met the family in Brighton and we spend the day wandering around the lanes. This I have found the key, when completing long runs, try to stay on your feet afterwards. It seems to help recovery for the next day I presume due to increased blood flow removing lactic acid etc ... active recovery.

Day 4 - 20 miles off road along the South Downs, (no pack) with Tom Parry. Tom ran in a pack but I wanted to just get time on my feet without the added pressure of potential injury. It was plenty of tough climbes and we took it steady in around 3:30 +. Then a bonus when we got back to our cars, they had both been broken into !!!!

I returned to work the next day and followed it up with 2 more 7.5 mile runs over the next two days. A total of 85 miles back to back. I'm pretty pleased with the distance and I know its the mental toughness of these back to back distances which will get me through the MdS.

A little Inspiration

Many don't understand why I do what I do, sometimes I don't either but when I watch this video I get goosebumps, that must mean something ..

Meon Valley

The organisers state ... This will be a tough “No wimps please“, event

Everyone seems to be pulling out but I'm still going!!! I know I need a rest as my body keeps telling me, maybe after this week I can take it easy. I'll be volunteering at the Brighton Half Marathon next weekend so that will stop any long running.

As a nice change I managed to rope in a couple of runners from my club, the Worthing Harriers to join me today. Grant Patterson and Steve Cousins. It's only 21 miles so great for the spring marathon training, I'm not going to kill myself I'm just using it as another building block.

Held near Portsmouth the Meon Valley is 21 miles of trails, fields, tracks, pretty much all off road, most of it muddy. There are plenty of hills including 'The Ball Buster' but aid stations every 4-5 miles made it manageable. Apparently last year driving rain and terrible conditions made it one hell of a run.

The organisers require you to be early to the start venue for the sake of parking but we arrived well early. 08:30 for a 10:30 late start. That was ok though as it gave us time to prep, have a wander around the village and grab a brew from the hall. The weather was holding and the sun was even coming out. The Meon Valley is a fairly small event but there was lots of enthuiasm and as the gun went off there was no holding some people back. Right from the start we were onto the hills and I began to feel it.

My body is quite clearly telling me to take a break from this crazy running, but I keep telling myself I'm so close to my goal now that I must push on. I'm constantly thinking about the potential for injury and how it could affect my MdS dreams, with that in mind I tend to watch my footing a little more carefully and slow down when sensible to do so. On the run today my hamgstrings were a little tight but the overriding feeling was one of a sore a*se. My glutes were killing and I had to pop a couple of Ibuprofen fairly early on. Grant and I were running together but after around mile 8 I had to let him go.I didn't stop but I definitely slowed down.

For the rest of the race I tried to keep steady, I found a few people to chat to, the aid stations were a welcome treat every 4 miles or so. Again there was lots of wet boggy mud and deep flooded paths. On the one hand I was glad of the gore-tex trainers but on the other, the other, the ASR Adrenalines don't offer very much grip at all compared to my other off road shoes. The run in general was a nice off road jaunt, some tough hills and plenty of water. I was glad the weather held as I didn't fancy the troubles of last year.

We all met back up at the finish line, drank tea, ate cake and celebrated with new friends. Its a fair drive from home but this race could feature in my spring marathon training calendar in years to come. From left to right thats Steve in the road trainers (!!!!!!), Grant and Myself, sporting my new x-bionic effektor and montane gilet combo :-)