The Fan Dance, 22 May 2010

My most recent run was yesterday, taking part in the Fan Dance. A race involving running from the bottom to the top of Pen-y-fan (the highest point in the Breacon Beacons) as many times as possible in 5 hours. Of course the race was taking place on the hottest weekend of the year so far, and the Breacon's don't have one leaf of shade. It made for some spectacular views though.

This picture looks up from the first trail to the top of Pen-y-Fan, the taller peak on the left. The peak to the right is Corn Du, which we go over on the way to the Fan.

On the way up, we first came to the Obelisk, where three walkers were taking a break. No break for the runners though as we carried on to the peaks. The obelisk marks the spot where Tommy Jones, aged 5, was lost in the mists of the Breacons on Jan 9th in 1900, a very sad tale. There were no mists to keep the sun off us as we toiled up the hill.

The trail carried on up and it was like a motorway, with hundreds of walkers and quite a few Special Forces wannabe's trying their hand at getting into the elite forces. I learned later that two of them were stretchered off the Breacons on drips due to dehydration.

From the top, we had a great view back down from where we came (and would have to run back down to in due course). The start/finish was down by the nearest trees in this shot.

Anyway, I made it up and down three times in the allotted 4 hours. On the other hand Jo Green, also from Nailsea Running Club went back up another two times. I ran a total of 16.5 miles, whereas he ran about 27 miles. I remain in awe at such an achievement on such a hot day. I was pretty chuffed with 4 hours, as the third placed man was 3 Hr 50 mins, so I wasn't too far off. Here we are at the finish:

The key issues for the day - hydration and energy. The key factor was keeping fluid intake up. I continue to use Nuun tablets in my drink. These things are 2cm wide tablets that dissolve in water. 1 tablet for 500ml. They contain a balanced electrolyte mixture including sodium, potassium, calcium etc, which replace the salts you lose when sweating during endurance sports. They stop you developing not only cramps, but also nastier ailments like hyponatremia (low blood sodium), which is what happens if you only drink water and your blood salts gets diluted. It leads to hallucinations and, in extremis, death. Not good for a fast time.' Today (Sunday) I then had a short recovery run through Ashton Court and got this great shot of bluebells. One for the album:

Partner Swap

Mike has been a great running partner over the past year and I have learned a lot from him. He has added a cheery face and a quick wit to some long and tough training runs over the winter. The Jurassic was also a great event where we ran together on the first day, however we also learned that our pace was some way apart and Mike's commitments made it difficult for him to fit in the training in the run up to the event. He has just had a major shoulder operation which is meaning he has to recuperate and take time out from running. He is therefore no longer going to participate in the TransAlp SPURT team.

As a result, I have been searching for a new running partner. I have now found him - Chris Baker. Chris is a mere youngster at 33, but has been running for many years. He ran the London Marathon for charity in 1999. He adds that he did so because Nostradamus said the world would end in the year 2000, so he wanted to run it before he died! He has since run a number of marathons, including the Cornwall Coast Challenge in September last year. That was three marathons in 3 days along the Cornish Coast (duh!) finishing at Lands End. He spends his week as a personal trainer for MyLife based at Redland tennis club.

We'll be getting to know each other pretty well over the coming weeks, but we're already looking happy at the end of our first 15 mile training run:

The Olympic Run

So here I am back in London, getting back into the training runs. Lots of long slow runs. Now here's a thing that you don't find out about too often. You lose more fat by running slowly than you do by running fast. sounds ridiculous, but it's true. It's due to how the metabolism of the body works at different levels of exertion. If you push very hard, you use 100% carbohydrates, which are readily available as sugars in the blood and muscle tissue. If you run slowly, which is best measured by an easy pace that lets you have a conversation with someone you're running with, then you burn much more fat. After a year of training, I now know that at that steady pace, I have moved from 70% fat burning to 100% fat burning. I'm sure that's good! It means that I can run much much further at a steady pace.

Anyway, why the Olympic run? Well today I ran form my hotel in the City of London up to the Regent's Canal (only about a mile away). Then turn South East and run along the canal towpath for a couple of miles. As you can see, it's very pretty on a Spring evening at about 18.30.

Lots of joggers and cyclists out enjoying the early evening sun. What I can't fathom is why so many use ipods to run with. I've been sad enough to count and about 70% run with them. I like to enjoy the evening sounds of the birds and boats on the canal. It also means that they never look at you and never say Hi! Unfriendly bug***s.

Anyway, after a couple of miles, I came across the Hertford Union Canal branching off the Regent's Canal, turning East towards Stratford, and even more tranquil than the Regent's Canal.

I came across a German bloke running along the towpath. I didn't catch his name, let's call him Hans. Hans is training for the Ironman in August. That's a 3.5 mile swim, 125 mile bike ride followed by a 26.2 mile marathon to finish off. Hans looked very fit and is training 20 hours per week. 10 hours on the bike, 6 hours running and 4 hours swimming. Wears you out thinking about it! Even if I run 60 miles in a week, that takes me less than 10 hours! And I don't run 60 miles very often.

Hans turned off into Victoria Park and I carried on along the Hertford Union Canal. After about a mile, I came to the River Lee navigation, and there before my eyes was the beautiful sight of the brand new 2012 Olympic Stadium. It's great to see it in such a state of completion more than two years before the games. I am very enthusiastic about the games being in London for 2012, so much so that I registered my interest in tickets on the 2012 website today.

On past the Olympic stadium I came across 3 Mills Island. One of those pieces of English Heritage that you don't expect to find. It's even mentioned in the Doomsday Book. There now stands the oldest standing mill in England, dating back to 1776, and beside it stands Clock Mill, pictured below. Quite a contrast to the new Olympic stadium.

Running on from the Mill then came across 3 Mill Wall River (No I'd never heard of it before either) at Bow Locks, which leads onto the Limehouse cut. In the picture of Bow Locks below, you can see Canary Wharf poking its nose up inn the background.

The Limehouse Cut joins the watery basin around the Olympic Park to the Limehouse Basin. The Limehouse basin pictured below is also where the Regent's Canal also starts from, since the basin itself is joined to the Thames by a lock. You can just see the Gherkin peeking out through the trees, just to prove we're only a couple of miles from the City.

Then its running along the Thames Path with a view back to Canary Wharf and on to the iconic landmark of Tower Bridge. Both look beautiful in the late evening Spring sunlight.

For me it's then the last mile back to the Hotel past another infamous landmark of Monument, marking the spot where the Great Fire of London started in Pudding Lane. Again spectacular against the early evening sky.

There we are. A lovely 12 mile run in a couple of hours. A relaxing way to spend an evening in London...

North Wales (Views on the run)

After the exertions of the Jurassic, I was in need of some R&R. Where better than Easter in North Wales, at the end of the Llyn peninsula? I went for my first post Jurassic run as a gentle 6-miler along the coast path at the end of the peninsula. What a fabulous way to remind the recovering legs why you go running. This first picture looks back up the Llyn from Plas Carreg towards the Rifles (The hills on the horizon).

Then looking down towards Whistling Sands. What a fantastic view down to the sandy beach, even if the water is freezing still.

Then a full panorama giving some feeling of the spectacular green wildness of the Western Llyn.

And then there's one of me running along the coast path emblazoned with my St Peter's Hospice logo. It's quite a rugged path with a steep drop down to the sea.

Then finally down to the beautiful and quite unspoilt Whistling Sands. The sand truely whistles under your feet when it is dry due to the shape of the sand particles. And yes, the beach was pretty deserted on Easter Saturday - all the better to run across. This really does show why it can be quite inspiring to put on the running kit and get out there. That's good for me since I'm going to have to do a lot of running over the coming 5 months up to the TransAlp!

A belated Happy Easter.

Jurassic Day 3 - More hills

So there we were at the start of the third and final day of this year's Jurassic Challenge. It's called a Challenge because it's not a race. (Yeah right! Try telling that to the guys - and girls - at the front). We were back at Lulworth Cove for this start, and here I am raring to go. The start took us down to the beach for about 200m, then up this little hill as a warm up. You can see the path running down the centre of the picture. This was the first set of steps for the day. I hate running down steps!

After Lulworth Cove was a series of big hills. Now I have been known to run a flat Half Marathon in 1Hr 40mins, but after some punishing hills for 13 miles, my watch showed over 3 hours.

However during this stretch, we passed some of the Oners. The Oners were a group of 61 starters who were taking on the Jurassic Challenge as a single day race. So they started at 18.00 on Saturday and hoped to finish by 18.00 on Sunday. I have to say that when we passed these runners, they were hanging, having covered 60 or so miles in 18 hours. How they made it through that first day mud overnight, I don't know.

Here's another hill...beautiful scenery, but after 50 plus miles, one likes a bit less undulation.

We were running through military ranges now. So you can see a group of tanks just to the right of the road in the centre of the picture. Guess what? We'd just come down that hill and were going up the other side.

We again had our fair share of mud. This shot shows the ridge up the centre of a muddy path that I referred to yesterday. There was just no way of avoiding it.

Somewhere after the halfway point, a kind walker agreed to take a picture of me. I'm really not sure about this picture. While it shows that I was sort of enjoying the run, I think my arms look longer than my legs! The waist strap from the rucksack also makes it look like I have a paunch. I'm certain I got rid of that. However, you can clearly see my support for St Peter's on the shirt.

I should add that we have so far raised close to £7,000 for St Peter's, a great total, but still a long way to go. (Please click on the Just Giving link at the side of this blog to donate!)

Swanage provided a change of scenery. No hills, although the concrete was very slippery on the seashore. We had just passed the last checkpoint meaning about 10km to go. A nice easy one hour run normally. But normally I wouldn't have run 72 miles getting there, and we still had one big climb to go. I had been running the last few miles with Carole, Samantha and Liam. Carole was the leading Female Vet (but it's not a race!).

We made it over the last hill and down the other side to Studland Bay, a beautiful sandy beach. Sam and Liam had pulled ahead of Carole and me on the descent through some woods, but when we got onto the beach Sam and Liam were nowhere in sight. We could however see the finish about two miles away. We couldn't figure out where they could have gone.

Here's Carole leaving me standing on the final 'sprint' to the finish.

The last 500m was up through the soft sand. Not good on weary legs, which were screaming for the finish to come into sight. Note no sign of Carole now!

Then some massive puddles across the path, which meant we could wash our muddy shoes!

..and into the final finishing stretch.

Mike finished with a great smile at the finish and ran with his walking poles that definitely helped in the mud.

We all received a finish medal of a glass trophy that we will savour for many years. My time on the final day was 5Hr 50mins, which I was delighted to achieve on such a gruelling course.

And what of Sam and Liam? They appeared about 10 minutes later, crossing the finish line in the wrong direction and having run an extra couple of miles. They got lost on the last descent. These races can be cruel!

Overall, a fantastic training event for the TransAlp. Superb scenery along a beautiful coastline to keep the mind off the pain of the hills and the mud. I should also add that I thought the event was logistically very well organised by the VO2 team. Carting everyone around to the starts and back from the finish each day and providing loads of food and drink at the checkpoints takes some organisation and they did it with a smile and good cheer, even if the runners were too knackered to say thanks.

Roll on the next marathon.