Training Log Archive: RobBIn the 7 days ending Sep 16, 2012:
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Sunday Sep 16, 2012 #
11 AM
Running 1:07:00 [2] 10.0 mi (6:42 / mi)
Steady run from my parent's in Old Leake. 2 x my 5 mile loop. Felt really strong for the first 5 miles but slightly less so on the second. Inspired after watching the GNR.
Friday Sep 14, 2012 #
5 PM
Running 42:00 [1] 5.0 mi (8:24 / mi)
Easy run with Clare up Rivelin. Felt pretty stiff and unco but it felt good to be out and nice to run with Clare. Kept it super steady and legs seemed to be holding up well.
Thursday Sep 13, 2012 #
Note
Final thoughts on DB.
A week on and I am really pleased with how my body is holding up. Touch wood everything seemed to be bearing up ok. However if I did not have a series of races planned I would definitely be opting for a 2 - 3 week break.
Am I glad I did it? - absolutely, I had a great adventure, made new friends and learnt a lot about myself and the world of ultras. The race was fantastically organised and the support from marshals and competitors was great. Everyone and everything was upbeat and positive - all brought together with a common purpose to get as many as people to the finish line.
It was also impressive to see Shane in "race director mode". The biggest complement I can pay to him is the way he shielded competitors from any issues or problems going on - he was pretty much always cool and collected despite the fact that he had a logtof difficult and complex decisions / issues to deal with each day. It was also great that he looked me out each day to see how I was feeling and getting on (initially I felt special but then I realised he was taking the time to have these chats with all the competitors!)
So the big question is would I run the DB again? - A definitely maybe. It has certainly opened my eyes in respect of Ultra races and the challenge and pain is definitely different from shorter races and marathons - something I appear to cope with. However, being pig headed if I wanted to do it again I would want to try and do as well as I possible could and this would mean a big commitment in respect of changing my training and preparation. Not sure if I am ready for that yet.
When I chat to people about the race the common response is I don't think I would be able to do that. I disagree - I think it is about looking after yourself and good pace judgement and most runners I know would be able to cope well with this. You never know if you don't try....
A week on and I am really pleased with how my body is holding up. Touch wood everything seemed to be bearing up ok. However if I did not have a series of races planned I would definitely be opting for a 2 - 3 week break.
Am I glad I did it? - absolutely, I had a great adventure, made new friends and learnt a lot about myself and the world of ultras. The race was fantastically organised and the support from marshals and competitors was great. Everyone and everything was upbeat and positive - all brought together with a common purpose to get as many as people to the finish line.
It was also impressive to see Shane in "race director mode". The biggest complement I can pay to him is the way he shielded competitors from any issues or problems going on - he was pretty much always cool and collected despite the fact that he had a logtof difficult and complex decisions / issues to deal with each day. It was also great that he looked me out each day to see how I was feeling and getting on (initially I felt special but then I realised he was taking the time to have these chats with all the competitors!)
So the big question is would I run the DB again? - A definitely maybe. It has certainly opened my eyes in respect of Ultra races and the challenge and pain is definitely different from shorter races and marathons - something I appear to cope with. However, being pig headed if I wanted to do it again I would want to try and do as well as I possible could and this would mean a big commitment in respect of changing my training and preparation. Not sure if I am ready for that yet.
When I chat to people about the race the common response is I don't think I would be able to do that. I disagree - I think it is about looking after yourself and good pace judgement and most runners I know would be able to cope well with this. You never know if you don't try....
6 PM
Cross training 30:00 [1]
Easy on the cross trainer in S10 gym. First time I had been there in about 6 months but pass was still working. Good to get a bit of a sweat on after a week off. In a multitask fail I tried to watch a subtitled Big Bang theory whilst listening to Marathon Talk.
Wednesday Sep 12, 2012 #
Note
(rest day)
Cycled to work and back today.
Note
Nutrition
I was really pleased with how my stomach held up. There were only a couple of times when I was really struggling to eat. In advance of the race I had worked out I wanted to take 60g of carbs per hour on the run and then eat as much as was comfortable each evening. I made up morning and afternoon packs which were really similar but had lots of variety in terms of tastes, textures and flavours. The downside to this was that my pack weighed quite a bit. A colleague had recommended pork scratchings and peperami and these were both great on the hill (but won't be snacking on them at home anytime soon).
In terms of water I took about 600ml of water (with Nuun) with me in my platypus in the morning and had another bladder filled at the resupply point (together with my afternoon snacks). I took a pint milk bottle which I strapped to my rucksac (an idea I stole from Nails) and refilled where I could. On average I drank about 3 - 4 litres a day on the hill.
Breakfast
large bowl of porridge with treacle, 500ml of nuun, 1 cup of coffee, 1 "shot" of strong coffee before the start, plus one cake / flapjack.
Morning / Afternoon
1 x 9 seed bar
1 x fruit O bar
1 x packet crisps / porkscratchings / twiglets
1 x packet of shot blocks
1 x powerbar gel
1 x cliff bar
1 x peperami
Resupply - 500ml of Isostar endurance, eccles cake, a few mouthfuls of lookwhatwefound (precooked meaty ready meals in a bag - surprisingly tasty).
In the evening
1 litre of Rego as soon as I finished
1 x soup and roll
1 x portion of chips
1 x evening dinner (ie veg curry with naan bread)
1 x cake and rice pudding
Weight
Amazingly I put on weight during the course of the week! Heather Ohley was supervising a nutritional study and we got weighed in the morning and after finishing each day. All our food eaten during the day was also carefully monitored and we will get some detailed feedback about this at a later date. I started at 72.2kg (the heaviest I have been for a while) and weighed 73 on the last morning. The chips and pudding were good!
Steve B lost weight and from talking to him he lost a larger percentage of his weigh between the start and finish each day than I did. From running with him he took on less water and food than me; and seemed to have a better understanding of his limits.
I was really pleased with how my stomach held up. There were only a couple of times when I was really struggling to eat. In advance of the race I had worked out I wanted to take 60g of carbs per hour on the run and then eat as much as was comfortable each evening. I made up morning and afternoon packs which were really similar but had lots of variety in terms of tastes, textures and flavours. The downside to this was that my pack weighed quite a bit. A colleague had recommended pork scratchings and peperami and these were both great on the hill (but won't be snacking on them at home anytime soon).
In terms of water I took about 600ml of water (with Nuun) with me in my platypus in the morning and had another bladder filled at the resupply point (together with my afternoon snacks). I took a pint milk bottle which I strapped to my rucksac (an idea I stole from Nails) and refilled where I could. On average I drank about 3 - 4 litres a day on the hill.
Breakfast
large bowl of porridge with treacle, 500ml of nuun, 1 cup of coffee, 1 "shot" of strong coffee before the start, plus one cake / flapjack.
Morning / Afternoon
1 x 9 seed bar
1 x fruit O bar
1 x packet crisps / porkscratchings / twiglets
1 x packet of shot blocks
1 x powerbar gel
1 x cliff bar
1 x peperami
Resupply - 500ml of Isostar endurance, eccles cake, a few mouthfuls of lookwhatwefound (precooked meaty ready meals in a bag - surprisingly tasty).
In the evening
1 litre of Rego as soon as I finished
1 x soup and roll
1 x portion of chips
1 x evening dinner (ie veg curry with naan bread)
1 x cake and rice pudding
Weight
Amazingly I put on weight during the course of the week! Heather Ohley was supervising a nutritional study and we got weighed in the morning and after finishing each day. All our food eaten during the day was also carefully monitored and we will get some detailed feedback about this at a later date. I started at 72.2kg (the heaviest I have been for a while) and weighed 73 on the last morning. The chips and pudding were good!
Steve B lost weight and from talking to him he lost a larger percentage of his weigh between the start and finish each day than I did. From running with him he took on less water and food than me; and seemed to have a better understanding of his limits.
C • Fatty! 10
Tuesday Sep 11, 2012 #
Note
(rest day)
Recovering slowly but sorely. Legs not in too bad shape now but still pretty tired. Might go for a gentle spin / swim tomorrow night.
Note
Thoughts on DB
Will put some notes up about competitors, food / nutrition, racing strategy, marshalls/help support over the next few days. Please feel free to ignore - mainly for my own reference etc. Once I get the DB out my system I can hopefully start recording some training. If anyone wants me to write about anything specific let me know. There are now some videos produced of the race here:http://www.dragonsbackrace.com/news/2012/09/10/All...
Competitors
Before I started the race I sought advice from a colleague who had done the MDS and he said one of the things that struck him was the camaraderie that developed over the course of the race. I was definitely struck by this. There is nothing like a bit of shared pain and suffering to bring people together.
What I was most impressed with was everyone's determination and commitment to finish the race; despite - in most cases - extreme pain and fatigue. One competitor with severe shin splints / compartment syndrome took about 30 seconds to hobble the 10 meters from his seat at the prize giving to collect his dragon on the last night yet had managed to complete 35 odd miles that day (breaking down, by his own admission, a few times physically and mentally along the way). Wendy Dodd's performance has been well documented and tells you everything you wanted to know about what can be achieved with a determined and committed human spirit. I am just glad I was fortunate enough not to be tested like these guys were; I am not sure I would have been able to tough it out.
The competitors seemed to come from quite a "mixed bag" in terms of experience - those who had done lots of ultras before (such as BG, MDS, Leadville, Western States, UTMB etc) and / or mountain marathons. Those who had lots of MM experience tended (but not exclusively) to fair better over the course of the race. I don't think you can underestimate how much time you can lose / save through the selection of good lines and routes over the mountains. Running in the right direction and hoping to pick good lines was simply not an option. Steve B was awesome in this respect.
I had the good fortune to run with Steve for quite a bit of the race and was really impressed with his technique mountain craft. He was ruthlessly efficient in every respect of the race - in terms of his kit, food, water, routes, saving climb, resupply checks and even simple things like stopping to take drinks etc. He was to put it frankly a bit of an endurance machine. Steve also knew his body well and had a good idea of how much water / food he needed on the hill and always seemed happy to push into his limits each day. By contrast I was much more conservative (with a big concern about blowing up) and consequently eat and drunk a lot more (carrying extra weight) and in terms of my routes I favoured better running over better climb efficiency (to my cost on most occasions). Whilst I did not run with Helene Whitaker, those that did were also struck by the same kind of determined efficiency that Steve had.
Helene brought this to life for me with a story about taking a dubious stop for water about 5k from the finish on the last day. She knew that she was on the cusp of severe dehydration and weighed up the benefits and negatives of drinking from a contaminated water supply. She did a quick calculation and concluded that if she was to suffer any stomach problems these should manifest just after she had finished and therefore she would risk taking in the water to get her to the finish in a faster time.
There seemed to be different "shifts" of competitors each day and I got to know a group of about 10 athletes pretty well. Each shift tended to be based on who you finished with each day as they were the people you had dinner and chat with. It was not till the banquet on the last night that I had the pleasure to meet loads of other competitors who I shared stories and beers with. I was particularly struck by a comment made by one of the competitors who had raced 20 years ago. When collecting his dragon prize he said that he had often been asked how the race compared with the one 20 years ago and he said that it frankly didn't matter as this was our race and our time. This got a big cheer.
The Spanish contingent also got a huge reception at the banquet for their involvement in the race. One of them came up to say a few words and said that whilst they had come to complete the race (and they were all experienced ultra runners) it had become clear on day 1 that they were not able to finish. They therefore had 2 options; to cry or to smile, and they chose to smile and carry on in the best way that they could. Good answer. It is only running after all.
Will put some notes up about competitors, food / nutrition, racing strategy, marshalls/help support over the next few days. Please feel free to ignore - mainly for my own reference etc. Once I get the DB out my system I can hopefully start recording some training. If anyone wants me to write about anything specific let me know. There are now some videos produced of the race here:http://www.dragonsbackrace.com/news/2012/09/10/All...
Competitors
Before I started the race I sought advice from a colleague who had done the MDS and he said one of the things that struck him was the camaraderie that developed over the course of the race. I was definitely struck by this. There is nothing like a bit of shared pain and suffering to bring people together.
What I was most impressed with was everyone's determination and commitment to finish the race; despite - in most cases - extreme pain and fatigue. One competitor with severe shin splints / compartment syndrome took about 30 seconds to hobble the 10 meters from his seat at the prize giving to collect his dragon on the last night yet had managed to complete 35 odd miles that day (breaking down, by his own admission, a few times physically and mentally along the way). Wendy Dodd's performance has been well documented and tells you everything you wanted to know about what can be achieved with a determined and committed human spirit. I am just glad I was fortunate enough not to be tested like these guys were; I am not sure I would have been able to tough it out.
The competitors seemed to come from quite a "mixed bag" in terms of experience - those who had done lots of ultras before (such as BG, MDS, Leadville, Western States, UTMB etc) and / or mountain marathons. Those who had lots of MM experience tended (but not exclusively) to fair better over the course of the race. I don't think you can underestimate how much time you can lose / save through the selection of good lines and routes over the mountains. Running in the right direction and hoping to pick good lines was simply not an option. Steve B was awesome in this respect.
I had the good fortune to run with Steve for quite a bit of the race and was really impressed with his technique mountain craft. He was ruthlessly efficient in every respect of the race - in terms of his kit, food, water, routes, saving climb, resupply checks and even simple things like stopping to take drinks etc. He was to put it frankly a bit of an endurance machine. Steve also knew his body well and had a good idea of how much water / food he needed on the hill and always seemed happy to push into his limits each day. By contrast I was much more conservative (with a big concern about blowing up) and consequently eat and drunk a lot more (carrying extra weight) and in terms of my routes I favoured better running over better climb efficiency (to my cost on most occasions). Whilst I did not run with Helene Whitaker, those that did were also struck by the same kind of determined efficiency that Steve had.
Helene brought this to life for me with a story about taking a dubious stop for water about 5k from the finish on the last day. She knew that she was on the cusp of severe dehydration and weighed up the benefits and negatives of drinking from a contaminated water supply. She did a quick calculation and concluded that if she was to suffer any stomach problems these should manifest just after she had finished and therefore she would risk taking in the water to get her to the finish in a faster time.
There seemed to be different "shifts" of competitors each day and I got to know a group of about 10 athletes pretty well. Each shift tended to be based on who you finished with each day as they were the people you had dinner and chat with. It was not till the banquet on the last night that I had the pleasure to meet loads of other competitors who I shared stories and beers with. I was particularly struck by a comment made by one of the competitors who had raced 20 years ago. When collecting his dragon prize he said that he had often been asked how the race compared with the one 20 years ago and he said that it frankly didn't matter as this was our race and our time. This got a big cheer.
The Spanish contingent also got a huge reception at the banquet for their involvement in the race. One of them came up to say a few words and said that whilst they had come to complete the race (and they were all experienced ultra runners) it had become clear on day 1 that they were not able to finish. They therefore had 2 options; to cry or to smile, and they chose to smile and carry on in the best way that they could. Good answer. It is only running after all.