The Summer That Never Was

Well it’s been a while since my last blog, a lot has happened over the summer some good some bad.

I must say congratulations to James Adams for keeping a lot of people entertained during the summer with his blog of his exploits and successful completion in the LANY2011.

For those that don’t know it was the Los Angeles to New York Footrace 3200miles in 70days, somehow I don’t think I could quite justify this one not only to my self but to my family and work.

Well after a bit of wallowing in self pity after my DNF in the Ultra100 I decided that my running was going to take a back seat during July and August (forced a little by my subsequent injury I guess)

I think my longest training run in the summer was 12miles so not ideal training for the Ultra Peaks. To be fair I was not going to do it as I felt the injury would play a significant part in this race but I felt that if I could finish then at least I would be able to complete the 9bar championship, I was certainly not looking to get a top 10 as in previous outings just a finish would be nice.

It was good to catch up with various folks before the race, and to swap running related stories. I seem to be recognising more and more faces at these events now which is all good.

I had a good chat with Dave Miles about his experience in the JOGLE 2012 which was certainly very valuable, any information or tips I can glean I am filing away as I am hoping these will prove to be invaluable.

The race itself for me was all about pain management, but the red mist descended at the start and I foolishly shot off with the front runners until we got to the first hill and I decided to walk it. Then from that point to the first CP it seemed ok I was bumbling along not fast but certainly a reasonable pace, the wheels started coming off around 12 miles when the pain was getting more intense but I was determined to not pop any pills as I wanted to experience the pain level in its raw state. By 16 miles I was reduced to a shuffle, and by 17.5 miles I was walking with no hope of running any more, I was still determined to finish but by mile 19 every step was painful.

So I took the decision to pull out at the second CP realising that it would not be a fruitful exercise to continue. Not a good day at the office, and one to quickly forget.

On the plus side from what I saw of the course it has the makings of being a true classic.

I have now had to make the difficult decision to pull out of all my races for the foreseeable future as I do not want to potentially jeopardise my JOGLE Training.

So now the kids are back at school my new 32 week training plan is kicking in.

Everything running on my plan is based on around 10min milling,  I have decided to train specifically for the JOGLE, normally my training pace even for long runs would 8min milling or less so this is certainly new territory for me, gone are the days of running 22 miles in a sub 2hr 30 time

Although my plan is based on mileage I am focusing on hours rather than actual mileage

My weekly hours spent running will range from 8hrs to 25hrs on my heaviest weeks; I think I only have 3 really heavy weeks planned the average works out at around 13hrs a week.

I am under no illusion this whole process is going to be tough to fit in around family life but if I don’t do it then I won’t have the necessary training required to complete the JOGLE.

Without the support of Anna and my family then I would be doomed to failure from the start, having said that there will still be a lot of tears and difficult choices to make of that I am sure, BUT there will be times of joy and happiness along the way also.

If there wasn’t then I would not even bother starting this journey

Some exciting news to come soon  (hopefully)