Picture in the paper, XC, parkrun and future plans.

Last week was a return to Lloyd Park for cross country.  At least half the course was snow bound which made things more interesting but wasn't too treacherous.  I didn't run that great a time but it was a good fun race slipping and sliding in the snow and mud; generally overtaking people on the down hills and being passed on the ups on the other side.  At the start of the second lap I was in the midst of a crowd of Collingwood runners and ended up in a picture in Sutton's premier local paper relating to an article on their xc promotion.  I love the local paper so pleased as punch to have my picture on the sport pages!

This morning I headed down to Nonsuch Parkrun for a windy park run (19:45, 7th place).  I ran it pretty evenly and passed 3 or 4 folk on the second lap which makes a change from heading off too fast.  I'll have to remember this next week at the National Cross Country race at Parliament Hill.  I'm looking forward to this race from what I've heard of it (fast field, big hills, mud, chaos at the start); however am very conscious there's a real risk I could come last.

Finally, I've decided on some plans for the rest of the year.  First up in May I'm entered in for the Surrey Hills trail race- organised by SLOW who organised the Box Hill fell race, it's a self navigating 30k across the Leith Hill area.  Looks excellent- I aim to brush up on my navigation skills before the event (and maybe do a few reccie runs).  Then in June, a couple of days after my 30th birthday it's going to be Trail Marathon Wales.  I'm super excited about this- 26.2 miles all on trail in the Coed y Brenin Forest Park in Snowdonia.  Once I've got the xc season over next week it'll be time to start increasing the mileage and hitting the trails and hills- this is my target race for the year; bring-it-on!

Firsts

 

This week has been a week of 'firsts' which have resulted in two interesting runs and a brief cycle across London.

 

Thursday night saw the first time I've gone running on the trails at night with a head torch.  As it was an experiment and I was unsure if my pretty basic head torch would be up to the job I decided that I would first do a lap of the woods around Oaks Park where I would be not too far from a road at all points should I need to make a tactical retreat from the proceedings.  My head torch turned out to be just about up to the job, although only just and there were a few trips along the way and I nearly ran into a recently felled tree.  The whole thing was quite exhilarating in some ways but there's definitely an overall feeling of being very alone when running in the dark with only the sound of your foot steps for company. I think I'll definitely head out again, maybe with a new torch, before the nights start to get lighter again.  There's a few races run at night, most notably the Kent Moonlight Challenge which was halted mid way though this weekend due to the snow, so I may have to keep my eye out for one to enter this year.

 

The second first involved the much hyped Boris bikes (I realise I am very behind the times on this as they have been around for ages).  I needed to get from London Bridge to Paddington and had some time to spare so thought I'd ride.  Whilst not being the most efficient bikes in the world it was a nice cruise from East to West across along the Thames and through Hyde Park.

 

The final first was on Sunday.  I hadn't intended it to be an introduction to trail running in the snow as from the window of our friends house in Cheltenham all the snow from the night before had melted.  The aim was to head up the paths to the top of Cleeve Hill as I had done in August when I was there last.  The roads to the base of the hill will clear of snow however as soon as I hit the steep path up to the ridge the snow increased with treacherous ice covered mud in the woodland sections.  The going on the way up was interesting and at times I was reduced to walking to stay upright through the iced paths and frozen mud.  Upon reaching the top of the hill I turned to make my descent through a mix of skating, running and walking.  Last August the descent was a fast, amazing and out of control experience. This time this was not to be the case!  Whilst in the sections in the fields where the snow was deeper there was an opportunity to let loose, through the woods my approach involved hanging on to trees and sliding down the ice!  Once back down on the roads I took an opportunity to run the final mile back as fast as I could but this couldn't make up much time for what ended up being over 50 minutes for only just over 5 slow but enjoyable miles.

 

Finally its worth reporting on some Beer of the week.  Whilst in Cheltenham our guests took us to the fantastic local beer shop, favourite beers.  Special mention must be made to both O6 from the Otley brewery, a strong porter with an almost liquorice taste and Exhibition beer from the Bristol Beer Factory- an excellent strong dark ale.

Box Hill Fell Race 2012

Whilst the Box Hill Fell Race is considered by some to not be a proper fell race (the lack of route choice, the total height of the fell being a mere 224m) it packs a weighty 1,700ft of climbing into its 7.5 miles with steep ascents and descents throughout and at the end of the day whether its trail running or fell running or cross country it doesn't particularly matter; the race is well organised, very hilly, off road so that's all you need to know.

Despite starting and finishing at the same place and passing a few of the same intersections, the route doesn't have too much overlap with the other box hill race- the Midsummer Munro.   The course starts tracking horizontally across the grassy face of Box Hill, round a marshal to take the steepest corner.  From the trig point you then descend steeply over the open grass to hit the trails which then for the rest of the course ascend and descend gullies and woodland tracks.  Some of the hills need a proper effort to move at any speed, at one point I was overtaking people who were running whilst I was walking.  This said, in general it's mostly runnable- to put in context the winners posted sub-7 minute miles on average and mine, a quarter way down the field, were around the 8 and half mark.

Going into the race I wasn't feeling massively confident; training on Tuesday after cross country the week before was hard and a short run on Thursday felt like a real effort for a mere 4 flat miles; but lining up at the start I felt quite good.  The field was strong, and like with cross country league matches it is amazing to see the pace that the front runners take up the hills.  Over the first few miles it was pretty hectic, especially on the first descent from the trig point over open grassland, but the long climb up to Box Hill village started to separate out the field, leaving me at some points running without another runner in sight.  At around the 4 mile point I turned my ankle on a stony descent, started to slow down a bit and was passed by a couple of small groups of runners.  Somehow at around mile 5.5, I think with the arrival at White Hill from which I knew where I was in terms of the course, I got a second wind and managed to draw those runners back into sight and with that motivation then managed to claw back a few places in the final mile.  The finish was at the bottom of the main path down the hill- perfect for an out-of-control-sprint-finish.

Final time was 1:04:08 and 63rd place, which I'm happy with but will hopefully be back next year to take a few minutes off.

Lloyd Park XC

 The weekend was Cross Country down at Lloyd Park.  Last time I ran near Lloyd Park was the disaster that was the Croydon Ultramarathon- but at least today I had no worries about getting lost due to the fantastic course marking and organisation by Sutton Runners and Holland Sports.

The field was strong and I started too fast meaning after the first mile there was a whole host of people overtaking me which was, truth be told, pretty depressing.  Come the second lap I managed to pick up the pace a little and gain some places back, especially on the final downhill and crossed the line in 68th 33:15; not bad but not great.  The club however did well as a team coming in at third; keeping us at fourth in the league.

Next week is the Box Hill fell race which is going to be longer, hillier and harder than xc in Croydon- and despite all this, I'm looking forward to it!

Wymondham New Years Day 10k

A-ha!  Yes, you're right, I've been to the great city of 2 Cathedrals and 5 Department stores- Norwich! 

 

After a New Years eve of relative restraint, but a few beers and much cheese I lined up with around 500 others for the Wymondham New Years day 10k.  Amongst the fellow competitors was my mate Tim whom we were staying with for New Years.  Tim shares both my interest in running and ale, however chooses not to bore the world by writing about it on the Internet. 

 

The start was along a narrow country lane meaning it was quite a hectic start for the number of competitors, but the field quickly spread out so there wasn't too much jostling going on.  This said a guy over the first few miles who I was running near I'm sure was trying to run me off the road as he held his race line.  The course is, as you would expect in Norfolk, broadly flat but with more inclines than I expected which are mostly in the first and last couple of kilometres. The incline at kilometre 9 was a particularly unwelcome surprise.

 

I had vague plans to try and run a negative split.  At halfway my time was around 20:30 and I crossed the line in 40:58 (54th place), so I suppose I sort of managed this- although my attempts to speed up in the second half resulted more in not slowing down than anything else.  Tim came in a couple of places and around 17 seconds behind me narrowly missing out on a PB.

 

So all in all a nice morning out across the rural roads of Norfolk; maybe not the most exciting race of all time but certainly a good way to start the year.

 

A-ha!

2012- a year in running

Distance per week

I love a bit of excel geekery when it comes to running stats, so here are some breadsweatandbeers running facts for the year:

Total miles: 1353.68
Total number of runs: 162
Average run distance in miles: 8.36
Average weekly distance: 26
Average number of runs per week: 3.11
Longest run: 40 (Ultrarace Peaks)
Shoretest run: 2
Fastest pace during a race: 06:16 (Roundshaw Parkrun)
Slowest pace during a race:10:25 (Croydon Ultramarathon)

Highlights of the year certainly includes crossing the finishline after 40 miles of the Ultrarace Peaks.  The Greensands marathon was also a great race as were the other Trionium races I did; the Leith Hill half marathon and the Midsummer Munro.  Finishing within the top 10 at the Denbies 10 miler in May was great.

The other highlight of the year was not a race but a training run I did from Carshalton to Box hill along the North Downs way.  I definitely want to get out on some long point to point trail runs next year just for the fun of long runs of the trails and get more used to navigating whilst running.  I've got my eye on a challenge of running from my house to the coast.

The other great thing, running wise, this year was finally joining a running club (Sutton Runners).  Running with faster runners has definitely improved my pace and the social side is good too.  Its also meant I've been able to run in some xc races which I'm hoping to do more of next year.

Low point of the year could be cramping up during the threeforts marathon and going from second place at mile 6 to 22nd at the end.  This said all was forgiven on reaching the finish line and I am considering returning in 2012 to see if I can race the course at a more even pace! Getting lost round South East London during the Croydon Ultra was pretty depressing and almost put me off running long distances all together!

I haven't got too much planned as yet for next year.  Hopefully I'll be running some xc with the club in January and February.  I've signed up for the Box Hill fell race in Jan which I'm also really looking forward to.  Otherwise in terms of races the focus will definitely still be off road, I'd like to do some more trail marathons, maybe 3 forts again but I've also got my eye on the South Downs marathon and Beachy Head marathon.  I'd also like to do a proper fell race in the lake district, maybe the Fairfield horseshoe.

I am however kicking of the year with some flat road running at the Wydonham 10k, who knows how I'll cope without any mud and hills!

Angkor beer

2 weeks of no running but an absolutely amazing time in Cambodia with many an Angkor beer (good drinking and cheap larger), Anchor beer (a bit more flavourful but pretty similar to Angkor) and Klang (6% and dangerously drinkable) have left me feeling relaxed but not very fit.  The three runs this week have been hard work, but enjoyable.  I've made up a cross country route up and down little hills and across the grass in green park that's been good for a muddy lunch time blast.  Turned my ankle today running through a puddle but it doesn't seem too bad.

Race wise I've got a New Years Day 10k in Wyndham in a couple of weeks time.  I'm not too fussed about PBs or anything like; its just for fun and maybe to beat my mate Tim who we're staying with out for New Years in Norwich.

For January I've entered the Box Hill Fell race which I'm really looking forward to, so I think there's going to need to be some last minute hill training in the first few weeks of 2012.