Tag: travel

Week 26: 22 – 28 June

Kielder Water and an empty road beneath Northumberland skies

Run: 3h 37m (22.0 miles) | Cross Train: 5h 38m | Gym: 0h 00m

Race week: dominated by the Northumbrian 70.3 at Kielder.

Quite a bit went wrong today, despite going into it with some confidence. If my Garmin feed is anything to go by I swam close to twice the required distance, hitting 3,400 metres. Given the shakiness of the lines, I’m assuming we had some signal interference. So what took approximately 40 mins 2 years ago, took me over 52 minutes. Whilst my swimming technique is improving due to the lessons, I’d done nowhere near the distances in that training that I’d been clocking up prior to the 2024 edition. My first of a number of mistakes. Added to this, was repeated bouts of cramp on lap 2, which struck every 10 strokes or so. I’d been aware of cramping in training in the pool after about 20-25 minutes and cursed myself for not taking one of the salt tablets I’d so deliberately packed, before the swim. Instead they were sitting at T1 with the rest of my gear. Another mistake.

The bike:  as long as the roads are dry, I’m happy to push hard up and down the hills. Cue the rain. I still did want I could, battling the head wind down the ‘back straight’ of the bike loop. Mistake number 3 (or was it 4 now?) was fuelling, and the lack of practice. Hunched over the bars, I was acutely aware of the awful stabbing sensation of GI issues. It put me off fuelling further, and I tried to restrict intake to whole foods like bananas and, well, more bananas. Trying to then adopt an upright position coming off the bike to run was not easy.

I got moving and ran the first 2 to 3 miles in someone else’s legs. I eventually found mine again, and as I drank more water, the stomach started to settle. Just in time for the sun to come out, and blaze down on the competitors battling below. The climbing temperature and continually undulating track drained my already under-fuelled legs, and I staggered up the longest of the hills on both laps, using my hands to push my legs along. Although this was my strongest discipline, I spent most of the run in fear of bonking – that moment when your legs simply lock and stop. The first lap passed and the sight of my wife and daughter (complete with “your unstoppable” sign ) flooded me with emotion. I better get this done, I thought to myself. What an underwhelming sight I must have been. Soon the 6 miles turned into 7 then 8, and eventually the 10 mile point rolled past. When I got well into the 12th mile, I opened up my legs and enjoyed running at a decent cadence for the first time. Even if I ran out of fuel now, I knew that the adrenaline could take me over the line from here. I was laughing when I crossed the line – so many lessons to take from here.

The rest of this week has been deliberately modest: a short indoor ride, a couple of short runs and pool work, keeping things moving without piling on more fatigue before Sunday.

Week 3: 12 – 18 Jan

Run: 6hrs 21 mins (46.2mi) / Gym 0mins / Crosstrain: 0min

Normally this would be the start of a 2 week taper before a long event, but I felt like I was still chasing the miles, after a few problems in recent weeks. I therefore set out with the plan to have build some decent miles this week, whilst also trying to catch up on some rest, before dropping the load next week. Monday morning started with the loop, and was fine. Top of the foot still tender but ok. Tuesday was a restful morning, aiming to run in the evening as usual, but perhaps not the full 10miles. Evening plans changed, but I managed to squeeze in a 5.7mile route. Daughters birthday on Wednesday meant seeing her before school, and out for dinner in the evening – this was already accounted for though, and was a useful midweek break to avoid any stress as I built the miles back up. Thursday was an early morning loop, then Friday saw the arrival of my new shoes NNormal Kjerag Trail.

They were a struggle to get on, but once on, I yanked the tongue up (it is fixed to the midsole on both sides, so needed to ensure no wrinkles). The toe box was roomy – fingers crossed. I finished the 10k with some soreness on the inside of my big toe. After wearing Newtons for the last 8 years, I wasn’t surprised that something had caught.

With race day next Sunday, I was looking to alternate shoes each run. I ended up walking the dog in the NNormals, as well as wearing them around the house. Saturday am was 10miles in my Newtons, followed by almost 9miles on Sunday in the NNormals. They felt good. I was weary of the big toe issue, and varied my push-off a little to try and give some variation before problem developed.

So a week light on variation, but felt good to get the miles covered and new shoes Christened. Next week will be lie-ins and shorter sharper runs, early in the week with just a few loosens later. Looking forward to St Ives…