I know I said I wouldn’t, but I just couldn’t help myself. And then one thing leads to another and before you know it I’ve been for four runs. I’d like to be able to say I feel ashamed. But I don’t. I’m revelling in it. I love it. The warm air, the stunning views. I don’t care! I’m a runner again!

So now what? Well I can’t do the fun run in July. That would mean getting embarrased by hoards of eight-year olds! So that leaves The Challenge. Can I get from zero fitness to super fit fell running man in 12 weeks? No, but at least I can get to a point where I can get round the Challenge route without embarrasing myself too much, and hopefully without having a heart attack.

Current plan is to start with short runs, but more frequently, and build up from there. Have to bear in mind that even my short (4k) runs involve running up Stonebarrow Lane with about 150m of climb over 1k distance. Kill or cure?

Watch this space.

Due to declining health and advancing age, I’ve decided to call it a day on the running.

I’ll leave all the content up for now, it might still be of interest to some. Good luck in all your endeavors.

Pete

Took a good four or five days for the aching muscles to recover, but I’ve been out for a few runs since then. Had a nice one Wednesday when I ran out along the beach to St Gabriels, and thencame back along the coast path.

After having a good think, I’ve decided to try and keep going through the winter this time, even if it’s only once a week. That will give me a better base for building up to next year’s Challenge. Also think I need to try and increase distances to build up stamina. This is all depending on keeping injury free of course. Still planning to do the Weymouth ten mile race in October, might find a 10k race before that, may just do my own thing.

Going back to the Challenge, nice to see that this year’s race and fun run raised over £6,000 for Charmouth Primary School. Runners come from all over now to run in the UK’s most southerly fell race.

On the down side, this was the report from the Coastguard blog:
2011 Incident #27 02.07.11 1517UTC #XXXX

Fun run kicked off at 2:30pm, with nearly two hundred runners, mostly kids and mostly doing it a lot faster than I could. That include some of the nine year-olds from my youngest son’s class!

Challenge started at about 3pm. Started near the back and at what I felt was a comfortable pace. First km is flat, second km is up Stonebarrow Lane. All tarmac, all uphill. Halfway up and my heart rate was already sky high. I guess it’s just natural that when you run with others you run faster, so even though I ended up walking some of it I still did the km in 8m 16s which is easily a minute quicker than training pace. Classic case of starting too fast? It’s hard to judge the best pace in this, whether to start fast or take it easy and save energy? Honestly, by the time you get to the next climb your knackered regardless of how much you think you have saved.

Next three km are a mix of gentle climb, flat and steep downhill. Some queueing to get over stiles gave me an enforced rest. Then the fun really starts, the climb up to Golden Cap. Very similar to last year. Tried to run it but the best pace that I could manage was only marginally quicker than those who were walking. So I joined them. Ran some of the less steep bits, walked the rest all the way up to the trig point. By the time I got to the start of the descent from Golden Cap my thighs felt like jelly!

After the descent the race joined the coast path at St Gabriels. At this point I was pretty much even with last year’s time, but I was running on empty. You can see from the splits below comparing last year and this that I lost all my time from kilometer 8 onwards. (Click on it for a clearer view). It’s not just the big climb back up Stonebarrow Hill, it’s the smaller hills in between that really sap you. Ideally when running I’m comfortable with a heart rate between 165 and 170, but my average for the race was something like 173bpm, and peaked a few times at about 180. On the way back from Golden Cap I thought it best to ease off a bit whenever it got over 175. This is undoubtedly where I lost the time, payback for starting too quick?

On one of these hills I passed a runner who was down, but waving everyone past saying she was ok. Heard later that she had tripped coming over one of the stiles and badly hurt her ankle. As this part of the course is inaccessable by road, I think they might have called out the air ambulance. Not sure.

Walked quite a bit on the last climb and struggled on the downhill finish as legs were really shot. Finished in 1 hr 31m 32s. Slower than last year, but probably better than expected so ok with that.

Fire brigade were on hand as usual to cool down the finishers.

 Took a long time to recover. Really, really exhausted and a quite wobbly. And I wasn’t the only one. Anne took the pic below of Gerry Bearpark and me trying to get ourselves back to normality. There were 248 finishers, I was officially 192nd.

Maybe next year will be cooler? Here’s hoping.

Right, think positive! My training seems to suggest a time of about 1hr 35m is on the cards, but running with others might improve that. Forecast is good: 19 degrees and sunny, gentle breeze. Last year was hot and humid, so conditions definitely better this time.

Not really got much of a plan as far as strategy for the race. Too be honest I use up so much energy on the first climb that even if I take it easy it’s a struggle up the next two!  So I’ll take the middle path, try hard up the first one, but not too hard. After that just suck it and see.

As the weather has been pretty dry, all the off-road sections will be quite hard. This means I’ll wear my road running Nike Air Structure Triax shoes, rather than my trail running Salomon XA Pro 3D Ultras. The Salomon are great when it’s muddy and slippery, but they have a lot less cushioning, so not good for road or when the tracks are hard. I’ll wear the Garmin as usual and upload the details when I recover (like next Thursday).

Well that’s it. Cya after the race.

Went out for the long run on Saturday, and as promised did the full Charmouth Challenge course. The good news was that I made it round in one piece, the bad news was that I recorded a time six and a half minutes slower than I did it in last July. That’s about thirty seconds per kilometer. No excuses, it was nice and cool, just had no energy. Didn’t even walk as much as last time. Maybe some of it’s mental too. Didn’t push it up the first hill thinking that I needed to conserve effort for later, but then never really got the benefit. I think the strategy on race day will be to just push all the way. Get the heart up to about 170bpm and keep it there. If it drops below 165 then I’m not trying hard enough!

Course was in reasonable shape. Some of the narrow bits on the way back down Stonebarrow could do with trimming back, plus the flat field at the far end between Filcombe Farm and Golden Cap could do with a strim. Although with 200 runners in front of me trampling through the scenary, neither should be a problem by the time I get there!

Will go out for a short run tomorrow (Tuesday) and again probably on Friday as I won’t have time on Saturday.

Need to find some local 10k races for August and September. Still thinking about the Weymouth 10 mile race in October.

Did two thirds of the course this morning, missing out the big climb up Golden Cap, but even without that still couldn’t make it up the last climb without walking large sections. I’ll keep running every three days if I can and see how I feel in the week leading up to the race. Just still seem to be down on energy (and not just because I was up past midnight last night playing poker!). I still think I’m fitter now than I was at this point last year, but don’t seem to have as much energy. This morning’s run has left me completely drained even hours later. Maybe it’s the looming prospect of the big five-oh in August?

Interestingly the last two shortish (5.5k) runs that I have done with just one big hill went really well with good times, but throw in another big hill and it’s all too much.

Had originally planned to do the full course two weeks prior to the race which means this coming weekend. Gulp. Have to think about that, might not be good either mentally or physically!

Cya.

The Egdon Easy 10k is a flattish course around the Lodmoor Nature Reserve. A few little twisty bits, a couple of small inclines, and a flat drag back along Preston Beach Road into a decent breeze. Oh and it’s in the evening.

We started and finished at Weymouth College, although the start was delayed by about ten minutes as there was a barrier across the track at about 300m that nobody had the keys for! Anyway, we all managed to squeeze past without being forced to slow down too much, the braver souls vaulted over!

Decided to aim for something around 50 to 52 minutes, so wanted to start with just over 5 minute kilometers and see how it went.

After the initial burst of energy and a 4:49 opening kilometer I settled down and did 5:05, 5:13, 5:10, but then slumped to 5:18 and 5:19. At this point I tried to pick it up a bit, and whilst the legs were willing, my heart wasn’t. Up to now my heart had been averaging about 171, which is higher than the 165 to 168 that I know I can sustain, but seemed ok. However, as soon as I tried to speed up a bit my heart moved up to over 175 at which point I started to feel just slightly faint. This was the body warning me to slow it a bit (duh), so I did. Frustrating when I knew I had the strength in my legs. So then it was 5:10, 5:15, 5:21 before a magnificant sprint finish saw me home with 4:56, although that was slightly less than a kilometre. Final time 51m 38s, so within target range but a little disappointing if truth be told.

Overall, an excellent race that I’ll do next year if I’m still running. Definitely a course for a PB with only a few slight inclines. Well run (apart from the delayed start), well martialled, results online by early the next morning. Got a nice breathable t-shirt that I might actually be able to run in.

Thank you Egdon Heath Harriers.

Click here for the Garmin data.

Plenty to look forward too though. Egdon Easy 10k on Saturday is the first target. Should be a good test of where I’m up to fitnesswise. Hoping for something like 52 to 53 minutes. Anything slower than 55 minutes would be disappointing.  Forecast doesn’t look good with light rain and moderate winds forecast, but it’s still a few days away so that could change yet.

After that it’s building up the Charmouth Challenge on July 2nd. Current form up and down the hills is poor, so we’ll just have to wait and see how that goes.

Not much else going on.

Bye.

Anyway, in with the stuff was the details of the Weymouth 10 mile race in October. Not run that far before but looks like I’ll just have to give it a go as this year is their 50th anniversary race, and anyone who’s fifty this year gets to run for free. That means me. Woo hoo!  I even get a nice gold shirt for the golden anniversary.