Week 4 of 13 (21st - 27th Jan)

WEEK 4
Mon Lunch - Conditioning work
Mon PM- 5.5 miles easy, treadmill
Tue - Weights, Cleans, Overhead squat, Straight deadlifts, upper body conditioning
Wed - 15.75 miles (7:40 m/pm)
Thu AM - 6.2 miles (8m20 m/pm)
Thu PM - 4 miles (8m20 m/pm)
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun - Rest
TOTAL MILEAGE - 31.5

Bonjour from the slopes of the Alps! Now on a ski holiday so the running stops for a week. Hurray!

After what was described as an "intimidating week" last week we can only say that the mighty have fallen. This week was always going to be a reduced mileage week and although I was going to try and squeeze in as much running as possible, the loss of Saturday and Sunday for my ski break was always going to hamper the mileage.

The ski holiday couldn't really have come at a better time, my right calf has been tightening up for a week or so. So much so that on Thursday's planned 9 mile run I had to cut it short and finish with only a 4 miler. It certainly wasn't debilitating but it was starting to feel like it was going to become a problem so I cut short rather than plough through. A running imbalance has given me problems with the calf before. The first time this happened it took me 3 months to get over it, the last time it happened it took me only 3 days. So I'm hoping experience has shown me how to manage the niggle. The problem with Thursday's 9 miler is that it was a point to point, office to home run so I needed to get the missus (superstar!!) to come pick me up whilst I stood in the Shell garage drinking a luke warm vanilla latte and looking a complete tool in my fluorescent kit and skin tight leggings.

This wasn't the only thing that didn't go to plan this week. On Tuesday I had planned to run in the evening but really wasn't feeling it. Outside was snow and ice, which is no fun, inside is a treadmill which is no fun either. I was driving to the gym and with about 1 minute before the turn home I had a change of mind and decided that the sofa and a bowl of cereal was indeed a more appealing option. Must be a little run down, motivation flagging and a small niggle.

So I think the less said about the rest of the week the better. Next week, mileage will again be low. A nice week of active rest on the slopes should see the fitness stay in place. I have packed my XC spikes though...planning to try and do at least one outside run. Might be tricky as I'm half way up a mountain but the  slope from our appartment to the main slopes looks perfect for hill reps :-)

Next week will be quite exciting as I am expecting the England team for the Anglo Celtic Plate to be finalised and communicated, so I will await an e-mail or phone call with either the good or bad news. I will share the news as soon as I know. We have now booked our accommodation and flights for the trip to Perth. The whole family is coming up which is fantastic. I thought it would be quite a tough sell to be honest, "hey geys, fancy travelling all the way up to Scotland and watch your little/big brother/son run around a park for 8 hours. All you need to do is stay there all day and make sure I'm well fed and watered and I will probably be miserable at best". They all said "yes".

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102, 31

Week 3 of 13 (14th > 20th Jan)

WEEK 3
Mon Lunch - Conditioning work
Mon PM- 9 miles easy (8:10 m/pm)
Tue AM - 9 miles easy (8:15 m/pm)
Tue PM - Track session 14 x 1300 @ c6:33 m/pm off 1 min
Wed Lunch - 7.9 miles trail (7:47 m/pm)
Wed PM - Strength : Cleans & Squats
Thu - Treadmill session 15 x 650m @ c5:25 m/pm off 1 min
Fri - Rest
Sat - 17 miles easy including 4 miles @ 7:00 m/pm (ave.7:39 p/pm)
Sun - 37.5 miles (8:14 p/pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 101.7

So who says you can't run in the snow! As per last week's blog I said this was going to be a week of bigger mileage and a little bit more speed on the track and I executed the week to plan even given the weather.

The first half of the week went relatively smoothly and on paper the track session looked like it was going to be pretty tough. Whilst the pace wasn't super fast, the stop start nature of these reps always builds fatigue more than you would expect. However, the recent higher mileage seems to be flowing through and this session came pretty comfortably.

However by the time I got to the weights session on Wednesday evening I knew I was ready for a rest and that Thursday session was going to be a toughy. I couldn't wait for Friday's rest day. I've been doing weights and conditioning work reasonably consistently for the last 3 months and at the moment it is difficult to assess the impact of these sessions. However by the time we start racing and as we sharpen up in the summer then we will know. The important thing is I enjoy doing them, building up the pistons!

Thursday's session was planned for the track, however the weather was pretty cold and the track has a habit of freezing up pretty quickly (and I have a habit of falling on my arse). So I opted to do this one on the treadmill. Again on paper this one looked pretty quick, at least for this part of the season. In the summer I would have absolutely beasted this one. I found myself a quiet corner in the gym to do the session as other gym goers seem to have a habit of looking at your screen and trying to compete with you, which is nice compliment I guess but bloody annoying. Still didn't avoid the gawping gym rats. Maybe they thought I was Galen Rupp...Turned out the pre-run pep talk chat with Kevin helped me out. He too has to battle with treadmill sessions this week. Roll-on the summer.

Friday saw the snow really start to come down and this was when I started to wonder if I could complete the week. When the weather sets in like this you just have to accept this as an external event, out of your control, and make the most of it. Maybe that is two easy runs, maybe its two gym runs, you just have to play it by ear. Saturday's session was set at 11 miles easy, 10 mins rest, 5.5 miles @ 7:00 p/pm. I set off onto the snowy footpaths with the hope of doing the session, but I really wanted to assess the damage that the snow would do to Sunday's planned super long run (the term I have dubbed for those runs of 30 miles and beyond). The session on Saturday didn't come out entirely as planned but to all intents and purposes it did the job. I finished the run by taking a photo for a young couple enjoying the wintery views of the river Thames. Funny how the weather sometimes brings people together. Not sure my photos were great though.

The pleasing thing was that the ground was good and easy to run on. I knew I could make a good attempt at the super long run of 37.5 miles the next day. Joined by Kevin for multiple loops of a snowy Bushy park and we just about got the session done. Conditions were not so nice as on Saturday because it snowed for the full run which started to annoy me a little (kept getting in my eyes). Kevin joined me at the 13 mile mark and was due to run 20 miles with me. I would then either finish the session on my own or stop with a solid 33 miles to my name. Sensing I was wavering towards the end Kevin did me a massive favour and ran an epic 25 miles to see me to the finish. Super long run number 5 since November. Rewarded of course by a large Papa Johns pizza. I think the snow underfoot gave a little cushioning as whilst I'm tired now, my legs are not feeling as awful as after a 5 hour pounding on the roads. Pleased to have survived the weather without needing to use trail shoes, particularly as at present I don't even own a pair. I'm a road runner after all.

I'm off skiing next Saturday was will be a smaller week of training due to the loss of the weekend (however maybe I should run, I've proved I can run in the snow). Looking forward to a nice week of active week on the slopes and some time to chill with the Mrs.

Mileage so far: 39, 73, 102

Week 2 of 13 (7th Jan > 13th Jan)

WEEK 2
Mon - 11 miles easy (8m28 pm)
Tue - Track session 9100, 2300, 1800, 1400, 100, 800, 500
Wed - 7.5 miles trail (7m57 pm)
Thu - Track session 22 x 450m (30 sec walk rest), c. 1m40 per 450m.
Fri - Rest
Sat - Surrey League XC - Div 2 Mitcham Common - 4th Overall
Sun - 30 miles (7m53 pm)
TOTAL MILEAGE - 73.3

Last week went so badly that whilst I did actually write the blog I didn't really actively publicise it. After spending 5 days ill and 5 days really lethargic I was starting to get a little annoyed and feeling negative about the whole thing. The lethargy of last week probably wasn't helped by my new year's resolution to give up caffeine during the week so I am certainly partly to blame.

Anyway as the old saying goes what a difference a week can make. The return to a full working week and the routine that brings has made a lot of different. A solid if not spectacular week. Having had two good track sessions during the week I feel a whole lot more positive and this running business. November and December had me doing quite a lot of mileage and adding weights and conditioning to my program. This has left me feeling I've lost a little bit of zip, so these sessions where the confidence booster I needed. Now whilst these sessions are particularly speedy, they represent some much faster running than I have been doing and I handled them comfortably. I believe sessions like Tuesday's will form a fundamental part of my build up. I really enjoy these monster sessions on the track and this is probably going to help me with my preparation race at the Barry 40 miler.

Saturday saw another decent performance in the XC league, and whilst it is dangerous to draw comparisons to the runners around you it is nice to see I beat a number of solid marathoners. Maybe I'm just good at XC, but I somehow how doubt that. I only run up hills once every 4 weeks! But pleasing to see my summer speed hasn't totally eluded me.

During today's run an attractive young cyclist came last me and said "Hey, what are you doing around here?", she stopped to say hello. I didn't recognise her as she had helmet and glasses on. I apologised for not knowing her at all and it did indeed turn out to be a case of mistaken identity. As I ran off I joked in my head she was hitting on me (look I was over 20 miles into the run). However, on returning home and seeing the state of me covered in snot, energy gels and over bodily fluids I am convinced that was not the case. Really who looks good after 4 hours of pounding on the road.

Next week is looking a cracker, mileage will be big (for me at least) and the track work will be fast (for me at least).

Mileage so far: 39, 73
Weight (kg): 68.6, 68.5

Week 1 of 13 - (31 Dec > 6 Jan)

WEEK 1
Mon - Rest / Ill
Tue - Rest / Ill
Wed - Rest
Thu - Lunchtime, 4 miles @ 7mins pace, Evening Track session cut short
Fri - Rest
Sat - Easy 11 miles
Sun - Long run cut short 18.5 miles
TOTAL MILEAGE - 39.4

So I wanted to start writing a blog to capture my training for the Anglo Celtic Plate and UK 100km Championships on 31st March. Looking at the above it certainly hasn't started with a bang. Having been ill over the Christmas period this was my first week back running so just to get out of the house a few times was an achievement.

Thursday night's session at the track didn't really happen but I wasn't too worried as this was my first day back running in a week. It seems that even today my legs (and most probably my mind) are not quite in the right place. I had planned a 30 mile run but decided to cut it short and start a fresh with a proper training week starting tomorrow.

My race plans in the build up to the 100km in Perth are now set. These are:

12/1 Surrey XC League Race. I can easily include the XC races into the schedule without losing too much training as these are on Saturday.

17/2 Valentine's 10km. Just wanted to have a bash at a 10km since I went through the whole of the 2012 season without doing one

24/2 Barry 40 mile track race. I don't want to go into Perth 100km cold and this gives me a good opportunity to test fitness, race nutrition and strategy. Running 161 laps on a track will also be an experience. The race organiser has informed me that Grant Jeans and Paul Fernandez are already on the entry list, so this could be a great race in the making.

31/3 Perth 100km. The big one.

Not much more to report from me for now. Hopefully I can string something like looks like a week of running together next week. I'm hoping the return to routine after the Christmas break will help.

Mileage so far: 39
Weight (kg): 68.6

Amsterdam Marathon 2012 - The End of Season and Coming of Age

So here I am, one week (well it's now two weeks) after Amsterdam marathon how things have changed. Last week I saw myself as a supremely trained athlete, but now I'm just a drunken slob. I've had more hangovers in the last week than I have in the past year. It's acted as a nice reminder as to why I don't drink that often...

Amsterdam marathon served as the end of the season for me. Whilst the year has gone reasonably well with good improvements over the shorter distances, ultimately a disappointing result at Biel 100km left me needing a good performance to see the year go off with a bang.

As ever with the marathon the great debate over what pace to run the event was present during the build up. I ended up deciding I would go for a more conservative approach and aim to break the 2h40 marker and shock horror I would try and run an even race...It ended up that I would run a 3m45 per km pace, just because this was a nice round number and meant I could run through the maths a little easier in my small brain. I tend not to use auto-lap on the Garmin for races. It has a habit of getting out of sync with the markers, whilst I appreciate these are not always accurate themselves, it still annoys me when the Garmin beeps can get over 1 minute before or after the marker.

Anyway... the race, taking from Thomas Loehndorf's recent blog post I've give a 5km split account of the race.

The first 5km started with a little trepidation, however I was very happy to get going. I had been at the start for a while and I was starting to get pretty cold. The wind was a little cutting but once we got moving the temparature was spot on. Lots of swapping of position whilst the excited runners quickly realised that they had started a little aggressively.
0 - 5km : 18m50

The first 5km is on a loop that takes you back towards the start so it quite well supported. Got a nice cheers from the Wife and Mrs. A which was nice.

In the next 5km I had established my place in a group of around 4 runners, this group was to grow over the next few kms. Given the wind on the course, which wasn't really strong but could still have been significant having a group to work with would be useful.

I took first gel (of 4) at 8km, and would continue to take at 8km intervals. Aid stations were getting beasted, getting isotonic, water and sponges (to wash isotonic out of my eyes) at each station.
5 - 10km : 18m41

In the next section I was becoming conscious that the 3m45 per km was not feeling as easy as I would like. Breathing was fine but it wasn't ticking over quite as easy as I would like. I was also conscious that I was sitting in a group and not really doing any of the work. I don't believe that running at the front was physically that much harder, even though there was some wind. It is more that it is mentally much more easy to sit and follow someone oppose to set the pace (which was some reason felt a real responsibility).

In this section there was a 180 degree turn which meant we turned to face the wind. Here I decided I would take a turn to lead the group. I continued to lead us out of the city and down the river Amstel. This was an exposed piece of the course with a tail and cross wind. We discussed in the group that we should try and stick together. We would turn around and run back up the river and therefore into a head wind in a few kilometers and so having a group would make life easier for all.
10 - 15km : 18m42

I wish these guys had kept up...

As a group we continued to run down the river. Was certainly feeling a bit difficult and even though I pushed harder we were only just managed to maintain the pace. I took the lead of the group again and we managed to maintain the pace. The runners kept asking "still 3m45 pace?", the answer was unfortunately yes. I guess they were starting to struggle a little bit too. I led the group all the way down to the bridge, where we crossed the river and turn backed into the headwind. Over the bridge I dropped the whole group, without even trying. I looked back and I had put 5 meters into them just going up a small ramp and going 50 meters or so. This wasn't good. I really had to think about what to do here. Do I slow down, merge back into the group and work our way up the river with protection from the wind. Or do I go it alone, take a bit of a risk and accept that the clowns behind me were just not cut out for the sub 2h40 pace we were running.

Having towed them from the past 2km or so I decided it was time to go alone, whilst I really wanted to work with a group, I felt that these runners were probably going to hinder me more than help me.
15 - 20km : 18m54

This was hard work running up the river on my own. I concentrated on a few of the runners ahead of me, which I seemed to take past with relative ease. It seems that already some runners were starting to struggle with the early pace that had been set.

I had spent the whole of this section concentrating on getting off of the river and back into the relative shelter of the buildings in the city. At around 25km the river was over and we passed under a tunnel which had lots of supporters. A bit of posing for the crowd really lifted my spirits. Apologies to the wife and Mrs. A who I totally missed here...they had apparently walked a full 4km to get there :-)
20 - 25km : 18m48

I spent this section trying to reel in a couple of runners who were running together and seemed to be working well. It was a real push to catch them, but catch them I did.

I love running...

I also saw my friend Donnino out on the course, he ran along with me for 200m, we had a bit of a laugh, I was telling him how good looking he was and that he aroused me...the crowd thought this was very funny and gave me another energy boost.
25 - 30km : 18m39

Having caught the two runners ahead I had to spend 2-3 minutes composing myself. I wanted to work with the 2 runners but I had expelled a lot of energy getting to this point.

Once recovered I moved to the front. At this point I realised that the group of two had not been working together at all, in fact one runner had been towing the other and now that I joined the group the second runner was dropped pretty quickly.

So we were back down to two and we were running strongly together. My Garmin watch had decided to freeze on the battery life screen so I no longer had any feedback on the pace. I knew we were running strongly.
30 - 35km : 18m44

I had to resist the desire to push on during the last 5km, I felt strong but it was still too early to do anything silly.

We got to 37km and the wheels were still rolling. I said to the other runner "we've done it, we've made it to the end". Whilst this was maybe quite premature, but with a little over 3 miles to go I knew even if it unravelled from here we were on for a good time.

He responded "I'll race you over the last 5km". When we promptly sped up.
35 - 40km : 18m23

No, I really love running...it's so much fun

All a bit of a blur, I knew I was passing runners. I knew my back and lungs were tightening up and that I was starting to feel a little like vomiting. But I passed the 40km marker in under 2h30. Too tired to work out the maths at this point, but I certainly wasn't content with "just" a sub 2h40 and I knew if I finished strong I would break by some margin.

Kept on pushing through "the zombie zone", lots of runners falling apart and for a change I wasn't one of them!

Before I knew it I was in the track in the Olympic stadium, I felt at home back on the track where I had done so much of my training in the build up.

Never had I felt like that at the end of a marathon still pushing hard all the way to the finish line.
40 - Finish : 8m06
Result : 2h37m47

Some interesting facts about this run.

1) My Dad predicted my race result as 2h37m48, 1 second over my actual time...he of little faith.

2) When you put 2h37m47 into the Macmillian pace calculator it suggests you should be able to run a 16m12 5km (which is incidentially my current PB)

3) I ran a negative split, Kevin ran a negative. We got quite drunk after the race.

4) Emily and Mrs A must've walked at least 8km whilst spectating...

Massive congratulations to the Armstrong brothers on fantastic performances and to the wives for coming and spectating. An endurance sport in its own right.

Everyone loves finishing in an empty stadium...it makes you realise truly how rubbish you are.

Biel 100km - Race Report

A few weeks have passed since I ran in the 'Night of Nights'. Biel 100km is one of the world's classic ultramarathons and I was privileged to be on the start line.

I traveled to Switzerland for this race on Wednesday. The race started on Friday night at 10pm, so this gave me a little time to settle in, but not too much time I was twiddling my thumbs. I was lucky to stay with a Swiss friend which really made for a relaxing build up. No worrying about eating out, staying in a hotel. It was all very relaxed.

I spent Thursday wandering around Zurich. This is my fifth visit to the city and I still love this place. Swiss life really does have an appeal in my opinion. I wandered down to the lake, seen of three Ironman attempts (2 finishes and one spectacular bike crash). This bought back some special memories and I was somewhat sad that on this occasion my family were not with me. Going into a 100km race maybe this was not the time to be getting all sentimental.

Carbo-loading in central Zurich.

As part of this race I had been on a caffeine ban which meant I was using more than my fair share of decaf Nespresso pods at the apartment I was staying in, so I headed to the Nespresso store to re-stock. Even with the shocking exchange rate these came out at a similar price to back home which suprised me...yes I was pretty bored on the Thursday, this was maybe the most exciting to have happened to me.

Friday was a particularly a challenging day. Usually race day comes, you eat some breakfast, drink a coffee and get ready to go. When the race starts at 10pm...race day really really drags on. You wake up...have some breakfast...think about the race....wait...have some lunch....wait...think about the race...well you get the idea. Myself and Donnino (Alain's flat mate and fellow competitor) went for coffee on Friday afternoon at Canal Grande. We met an "interesting" gentleman, Tian Harlan. Tian Harlan was the creator of the Chromachron Colortime watch. A 70s sensation, that I'm sure made him a lot of money. He seemed a very down to earth guy and it was interesting speaking to him about his history in the watch business. Just check out this watch, how the times have changed. Well it would seem Mr Harlan is trying to keep up with the times...Colortime now available on iPhone!

The Chromachron watch, so seventies!

We took the train to Biel from Zurich at around 5pm. Still a whole 5 hours until the race. After a week of eating almost solely pasta we decided to eat something a little different. A yummy portion of plain rice. I was looking forward to my first proper meal after the race.

Arriving in Biel the race started to become real. This was different to any other ultra I had competed in. This event had that 'big event' feel. With other 1,000 competitors I guess it is a pretty big event. We found the food tent and settled their. I had travelled down with Donnino and Joachim. Joachim was Donnino's bike support. At the 22km point in this event each competitor can pick up a bike support who will to guide the runner, feed them and massage them through the event. The bike supporters or the "Coach" as they are known in Biel leave their runners temporarily at 56km before meeting back up the runners at 67km and then see them through to the end. I was aware this was going to be a long night for both the runners and riders! Alain was my bike support, but he was joining us later as he had a busy day at work to contend with. Sitting in the food tent we could all feel the atmosphere growing. I was started to use the loo more frequently than required. This was all getting very real.

Alain arrived and we discussed tactics and prepared nutrition. It was quite amusing to see his bike. A serious triathlete his usual bike really is a nice piece of kit. His bike for tonight however was a totally different piece of kit. The sort of bike you see an old lady riding along on. We had attached a basket to the back in A-team fashion with a couple of shoelaces and added bottle holders with gaffer tape. However the holders were too big for my Powerade bottles, so we beefed up the Powerade bottles by taping cardboard to them. We were a team to be reckoned with!

Mean machine!

Before we knew it Alain and Joachim were heading off to the 22km point. All the "Coaches" headed off en masse. We wish each other luck. I really hoped Joachim was going to have a good night with Donnino. I knew it would be challenging at times for the Coaches. Donnino and I were left to have a couple more toilet stops and we headed off to the start. The anticipation was incredible. I was interviewed live on radio on the start line. Typically British it went something like this "sorry, what, do you speak English?". I don't know exactly what I said, something along the lines of being excited and how happy I was to be here racing in Switzerland. On the start line were some members of the Polish ultrarunning team.

After a countdown from 10, the loudest start gun ever and a front line charge from some American football players we were off. The Polish went straight to the front with their flag. This was great to see and even from behind you could see the smiles on their faces. The start was crazy quick and I quickly slipped into 40th odd place. Very easy to see how this was done, a day's worth of anticipation had been released and the crowds of spectators pretty large. I was running 7m10 per mile pace and getting my arse kicked. Surely this couldn't continue?

I settled quite nicely into the 7m10 pace, didn't feel amazing but I figured I would need an hour to get into it. I was advised for the first section up to 22km I wouldn't need a head torch as it was well lit...hhmmmm...I don't think so. There were some sections where it was really dark and I had to speed up to catch someone and run with them. I was very relaxed about this and I thought we would have a laugh about it at the end. At around 6km into the race we have a fairly steep climb of roughly 2.5km (100m climbing) so I drop in a slow mile split, followed by a fairly tasty one for an ultra.

Conditions on the night are fantastic, cool with no breeze. It could of been worse, we had a lot of rain during the week and during the day. It seemed to clear up in time for the start which was great. I understand this is a stark contrast to last year's deluge!

This first part of the race took us through Aarberg. This part of the race was very special, with lots of support especially as you pass over the bridge in this village. The picture below kind of says it all.

Crossing the bridge at Aarberg. Sorry no picture of me here.

I made it to 22km feeling reasonably comfortable. This is where I met Alain and at this stage we were pretty jovial. However this didn't last long. At about 30km...things started getting a little tricky...my legs started to fade me and I had to start working hard for the pace I was running. Myself and Alain had been talking a bit, but I asked if we could have a little "quiet time". I'm not exactly sure what Alain thought at this point, but I expect it was something like "oh shit". I wanted to just concentrate regain my composure, but it really wasn't going well. I didn't feel awful, but I didn't feel awfully good. I was feeling quite negative but also fairly logical. I believed I would not be finishing tonight. However, the only place to get a bus back to the start was at 56km. So I figured, I would just keep plodding on as this was the quickest way to get there and then pull out and accept it wasn't my day.


The reason I was struggling so much was my nutrition strategy. I was taking a gel every 20 minutes, a strategy I had tried in training with good success. However, I had not tried the strategy when running late in the evening with a full three meals in my body from the day. I think because of this my body couldn't take them down quite so quickly and they sat on my stomach a little. Alain was an amazing help here. I really didn't want to put anything in my mouth but he forced me to keep taking fluids. Somewhere close to the 56km point I started coming back alive. The gels had been diluted by the fluids, and my legs started to respond.

Cool race numbers in Biel.

We stopped at 56km. We hadn't been stopping at any of the aid stations, which I was more than happy with. However, from 56km to 67km runners took runners off-road along the Emmendam. Bike support was not allowed here, so we had to stop and sort ourselves out. Get the head torch and get my gel pack and get going! This is where the race starting getting really exciting for me. I took a caffeine gel, the first of many for me. It seemed to almost instantly have an impact. I clocked a 7m30 mile including the stop (which to be fair was no more than 20 seconds).


The Emmendam trail really was quite tricky in places. Lots of large round stones covered by grass and dew. This made the stones hard to see and with my legs not feeling quite as agile as I would have liked I knew I had to concentrate hard through this section. So that is what I did. I started reeling people in at this point and this was lots of fun. Running along you were guide by some dim lanterns that were left out. These really helped make navigation a non-issue for this event. Once in a while you would see a different sort of light ahead, different from the lanterns and that's when you knew you were closing in on another competitor. This happened a lot on the trail and really helped me concentrate my effort. On this 11km section I overtook 6 runners whilst running and another handful through by getting through the aid station so quickly.



Having spent 30km-56km being overtaken this really lifted my spirits. I was now running quite well. Not fast, but I was holding a solid pace. We found out that fellow competitor Donnino had dropped out at 56km. He passed me during my bad spell. This was possibly the worst point in the race for me. I had been very confident in the build up to the race and to be fair to Donnino (who was aiming for sub 8) he was probably not expecting to overtake me, at least not this early on. So now it was clear not only to me that I was suffering but also to others, this makes the suffering somewhat more real. I did however smile and put on a good show as they went past. I wonder what they thought. Gutted for Donnino, but 100km is a long way to run and it just sometimes doesn't go how you want. He will be back for certain!


Coming out of the trail Alain was waiting. I think he was suprised to see me quite so soon. He figured I was in 12th place, but had it confirmed as 11th place when we hit the next aid station.

Hard to get lost in Biel

I kept churning out the miles coming out of the trail section. From mile 44-50 there was a gradual climb, which finishes with quite a steep climb. These miles did eventually slow me down and wear me down. However, I was still taking past people very comfortably. Although I was not running as quickly as I had hoped I was really pleased with my endurance, I was at least still "running". The steep climb I decided to walk, with the approval of Alain of course. Throughout this period he had been fantastic, responding to my increasingly moody demands. All at the same time as keeping a live web update on Facebook. Getting out this climb meant no more climbs for the rest of the race. The course isn't particularly hilly but you can see from the course profile that there are three fairly significant climbs to conquer. The best bit about this section was seeing the red lights. White lights represented course markers, red lights represented bike lights. This meant I was catching someone. I loved hunting them down, running past and saying in my worst German "wie gehts gut?". I took a lot of energy from this, although I expect my fellow competitors didn't!


Coming down the hill and for the next few miles I clock a few more 7m4x miles. Now I was quite close to the finish, but I was tired. The sun was coming up and I was slowing down. I had stopped overtaking people, not just because I was slowing down, but also because I had worked myself into the top 10 so there were not many left to overtake. The path on this final section was following the river. It really annoyed me as it was a little stoney. Not too bad but I just wanted a flat road, and I was tired and even the smallest thing can get to you. I caught a glimpse of someone in the distance but I just couldn't reel them in. I started feeling a bit sorry for myself. Here I hit a few 8 minute plus miles. My worst section in the race for a while. With 5 miles to go I made a conscious decision to up the pace and catch the man in front. I said to Alain "let's do this" or something to this tune. I thought back to some of my training runs, in particular a 5 hour run where I finished the last 5 miles at 7m10 and also my run at the Thames Trot back in February where I finished the last 13 miles in around 7m15. I knew I could handle the pace until the finish. So I proceeded to churn out some 7m30 miles, I overtook the runner in front and made sure I did it very strongly. 


In some respects this was a really good point of the race for me, finishing strong after 50 odd miles is pretty satisfying. On the other hand I do wonder if I could have picked it back up earlier. This doesn't come down to me being "soft" or not pushing it, I think this comes down to concentration. When you are running for such a long time you have to keep your concentration levels high. I wonder my concentration levels slipped towards the end. I thought seeing the sun come up would give me some more energy, but it didn't. With the sun coming up I started to have some visual stimulus after so long running in the dark. This may have distracted me from the task in hand and affected my concentration levels.


The finish had a few too many twists and turns and you couldn't even see the finish until about 200m to go (something I understand the race organisers will be addressing next year). For this reason I had to keep pushing because I could not believe it was true until I actually saw the finish line. Then it came. Alain got my Union Jack flag ready (this was about as much of a Jubilee celebration that I had). This was quite funny though as the flag got caught in the rear cassette of the bike. He managed to rip it out, without crashing and I ran down the finisher's chute with an oil stained torn flag. Lots of arm pumping and chest thumping and also for some reason a moonwalk over the line (not quite sure what possessed me to do that!). I went straight to Alain and gave him a massive huge. I was quite emotional at the end of the race and did well up a little. That was a really long night, something that tested me more than before. It really was the "Night of Nights". Finished 7th overall in a little over 8 hours.

At the finish with 6th placed Roman Gehrig and my oily, ripped flag

I hung about at the end and watched the award presentations. I received prizes for being 7th Male overall and 2nd in the under 30 age group. Really great prizes, a Swiss Army Knife (Victorinox) and a Swatch watch (unfortunately no Chromachrom for me!). After a week of loading up of pasta I was so excited about my next meal...for some reason though I chose to have pasta for breakfast! I must've been tired.

Well I think that is about it for my Biel race report. I hope to post shortly on some of the things I've learnt from this experience, but from reading the post you probably have a few ideas already.

Having read the report back I think I should add how amazing the support is out on the course. As you passed through the villages there were a number of people out throughout the night to cheer you on. As the night got later the numbers reduced, but they made up for it by being more drunk! This race comes highly recommended from me. I appreciate that travelling to Switzerland is not too cheap with the exchange rate, but certainly one to consider. Besides if you fly out on the Friday and return home on the Saturday you don't even need to pay for accommodation.

Take care guys.
Happy Running.

Biel / Bienne 100km - Race Preview

So the time has come again. I will be racing another road ultra. I am very excited. The Biel 100km race in Switzerland. After the disappointment of having to drop out of the Barry 40 miler, it is great to have made (or almost made) the start-line with no niggles or injuries. Ready to rock!

The Race


I first heard about this event over 6 years ago, when a Swiss friend recommended I run the event. The seed had been planted all those years ago and at long last I am getting round to running the damn thing.

The event itself brings a few new experiences for me. Firstly the event is a night run. It starts at 10pm on Friday (8th June) and competitors run through the night until they finish (or they finish themselves off!). Secondly I have never participated in an Ultramarathon with such a large field. At present it stands at 1065 competitors. This makes it one of the biggest Ultramarathons in Europe and probably the biggest road event in Europe. The event will also be the Swiss Athletics 100km championships, okay, so I'm not Swiss, but it means the standard of the field will be strong. Below are the winning times for the past 5 years and the number of runners under 8 hours in each of those years for an indication of the race standard.

2011: 7h11m55 - Winning Time :: 4 runners under 8 hours
2010: 7h31m01 - Winning Time :: 6 runners under 8 hours
2009: 6h59m14 - Winning Time :: 6 runners under 8 hours
2008: 6h49m44 - Winning Time :: 15 runners under 8 hours
2007: 7h26m10 - Winning Time :: 14 runners under 8 hours

So what this shows is that I probably will be in the mixer at the sharp end of the race, but I'm not going to win it!

Another great thing about this race is that this year will be the 54th edition. This really is a Grandaddy of a race.

I will be staying in Switzerland with the same Swiss friend who introduced me to the race. He will be pacing me around the course on his bike which is going to be great for nutrition strategy and also receiving abuse (encouragement?) in my weakest hours! One of his friend's will also be running and gunning for sub 8 hours. I really hope for a good night for all of us.

Predicted time and pace strategy


Coming into an event of this magnitude any runner wants to put in their best possible performance. Due to the nature of the event finding that limit of peak performance is a fairly tricky science. Running 1-2% too hard early doors means you can lose a lot of time at the back end of the race. Hitting "the wall" in a marathon might lose you 5-6 minutes, but doing this in 100km might mean 20-30mins...which is massive. No  one wants to be out there for 30 minutes longer than they should be.

It is a funny thing trying to plan the pace strategy for this event. I am now at the stage with the marathon distance that whatever happens I am confident of finishing. Not the case with this event. One day I feel confident with my target time, other days I worry about finishing if I go off at that pace. However, one thing I can draw on is that I have suffered a lot in my races, almost always hit "the wall" and have never DNF'd. Not that DNFing is a bad thing to do, there certainly are times when it is sensible and necessary.

So my only previous attempt at 100km on the road was at the Anglo Celtic Plate in 2011, where I recorded a 7h51m21. I will be aiming for around 7h30 this time around. 

I have spent a bit of time trying to quantify that mere 21 minutes improvement. I think I am just about there. The key reasons why I should be confident about going for the 7h30 target are below:

1) Last year's race nutrition was poor. Too much caffeine and too little calories.

2) Last year's pacing was poor. I ran a 7h20 pace and I wasn't quite there endurance wise. This year I will probably run a 7h25 pace until I start to fade (sorry that should be if I start to fade. I need to remember I am supremely confident...)

3) I have another year of training in the legs. I'm getting older and I have more wrinkles. A sure sign I am a stronger ultra runner.

4) Although the mileage in the 6 months leading up to Biel have been lower than the previous attempt, I have run a higher number of long and super long-runs. The lead up to the Anglo Celtic Plate had only 2 x 50km. This time round I have an 80km, 60km, 2 x 50km and a few marathons too.

Overall I don't think I'm in greatly better shape than last year, but I think I've got a 10 minute improvement through race experience and another 10 minute improvement from improved fitness and endurance.

The rest of the week


Well, tomorrow I travel out to Switzerland. I will be mainly eating, sleeping and relaxing. Life will be good. One of the main things I need to get sorted is my nutrition plan for Friday. The event starts at 10pm, which poses a new challenge for me. I will have a chat with a few friends and get some advice from them on this, unless anyone else has some ideas? Currently thinking a large late breakfast and a large early dinner.

Anyway, best get off to pack my bags. I'm almost certain I will be taking too much kit!