Out

Sports News: I'm out of the Over The Edge Marathon & on the injured step. Visit to Physio soon. Oh well, more time for me to paint the bathroom door and play the ukulele. No, honest.

A testing time

You cheats.
You big bloody cheats.

When I was at school, you promised me no-one would have to work any more, all our domestic chores would be done by robots, our time would be our own, we'd be able to go on holiday to the moon, we'd all have personalised jet-packs and there would be monorails everywhere. I especially liked the monorail thing.
what happened?
I don't know, but as a natural optimist I'm still waiting.



So, anyway, what do you know about the Cooper Test? It's all here and basically you run as hard as you can for 12 minutes. This tells you 2 things as far as I can see: (1) you can work out your VO2 max (2) 12 minutes is a LONG time when you are flat out. Comrade Dave has brought it to my attention as a way of training us up to take on future challenges. If we do, I shall take pictures, but I warn you - they won't be pretty.

Things to do when you're not running

I was looking on the internet for 'weird sports pictures'. Don't ask why. But anyway this one made me laugh.

Injury Corner
I have got a sore knee. In fact, it's been sore since the last big run a few days ago. What really made a bad situation much worse though was cycling to-and-from Shrewsbury on Tuesday.

The tendons at the top of the knee are revolting, the knee itself is behaving like an Austin Allegro having been yanked into a handbrake turn, and if you bend it on to a certain spot, OOOUUUUUCCCCH. I think I need some of the magic mushrooms, maaan. So I'm in a strange netherworld, now. If I was a proper athlete, I would be up at the expensive physios and all activity would be suspended until I can return to peak performance level.
But as I'm just an average bloke who likes running, and because there is an attractive event coming up Next Week, and because I have done some training - not much, but enough to get round, I'm still pondering whether or not I toe the line at the Over the Edge Marathon. Give it till Tuesday and then we shall see. Present odds - 70% chance I won't be there.
The Gym
I decided I needed to work on those other parts of my body, so I joined the local council gym scheme. I was partly seduced by the fact that all the gym equipment is brand new, and after having made a few enquiries it seemed like a good deal. So off I trotted on Thursday to seal the deal, and on Friday I pitched up for my first session. Having gingerly eased my way into the gym I went first of all for the familiar option; the running machine. I fired it up, and set off without understanding the calibration, due to my clunky leg I didn't seem to be going very fast and in fact I wasn't - somewhere around 10kph, plus I could see how badly I was running in a full-length mirror. Oh, dear, that wasn't good at all. After I while I decided I was warmed up, so switched to the bikes. These had the advantage that I could tinker with the TV buttons and so completed 5km while watching Ninja Warrior. After the bike I progressed to an old favourite, the indoor rower, where I knocked out a couple of fairly easy 500m reps. I'm not aerobically unfit, it's just my flipping leg. To the weights!! I tried all the weightstations, kept the weight low as per previous knowledge and managed to get out in one piece BUT two days later the Abductor/Adductor machine seems to have taken it's toll.
In Ercall Stompers news, no plans as yet to get the numbers out for a run. Current plans include the Cat & Fiddle cycle Sportive in October and the Little Stretton - Stiperstones Time trial in November. But there must be more, we can't waste this Summer !!

A well deserved rest.

Ahhharrrr. A man's gotta chill out sometimes. And so my Inspiration and I went out on the MS 'day out' to Blists Hill Victorian Town. Highlight of the day... was a pint in the Victorian pub, in the sun, sadly not at Victorian prices though!! It was nice after the long run of the day before. I'm struggling with a sore knee at the moment.

of Relays and long, long, long runs (for me)

I shouldn't do these updates on a Sunday morning, I'm sleepy and my brain is like fudge. I'm writing after what has, in terms of running, been a tough week for me. Not the training - well, not solely the training - but more of the motivation for running. I'm desperately in need of a change, the training is getting me nowhere and I'm getting slower and slower and more frustrated over it. Highlight of the week: Tuesday night's 8 miler. Sun, warm, a lovely trip round the Wrekin and the Ercall all performed at a reasonable lick (well as much as I could manage post Hutchinson Way). I wasn't able to do much better at the Shugborough Relays though. The days of me tearing round in 11 minutes seem long gone. I found it difficult to motivate myself, I got it into my head it was just a trot round and that's the way it turned out. When I wanted to put a bit more in, I put down the pedal and...nothing. Let's hope this is a temporary lack of form and not "the end" in sight. Roll on to Saturday and the long-dreaded 20 mile training run. That is 2 x big runs in 6 days. I decided to make it up as I went along, so I meandered out of town and eventually found myself picking up a bit of last week's route before diverting into Telford Town Park (not impressed - fences everywhere - looks really tumbledown) and on to Stafford Park and a long meander before making it to St. Georges. Thankfully it was a big downhill from there as I was already in the red zone. The last 3 miles were done from memory! So that's it now. No more long runs before the marathon, if indeed I do the marathon. It's going to be an extremely hard day. Hopefully I can fit in a race next weekend as a warm up - before that it's Ironbridge 4 miles and I'm just hoping I don't put in another lame performance.

Old enough then?

Blimey. Merlene Ottey is bidding to go to her 8th (EIGHTH) Olympics at the tender age of 52. And not in some sitting down sport either, she is, if you don't know, a sprinter who famously represented Jamaica back in the day and who now represents Slovenia. Well done, girl.

The Hutchinson Way, way, way

The above picture is the route profile for the Hutchinson Way footpath, copied from the LDWA site . The footpath is described as 17-18 miles or rural, urban -type of trail. I've only tried it once before; tales of me failing and sitting, sobbing gently on the base of Lilleshall Monument are dotted around t'internet. I set out this morning, slightly apprehensive but eager not to repeat that sad event. Ok. So the run starts at Wellington pool, but quickly climbs up to the Ercall and then climbs some more into the Limekiln Woods before crossing the golf course and then deeper into Limekiln Woods before coming out at Short Wood. First minor problem here when I was confronted by a barbed-wire fence, thankfully I was tall enough to get over with negligible damage. The next bit took me past the travellers' camp at Lawley before getting on to some tarmac, going via the Rock and eventually pitching up at Telford Centre. It's quite surreal being away from it all in one minute then running past the cinema and office blocks the next. But all was going well. The next bit was via the railway station and up to Priorslee and the Flash (pool), here's where the leaflet/map proved to be a bit rubbish and local knowledge took over. How you can find the route just using the map, heaven knows (more later on this!) Once at the top of Limekiln Bank, it was down the hill and into the Granville Park, along the trails again and across to Lilleshall over the fields. All was going well, maybe I should have quit then. Oh, hang on, that IS where I quit last time! I knew I had to be on the Incline, I knew where I was but I insisted on following the HW map/directions. Bad move. Not clear signage left me climbing another fence, then stile, then struggling across a field of Oilseed Rape (thankfully not in flower) until I got to another grassy field. Easy? no. the grass was knee-high, my feet were soaked. Eventually I got onto the incline and picked up the more familiar path along the old canal, scaring the sheep, feeling good. This path soon became almost impassable too though, being overgrown with brambles, scratching my legs and reducing me to a jog/walk/stumble. Eventually I made it back to the woods and some running relief. The map then directed me on to the A518 and then up Pitchcroft Lane (nasty touch, definitely an unnecessary climb) before crossing more nettles/ long grass and crossing the A518 again. On the other side I could almost taste the finish but the path was completely overgrown and I soon found myself stuck in a long grassy field and then lost. I retraced my steps and decided the best course was to go into Church Aston and pick up the trail there. From then on it was easy, though I was a bit tired I was soon trotting down the High St. I realised the finish was on Stafford St. Car Park so a quick detour via Waitrose was called for! Stats: 18.64 miles, over 3 hours . 3.33 on the clock, but considerable time taken up with detours and some walking/falling over. Had no problem with the distance though. The course is, to be honest, very contrived in the final few miles, poorly signed and poorly maintained. But it's done now...!

Lost

Getting 'lost' when you sort of know where you are is one of the little pleasures of running in company. What I mean is..when you know roughly where you are, and in what direction you should be travelling, but you've never seen that trail, path, hill, hedge, brook before. And so you discuss where you think you are; you agree that you're along the right lines and decide on the next little bit together. Sometimes it works out and you get a little high from your cleverness; quite often you are wrong, so your route needs adjustment or occasionally backtracking. Tonight was one of those nights, a fairly straightforward Stompers run out of the Dale but we got lost somewhere in Lightmoor. Lightmoor for goodness' sake. It's not the Lake District is it? Two decisions, several stiles and some nettles later, and we were running across someone's lawn -ok, it wasn't quite as bad as it seems, as it was a right-of-way but it was a blooming nicely looked-after one! Anyway, we worked out way through the rain back to the sanctuary of t'pub. Lovely stuff :)

Small catchup and it's almost year zero again.

After Granville 4ml (see below) I pulled my left calf. Completely self-inflicted, due to overdoing a stretch. That's the last time I listen to Facebook advice :) Then a few days off with chest infection/inflammation have left me missing 2 x long runs training. So I guess it's how well I get back to it which will decide for me whether the Marathon is on or not. In other news, Ercall Stompers now have their own LiRF (Leader in Running Fitness). I'm not a gun for hire, more of a training plan-cum-hi-viz jacket for hire. I noticed this weekend it was the Welsh Castles Relay. What a great event that is, 20 legs over 2 days. Good for cameraderie/banter and usually either good for sunburn OR a soaking. Or both - Wales can be like that! Also it was the Man v Horse Marathon, in Llanwrtyd Wells. Here's the MvH website. Don't know whether Man beat Horse this year, but I really fancy a crack at it next year. Failing that, there's always the Bog Snorkelling or even the Bog Snorkelling Triathlon!

Granville Colliery/Shropshire 4 miles

description: 4 miles, 2 laps+ round Granville Country Park, Donnington Wood, Telford. A multi-terrain route. time: 28.12 stuff: Granville is close to where I grew up, and also the site of my family's homes at the turn of the 20th Century. Today it's part woods, part reclaimed land, part tidied up and being steadily encroached upon by housing called 'Muxton'. There you go that's the history lesson. it's a lot prettier now than when I was a kid - though nowhere near as much fun! the race: it was a hectic start before the first of 3 climbs up Granville road, which proceeded a long descent down the lane to the Muxton farm/ Shropshire golf club complex, where the race then picked up a trail through the woods back to Granville road. This big loop was done twice, with 3 climbs of the hill in all. My legs, weary from a tough week and a long run at the weekend, gave out on the 3rd climb and as a result I was unable to muster anything other than a feeble challenge on the run-in. But the result does represent progress of sorts and I'm sure there is more to come. Next race in this series is on 27th June at Ironbridge, where by tradition it's either really hot or pouring with rain. Onwards!

unseasonable England

I love the warm weather; I love going for a run. You put the two together and I'll moan and whinge though. This week's long slow run was out and back, 16 miles, and it was about 25 degrees, not a cloud in the sky when I got back. All the energy drained out of me and the last bit was a struggle, as you would expect when upping the miles slightly each week. A worrying thing was at the halfway/ turnround point I had a really bad pain in the back but thankfully it went off once I got going again (or it was masked by the leg pain!!). I'm not convinced that long slow distance over a course with overall climb of probably less than 20ft is the best preparation for a hilly off-road marathon, but it's the best I can do at the moment. Missing the Hills though, I will be back soon :)

it doesn't need a title - the picture says it all

And so marathon training begins in earnest with a 15 mile slog around various communities making up part of the borough. The roads are long, with many a winding turn. This author is apprehensive about the challenge of the marathon, having not completed one for 11 years, but I'm under no illusions that I can get away with minimal training and "it's all right to walk". I want to do my best.

You need to be an orienteer to get round Dawley

This picture is taken from the pit mound that dominates the skyline near Dawley's Phoenix school. In days gone by we would run - well, crawl, really - up the hill during cross-country races. Now it has its own Orienteering course round it. Actually it's quite pretty these days. Phoenix Flyer 5km has a long history - well, the name does. It's been part of the Telford Sexarathon series for years now. In the olden days it was a tough challenge round the streets near the school, running flat out while avoiding kids, dogs, dogshit, buses and cars as well as other runners. But eventually, 'elf and safety took charge, and the race moved on to the fields. This coincided with a fall in numbers which has thankfully been reversed now - there must have been a couple of hundred out last night. Good stuff! The race is one small loop of the sports field, then 2 larger loops of the sports field plus 3 adjoining fields. It's reasonably flat and almost entirely grass, and last night it was pretty good going. I started sort of mid-pack and finished sort of mid-pack with 21.07 which is a pb for me in this age group though the distance was a bit dubious, garmins coming up a wee bit short but I suppose it being MT it would normally be slower. Swings and roundabouts. Nice to see the great Jonathon Pierce out & about and he won a spot prize (but couldn't spend it as he was in a hurry). So that's Phoenix. Next up in this series - Shropshire 4 ml. Now it gets serious! In other news: I have had my entry for the Wenlock Marathon accepted. Gulp. In other other news: Dave met up with our chums from Axe Valley Runners and did their handicap run. 27.54 for 3.6 miles. No details yet of how much beer was drunk in celebration..

from the pen of Imelda

The recent trouble I had with my splooshily new Innov8 shoes left me thinking about running shoes in general.

They're too dear, we should run barefoot. Except we can't run barefoot because the roads hurt our feet. And not all of us can run barefoot anyway. There, that's my contribution to the great shoe debate. Moving swiftly on (as we must) the Innov8 are the latest in a long line of lamentable off roaders I've had in my time. I began with a pair of Hi-Tec somethings, which were like the old Silver Shadows with what felt like fitted crossplys. They were a bit rubbish but I managed to donate them to Wilko who never throws anything away and so probably still has them somewhere. I was then talked into buying a pair of ETA racers, "because they are in the sale" from Bourne Sports. I remember these as being made of cardboard with felt uppers, though I was able to get a few good multi terrain runs out of them before they fell apart. Bourne Sports was also the scene of the next shoe crime, the "Felldancer". It looked the part, it had some tough old studs but boy was it a hard shoe to wear, there wasn't much flexibility in there and after a fell race your feet felt like tinned meat. I began to look adulterously for something else and stopped off briefly at the Saucony Jazz Grid trail. Great shoe - until you wanted to run through any wet mud. Sort of ruins the whole point, really! I did acquire a pair of Walshes for a tenner from TK MAXX - they were white and blue but otherwise ok, they were without doubt the best shoe to date. It was just those colours though! Having not had enough foot misery, I then tried the 'shoe of the moment' the Adidas Swoop. Looked and felt the part, except I kept slipping in them and even worse, my feet were quickly blistered to youknowwhat. Agh. I decided to bite the bullet and so handed over readies to Mr Walsh for some of his finest PB trainers. I bloody loved those shoes, they took me up hill and down dale. Eventually they went to shoe Valhalla after a particularly tough and muddy Leek cross country. I was happy to fork out for a replacement pair though which saw me through another couple of seasons. After a while though those little studs became even littler and by Dec '11 i was a slipping and a-sliding all over the hills. I looked around and spotted the rise of Innov8. Worth a go? seemed a bit dear, but when I got them out of the box my gaze was immediately drawn to the crampons - sorry - studs on the bottom. To date - one race, and one blistered heel.

Route 66

What? a blog about bikes? on the Ercall website? Look, Mike did 107.1 km on the Route 66 Cycle Sportive organised by the Nova Raiders CC yesterday. Which is a big effort by any stretch of the imagination. Good stuff.

3 Peaks Fell Race (Bollington version)

There is Snowdon, Ben Nevis and Scafell Pike. The 3 Peaks. Or, Pen Y Ghent, Whernside & Ingleborough. The 3 Peaks. I went to picturesque Bollington in Cheshire to do Kerridge Hill, White Nancy (pictured) and Nab Hill. The 3 Peaks. Bollington was almost impossibly pretty on a sunny Saturday in May, with a cricket match in full flow on the green and a lovely babbling stream beneath an impressive old viaduct. And a local Brewery, with it's own pub opposite. And some gorgeous woods, and...well, you get the picture. It was nice. To the race. The race started up on the viaduct which I'm assuming was once a railway line. Very impressive. We then worked our way onto a canal towpath before picking up roads and tracks. Most of the early running was flat and quite good to ease the stiff driving muscles into action, but soon we were climbing up narrow footpaths which brought us onto the first hill, Kerridge Hill. Once round the trig point, there was a steep grassy descent into the valley where I lost places as usual due to my lack of fell training. We were soon climbing back up onto the ridge though, we had to traverse a diagonal climb back up to White Nancy, where there was again another sharp drop to the valley floor. Once we hit the road there was a bit of roadwork through a housing estate before getting out onto Nab Hill. Round the trig, and the descent was fast and runnable, we also did a little more road work before getting back on to the towpath again and back to finish next to the cricket field. Came in just under the hour at 56.30 which was ok, I didn't push it much. Biggest issue was the blister I have rubbed on my right heel caused I think by my new fell shoes.

Trail Marathon Madness

After a lot of um-ing and arr-ing I have decided to enter the Wenlock Over the Edge Marathon.

There are some reasons for this. Firstly I'm inspired by by friend Art who has just completed 100 marathons (see earlier post). If he can do 100, I can do 13. Secondly, its only a few miles from home. Thirdly, it's Olympic year and it's in the Wenlock Olympics, inspiration for the modern games. Fourthly, and most importantly, it looks like fun. It's going to be tough though but hopefully the sun will shine and I'll finish with a smile on my face!

East Devon Way Relay 2012

We won't be doing it. It was due to take place this weekend, but has been cancelled due to lack of interest. I think we broke it last year. We. Broke. A. Race. That is all.

100 marathons.

So, knee injury has come back to haunt me again. Sharp pain under the kneecap, depending how I land the foot and usually on a downhill slope. It goes away with rest, but rest I don't want or need. However, it is aggravated by my being so stiff - so I can do some work on flexibility. In other news, a friend of mine has been inducted into the 100 Marathon Club. It is, by any standards, an awesome achievement and one which, for me conjures up several loosely-connected thoughts. Firstly, it's proper 'old-school' running. The members of this club aren't chasing places in London, nor are they great charity fundraisers. They are just as likely - in fact more so - to turn up at a race involving just a couple of dozen people, in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but friends and long-suffering family members as support. In that respect they are the latest in a long and honourable British marathon tradition. For example, I used to work with a chap who told us of his exploits in the Liverpool Marathon which had fields of 30-ish and which finished in front of the Kop on a Saturday afternoon. If you dig through archive photos of the times, you may find fading snaps of strange, skinny men running through traffic accompanied by nothing more than kids on bikes. It really was a different world back then.

There is also this obsessive, completist eccentric trait which is classically British. Record collections, label collections, book collections, train numbers, football grounds, real ales, you name it, we've got it. Running 100 marathons fits in well here too. I think you have to take account of all the travelling too. Running 100 marathons means you have to travel to 100 starts and they are all over the country - and other countries, too. I think you need to be determined and organised. Finally, you have to recognise it as a sporting achievement. It's 2620 miles, for goodness' sake! Also what drives a man to recognise that he may not be quick enough to challenge for honours in any single event, but he can change the game completely by being the last man standing. So Well Done Arthur, take a bow. What an awesome achievement.

Sheinton Steeplechase

Sheinton, near Cressage, has a strange name, was mentioned in the Doomsday book, and has a really stiff road climb (if you're on a bike that is) going through it. That has probably exhausted my knowledge of the place, sorry. It is, however, pretty damn pretty. Anyhow, they put on a race there every so often. I thought it was every year, but there have been gaps. I had a trip out there, and for the princely sum of £5.00, you get an old-school paper number (..glad it wasn't raining) and a lovely tour of the local countryside. This was a 3 1/2 -ish mile trip round local farm tracks, through fields, someone's garden (we were warned), alongside streams,

through the obligatory water splash (pic thanks Al Tye) and over several stiles before meandering through the woods, across even more stiles, over even more fields and finally spilling out on to a track... near a road.. near the finish. It was quite a tough and muddy little cross-country run, as all the best ones should be. I have no idea how well things went for me, but I came away feeling slightly disappointed with my efforts. On to the next one..