Start of the Pennine 100

Sunday 11 July 2010

A Day on the Fells

A great deal has happened since my last post. I have been working, trying to get as much running in as I can (not a lot!!) and have some sort of home life – hence not being able to keep my blog as up-to-date as I would like. However, I do intend to remedy that and post regular updates from now on.

Alison and I have just come back from a break in Wenslydale. We have stayed at this particular cottage a few times before but keep going back as it has good access to the whole of the Dales. We managed to get in quite a bit of walking and chilling time. While we were there, I even managed a Fell Race! Bingley Harriers (www.bingleyharriers.co.uk) organise three races over a long weekend in Kettlewell and I would thoroughly recommend it. I was only able to get to one race but having spoken to the runners who were there for the whole weekend, I will definitely try to get back next year for all three races. I did the final race of the weekend which was a 3km race to the top of the hill behind the campsite and back again. I am not known as a good climber but I can hold my own on descents so I was interested to see how I would do. I set off at a good tempo pace but could not keep with the ‘racing snakes’, so I just tried to keep the pace at 85% MHR, ie - not too hard. When I reached the top, three people had overtaken me including the first lady (who I knew was a seasoned fell runner), but I was intending to try to target them for the down hill run. They had about a 100m lead on me as I started my descent so I just went for it, hoping for the best and that my feet would keep up! It took a further 400m to catch and pass them all, then it was just head down and push as hard as I could to the finish. Thankfully no one caught me and I came in in a time 16:39 which put me in 9th place out of 32 runners – a result I was very happy with especially as I have not been managing to put the miles in I would like to have been doing.

Its back to work tomorrow and Alison and I are looking forward already to the week we have booked off in September.

Colm and I have now entered the OMM and await confirmation in August as to whether we have a place in A Class. Fingers crossed!

Training Plan

Week M T W TH F S SU
1 Rest 6-10 miles, including 4x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 7-9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 90-minute run 3-hour run (or about 18 miles)
2 Rest 6-10 Miles, including 4x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 7-9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 90-minute run 3-hour run
3 Rest 6-10 miles, including 2x2 miles at HMP Easy 5-mile jog 7-9 miles, middle 3 at MP (5:00) Rest 2-hour run 3.5-hour run (or about 20 miles)
4 Rest 5-8 miles, including 3x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 6 miles, middle 2 at MP Rest 1.5-hour run 2-hour run
5 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 3.5- to 4-hour run (or about 20-24 miles) 3-hour run
6 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 3.5- to 4-hour run 3-hour run
7 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 mile at HMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 3.5- to 4-hour run 3-hour run, last hour at MP
8 Rest 9 miles, including 3x2 miles at HMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 2-hour run 2.5-hour run
9 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 miles at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 4-hour run 3.5-hour run, last hour at MP
10 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 miles at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 4-hour run 3.5-hour run, last hour at MP
11 Rest 9 miles, including 3x2 miles at HMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 2.5-hour run 3-hour run
12 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 4-hour run 5-hour run (or about 27-29 miles)
13 Rest 9 miles, including 6x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 4-hour run 5-hour run
14 Rest 9 miles, including 4x1 mile at TMP Easy 5-mile jog 9 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 2-hour run 2-hour run
15 Rest 7 miles, including 3x1 mile at MP Easy 5-mile jog 7 miles, middle 3 at MP Rest 1.5-hour run Easy 1-hour jog
16 Rest 6 miles, middle 3 at HMP Easy 5-mile jog Easy 3-mile jog Rest: Stay off your feet 50-mile race Rest. (Duh.)

Key:(MP) Marathon Pace: the pace/effort you can hold in a marathon
(HMP) Half-Marathon Pace: the per-mile average of your best half-marathon
(TMP) 10-Mile Pace: the per-mile pace of your fastest 10-miler
Recovery for HMP/TMP: Jog slowly until you feel fresh enough to start the next repetition.