The Marathon des Sables

Speed training in some form or another should be a part of every ultra runners training toolkit. As pointed out in the physiology tests I have had, it is certainly something I should be concentrating on more, at least more than just a tempo session most weeks.

The virtues of hill reps, intervals, tempos etc have long been extolled by experts, professionals and amateurs alike but they do still remain ignored by a good percentage of runners.

Finally, for various reasons I am now able to attend the Monday night speed sessions with the running club. So I popped along in what felt like the coldest evening of the year (it wasn’t it was just icy, wet, windy and felt that way) I ventured out to start some speed work. How I coped wasn’t a surprise to me in that I recovered quickly but couldn’t maintain my fastest speeds beyond the 3rd rep or at the end of a long hill sprint. What I was surprised at was that my top speed was actually … well, not bad. So with some continued commitment to the sessions I am certain that even at this ‘late’ stage in the game the benefits will be reaped come March.

After a slowish 20 something miler (road … uck!) on Saturday today is a rest before a nice run with the club tomorrow, a recovery run on Thursday and a walk in the Peak District on Saturday.

Although 90% of my thoughts are quiet rightly geared towards the MdS at this mormnt, there is still 10% of my thoughts left, of which I use at least 6% for other running and adventure related activities.

So I was pleased to today when my Swaledale Marathon confirmation popped in my inbox. Anyone who has been reading this blog for a while and is still here (firstly, well done!) will know that I ran this for the first time last year and I had an absolute blast.

The race has had a solid reputation for many years and for a lot of people is a really important event in the running calendar.

So after the MdS I have the following scedule penned in:

• June 6^th - Wharfedale Marathon
• June 13^th - Swaledale Marathon
• June 26^th - West Highland Way Relay
• July 11^th - Hull 24hr Track Race

I am not sure that running around a track in Hull really is quiet the fun I signed up to with Ultrarunning but I won’t know until I have done it … it’s going to be fun finding out!

There are probably a few more to pencil in!

With the talk of the cold weather recently in the news you would almost be forgiven to think that the Gulf Stream had switched off or the UK had been towed north of Norway and is squatting on Longyearbyen. It’s been cold, but that’s cold for the UK. Yesterday was frozen, below 0C, overcast and windy, so it didn’t thaw out all day and the ground was like concrete.

I decided to try out my new Petzl E+Light out so went out for an afterdark 10 mile off-road run. With the cold wind blowing and the layer of hoar frost over everything it was quite beautful in the glint of the torch light. The frozen churned up solid mud did occasionally make it a little tricky underfoot and I was caught out by the occasional solid molehill.

The E+Light is a great light espcially for it’s tiny size and does a more than satisfactory job running with. I have heard about sand in the mechanism guffing it up but bar a sand storm at night I think it will be fine. So far, many have said this is THE torch to take to the desert.

One of the bits of kit that arrived today was a Merino wool long sleeve top, I have always heard (herd?) the plaudits laid upon Merino wool based tops etc and it seems that the praise is well justified!

It’s one of the comfiest tops I have, and having been wandering around today in the sub zero temps I can also comfirm how unbelievably warm it is.

They are not cheap but it seems worth the investment, like my Buff collection I don’t think I will ever be without one …

I have the Howies version which can be found here.

On Tuesday I went back to the Human Performance Centre at Lincoln University to undergo some fitness tests with Paul Murgatroyd.
Paul is conducting research into ultrarunning and has been working with a number of ultrarunners both in the lab and in the field (the HR results from the Round Rotherham results can be found here).

This Tuesday was a follow up session from the first visit way back last April.

The tests take in roughly the following:

1. Weigh in, questionairre etc
   
2. 10-15 minute warm up
3. Resting lactate sample
4. 3 minute intervals with 1km/h increases in speed
5. rest
6. 1 minute intervals at set speed with 1% increases in incline

The one big shift that sticks out is the running economy shown below.

   Excellent       =   170 - 179 ml∙kg-1∙km-1
   Very good       =   180 – 189 ml∙kg-1∙km-1
   Above Average   =   190 – 199 ml∙kg-1∙km-1
   Average 	   =   200 ml∙kg-1∙km-1
   Below Average   =   201 – 210 ml∙kg-1∙km-1
   Poor 	   =   211 – 230 ml∙kg-1∙km-1

               
       Speed   |   April 07   |    Jan 08    
     --------------------------------------
        10     |     216      |     188      
        11     |     218      |     188      
        12     |     214      |     183      

As you can see there have been some big improvements in running economy, and this is a good thing!
It is still clear that I do need to keep up my speed work (and be a bit more probably) but things are pretty good. The results sent through by Paul and the recommendations are going to shape the final training push.