Saturday 18 May 2013

Clyde Stride recce

So todays plan was to recce the 2nd half of the Clyde Stride which I'm running in July. This day had been carefully booked in, we had friends to stay with in the west, and it worked with my wife's work. Shame that it happened to be a complete shocker weather wise. I first got nervous when the rain was pouring down on the M8. My windscreen wipers rarely see speed setting 3, but it was needed far too much on the drive over.

So the plan was this. Drop the family at our friends, drive to New Lanark, leave the car, walk to Lanark train station, get train to Motherwell, run back to car. Simple. First part was fine, walked to the station eating a sandwich (ham salad and coleslaw) got train (£4.10 single!!!, to end up in Motherwell). Got to Motherwell, and after some disorientation found my way down to Strathclyde Park and was properly off on the route.

Annoyingly I realised I was carrying far too much water literally minutes after I passed the last bin I could have dumped the stuff in. I didn't see another bin until New Lanark, although I quickly drank the water cos it was pissing me off, I had to carry the bottle all the way with me. Only the Gods of karma kept me from flinging the stupid bottle into the Clyde but I didn't feel I needed more punishment.

Experienced Clyde Stride types are forever banging on about the coo field (Scottish for cow field). It lived up to its fearsome reputation. There were a few stand offs with militant cows, in the end I took to the extreme edge of the river bank to get past them, figuring that in an emergency I could outswim a cow (which I probably couldn't). They let me past, but I did end up with bird shit all over my jacket  as a result of climbing down the sandbanks and never quite felt clean afterwards.

The first bit passes fairly easily, I was a bit put out by this sign which I felt was crying out for a Clyde Walkway west arrow, but I muddled through.

 
 
Mauldslie bridge arrived quite easily and I was lulled into something of a false sense of security about how easy this all was.
 
 
I soon came to a great opportunity for a limbo spot prize during the race
 
 
and then had my first encounter with some proper mud
 
 
I don't own any trail shoes but if I did this is precisely the sort of terrain that would leave me thinking long and hard about what shoes to wear, ahhh the advantages of limited funds. This whole bit through some ridiculously named woods was most unpleasant. However it was nothing compared to the unremittingly grim bit next to the sheep fields after Crossford. Here the mud was both deep and unavoidable. It was hard today as I just couldn't run and slipped everywhere, but on race day with 30+ miles in my legs this would be properly tough.


 
 
It was great to get past this bit and down towards New Lanark, it was all a bit of  a struggle now but the end was in sight. The paths down through the woods were a little hair-raising, but I got there and found the energy to run past the car and to the falls of Clyde, which in spite of the rain were a little tame.


 
 
Then back to the car, a well earned thermos of coffee and back to our friends, where I learned that my eldest had been sick, my trip to the pub was off, and a drive back home in the pissing rain was in order.
 
Still very pleased with my day, I did the distance without too much trouble, my food seemed to work (high 5 gels, a bounty,  a nine bar, some soreen and some haribo) there isn't too much to be scared off in the terrain, and thanks to some mid run plastering, no nipple issues at all.
 
As I missed my trip to the pub, I followed up my tour of Lanarkshire with my own world tour...
 
  



Tuesday 14 May 2013

Chasing rainbows

Spectacular weather on my run home tonight, rain, sun, wind. But the highlight was the amazing rainbows over the sea as I neared home.



Ran well too, 7.30 min miles for much of the way. The benefits of a lunchtime cake.

Saturday 11 May 2013

Eat like a pig : Run like a fox

I didn't really intend that this blog would be about what I eat, I think that would be even duller than me talking a lot about running. But given that I'm not telling anyone about this blog I guess none of that matters.

Anyway after not eating very much last week and trying to run a long way, without much success, this week I felt a new approach was called for. Well I say new but actually eating a lot of rubbish and running so I can get away with it, has been one of my routes to success for a long time.

So I tried the same run home from work as last week (18 miles), but instead of the salad and vegetables, I went for toast and muesli for breakfast, for lunch - masses of pasta and a chocolate muffin and some energy gels and a bounty mid run. I'd never ever considered eating a bounty before in any context let alone a sporting one, but I was reading somewhere about someone who ate one during the D33 and thought it might work. Turns out to be a great idea.

I hadn't really done gels since last years marathon, and they required a special lunchtime pilgrimage to the very busy running shop. I think they felt a little bad when they realised I had been waiting 10 min to buy two gels, but I love looking at all the cool running stuff I can afford. They are hideous and messy things, but they do serve a purpose, although I always feel like and idiot running along, trying to curl them up like a toothpaste tube to squeeze out those last few precious drops.

So running home was fine. Held a decent pace all the way. Never felt bad, mentally or physically in spite of taking a longer and hiller route. The wind was also against me, but living on the Scottish coast I'm used to that, and my thoughts on the wind are probably worth a blog in themselves.

The conclusion. Eat, and don't worry too much.

Saturday 4 May 2013

Carbo unloading

So this week, on something of a whim,saw me give up carbs for five days. My wife decided that she was going to so I thought I would give it a try to see what would happen. After all you hear lots of stories of people being very successful on paleo diets and such like.

Now when I say give up carbs, that would be to undersell the 50g of brown rice I was allowed each day. To be fair when we had brown rice and curry it was fine. But when the days precious ration of carbohydrate was in the form of puffed brown rice cereal it was hard not to feel a little mournful. Puffed brown rice cereal is the evil twin of sugar puffs, which themselves are pretty evil so that gives you some idea of how bad the stuff is.

Anyway, in an amusing twist of fate, this week was also to be my hardest running week so far in my build up the Clyde Stride in July. 13 miles on Tuesday and 17 on Thursday. Both after a full day at the office, getting off the train one and two stops early respectively.

Tuesday was hard. For ten miles I was fine and then I really started to struggle, at the end my legs felt like molten lead - sort of like a Victorian terminator - and the slightest hill was a struggle.Any naïve visions of my body adjusting to its new diet and setting down to burn off its abundant fat supplies were quickly abandoned. I got in feeling drained and sick and didn't feel better until I had forced down some brown rice. And when I found myself crying at don't tell the bride and grand designs, I realised that perhaps my emotional state wasn't all it could be either.

By Thursday my five days were over and I had feasted on some muesli for breakfast, and some quinoa for lunch, as well as a pre run banana. All forbidden in the previous five days, but sadly not enough. My run started nicely, a beautiful path, and a buzzard in the trees. As it turned out I was very glad to meet this magnificent bird of prey early on, as had he seen me ten miles later he would have been circling ominously, hopeful of a meal - although if he'd needed carbs he would have been sadly disappointed.

I got to about 15 miles and struggled, not as much as Tuesday, but enough. You kind of get to the point where if you are spending 3 hours of your evening doing something it is disappointing to get to the end and find you haven't enjoyed it. And that was really what Thursday was.

Two days later I've probably put back on most of the five pounds I lost, and haven't run since, so think the lesson was that it was a silly idea. Which I could probably have guessed the before, but I'm glad I learned the hard way.

Stuc a' Chroin race 2018

When I typed the title it was autocorrected to Stuc a chronic, it felt somehow apt. The thing was I thought I'd be OK at this. I'd...