Winter Cross Ultra 50k - The Ultimate MPCR*

After a lack lustre Christmas Eve Parkrun (18:30, a minute down on 2 weeks previous), I was having doubts about the sensibility of the post Christmas trail 50k (Seoond Wind Running's Winter Cross Ultra), but with the option to call it quits at 30k I figured it would be a decent long run either way.... 

A 5am start this morning was a bit of a rude awakening to say the least and it was pretty cold to boot. This was my first 'proper' Ultra event with indoor aids stations, food (inc minces and mulled wine) so unsure of the expected routine with such things I resorted to type and just ran non-stop!

Thankfully it was just getting light as we were led out at 7:30 for the start, so no need for head torches. The race gets it's name from the shape of the course, consisting of a north, east, west & south out & back leg (if you are doing the full 45 mile version, strike the south bit for the 50k). The initial north bound section was an easy 9k along an old railway line (i.e. flat), which served as a good shakeout and left me in a group of 3 at the front, although the other two were in for the full 45 miles. It was into and out for the race HQ and on to the east leg 2.

On the way out on leg 2, at top of Old Winchester Hill

An undulating mile or 2 later and I hit the first serious climb of the day up Old Winchester Hill on the South Downs Way. The top was reached without too much hassle and then down the other side. A bit of farmland meandering and it was up climb 2 of leg 2, a delightful chalky gully up between two fields, which left me thinking that will be fun on the way back.... Reached the checkpoint at the end of the leg and was still on sub 7:30/M av pace and feeling pretty good. Turned around and was pleasantly surprised by the gap back to the 2nd place runner which was up to a couple of minutes. The return run was uneventful, although by the the time I can down off O' Winchester Hill my feet were beginning to sting with hotspots quite badly and there was the definite possibility of a decent blister forming on my left ankle... non-stop through race HQ again and out on to the last leg.

The pace had crept above 7:30 by this point and I was wondering what I would be able to sustain from 19 to 31 miles. A quick jog through he village of Meonstoke and then it was on to the piece de resistance of the course, a 2km uphill drag on tarmac to the top of Beacon HIll. It was head down and work time! By the top my upper legs were giving me a lot of gyp, but I carried on, getting close to "one foot infront of the other" mode. The next 4 or so miles undulated along farmtracks and road and I just tried to ignore the pain in my feet and hip flexors.

The final checkpoint, with 6ish miles to go eventually appeared and turning back revealed that the next runners were in sight (but I neglected to note if they were 45M or 50K entrants). This spurred me on, although my legs didn't really respond to any requests for acceleration... A great aspect of the race was that you pass a lot of the other runners as you come back towards HQ, which proved much needed motivation and support.

By the time I reached the start of the descent back to Meonstoke from Beacon Hill, I was past caring about whether I could hold on to first place, I just wanted to stop running! I got back the hill with no issues, but there was one final stumbling point, the only stile on the whole course, strategically positioned with half a mile to go. My quads had nearly cramped up climbing over it on the way out and I was praying they would play ball on the way back too. Thankfully my left quad almost went, but I straightened it just in time to save a painful hobble to the line!

At this point I was happy that the win was in the bag and as an added bonus the whole family (parents included) were waiting just before the finish to loudly encourage me on. Over the line in 4hrs 7mins to take the overall 50k win (and default course record, only because it was the inaugural race!). Took a while to get changed as my legs and feet were in a bit of a state, prize giving was quick and then it was off for a dirty great big burger and pint of ale in the village pub to refuel. Overall a great event and really well organised. Think I'll have a day off tomorrow though.

*Mince Pie Compensation Run :-)

Marathon Training While Travelling (inc videos)

I got back to the UK the weekend just gone from a 2 week work trip to North America. Running while away on business is always interesting as I love being able to get out and explore new places, and this enables you to cover more distance/areas than if you just walk (and you miss lots if you drive everywhere I find!). It also makes planning marathon training a bit more challenging!

The trip was pretty varied, starting off with a week in Houston, Texas, where the temperatures were nicely in the range of 15-25DegC, before flying up to Calgary, Alberta the second week, with a overnight excursion to Edmonton (3hrs drive north). The temperature differential was stark, from +25 in Texas to hovering around freezing in Canada, there was even snow...

Houston involved mostly running from my hotel to the approx 3 mile running loop at Memorial Park, which is very popular with Houstonians, as most of the city is dominated by cars and quite frankly a bit rubbish for running in! The track circles a golf course/parkland and is hard pack gravel. It makes a perfect marathon training circuit, plus there are lots of other runners so the atmosphere is great :-) There is also a local trail running club which meets in the park to run offroad, the Houston Area Trail Runners (http://www.trailrunninghouston.com/), but I didn't get a chance to meet up with them on this trip.

The run below is typical of the "Sub Lactate Threshold" work I've been doing in this springs marathon training campaign. It consists of 10mins Easy running followed by 70mins at "SubLT" heartrate (approx 155-160 for me currently) and a short cool down. More on the general training approach I am using in the near future.....Note for this run I was coming straight from a work meeting, so just drove to the park and started on the running track (saves the 2 miles of concrete sidewalks and busy intersections from the hotel!)

I also got the chance to explore the pathways and trails along the Buffalo Bayou slightly further out to the west of the city. This was pleasantly surprising as along side the tarmac bike path that runs the length of the Bayou, there is also an decent amount of lovely dry single-track trails to run on, some quite technical in places.

So on to Calgary in the second week, I had been there before so was very familiar with the extensive network of pathways along either side of the Bow River, so spent the majority of my runs doing different combos of distance/bridge crossing etc.. It was quite hard work to start with and then after a day or two I remembered that the city sits at an altitude of 3,000ft, which isn't massively high, but probably enough to be felt during exercise. Here's a on-the-run video of clips taken with my Garmin Virb Elite camera one evening, it's just a rough edit so it's a bit long, feel free to skip through!

Towards the end of last week I then drove up to Edmonton for an overnight stay. It was a bit colder in Edmonton (-5 or so in the mornings) and there was quite a bit of snow on the uncleared pathways by the North Saskatchewan River (which was frozen over). It took a bit of getting use to running on snow and ice! I did another run vid with the Virb camera, this time with some of the HR/GPS data it records overlaid on top.
Apologies for the shakiness of the footage, it was shot handheld (the Calgary one is on a telescopic pole which steadies it a lot)

On my last morning before flying home I was running down to the river in Edmonton when I came across a good 100 or so runners doing hill reps at 6:30am, turns out it was a club called the November Project (http://november-project.com/edmonton-ab-canada/) who run 3 times a week in the city, whatever the weather (down to -30C sometimes!!!). I jumped in for a single up and down, there was even someone taking pictures halfway up...

Overall a decent couple of weeks training, on the return from an ankle sprain about a month ago, with 97 and then 103 miles. Including a good sprinkling of Sub-LT workout runs (one in a 20 miler).The second week was compressed into 5 days, which wasn't great and left me pretty tired. But I assumed that with the flight home and associated jet lag that running at the weekend probably wasn't going to happen!

XMiles.co.uk Brand Ambassador Announcement

I'm very happy to announce that I have been selected to be a brand ambassador for the awesome endurance running website and online store XMiles.co.uk, from the website;

"XMiles are proud to announce Alistair Pickburn is joining the Brand Ambassador program, the program has been created to give something back to the sport we love and provide support to athletes during the calendar year. Our aim as an independent running nutrition store is to support and be active in the running community.

Supported by XMiles, the full team will be a community of amateur athletes who follow the XMiles ethos of supporting individuals and teams in challenges without barriers of ability.

The program is part of an initiative from XMiles to support athletes and events at grass roots.

Al is joining XMiles as a Brand Ambassador in 2016. Keep up to date with his approach and progress with training for this year’s London Marathon. Following a string of good marathon performances in 2014 & 2015, Al is looking to modify things quite a bit from previous years to see if a change of training approach can help him break the 2:30 barrier. This includes changing some aspects of his diet and nutrition including introducing concepts from Renee McGregor's book 'Training Food'.

Watch out for his blogs on XMiles and on his own blog including a look at his 2016 targets/training approach, reports from some key races leading up to the marathon and the results/analysis of recent lactate threshold & VO2 max lab tests he has taking part in."

(link to announcement on XMiles.co.uk).

Set up and run by fellow athlete, Anthony Clark (Bournemouth Athletic Club, marathon PB 02:30:06 London 2015), XMiles.co.uk is based in Dorset. XMiles is a vibrant young company formed by runners focused on nutrition products, advice and guidance for endurance sports. They are committed to sharing knowledge and experiences whilst supporting individuals and teams in challenges without barriers of ability.

Whilst growing a brand that will be recognised for excellent customer service and connections with the roots of our sport,  XMiles aims to support runners of all levels along their journey, whether they are attempting 1 or 100’s of miles over one or many days.

Xmiles stocks a great range of some of the best nutritional products for exercise, including my personal favorites for race nutrition; Gu & Cliff Shot Gels. I'm also a fan of the Beet-It sport shots and Nuun electrolyte tabs. The full range of brands in the store are shown below

Xmiles has a great loyalty rewards scheme, sign up and each £ spent gets you a reward point, £500 points = £5 off in the store. You can sign up by following this link

I'm really looking forward to my involvement with XMiles and contributing to the online running community surrounding it!