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Man V Horse. |
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Training Report! Here is a rough log of my training efforts in preparation for this event. I have been a runner for many years now and at present am fairly fit. Indeed I have been in training for various races over the past18 months. The log however starts from March as that just happens to be when everything came together! |
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Entry details received and sponsorship info through from Bristol. Just Giving page set up. Finally (how fiddly was that!) set up the website but always tweaking it a little bit more here and there without any really clue of what is going on. If someone wants to come and show me an efficient way of doing it then please be my guest!
Sunday 1st Getting a cold, feeling unwell. No run. That is not the way its meant to be!
Mon 2nd, Tues 3rd, Wed 4th Just the same. Thur 5th Getting better but still wiped out by early evening. Fri 6th Got out at lunchtime from work. Ran 30mins easy but achey legs after. About 4 miles in total. Sat 7th 7 mile run today. With a 20 minute effort midway at approx 6min/mile. Felt quite weary. Sun 8th Lovely day and a good nights sleep. Took advantage of this and managed around 15 miles on the road in 1hr45min. Obviously tired at the end but a very pleasing run indeed. Weekly mileage 25.5
Tues 10th 7 mile road run with 4 hard efforts. Reasonable run Wed 11th 6.5 mile cross country in 51 minutes. Not feeling very energetic today Sat 14th 1hour run, covered about 9 miles. Included 4 efforts up a big hill. Approx 3.18-3.20 per effort. Decent session Sun 15th. 13.2 mile road run in 1hr 29 mins. Ran this a bit too fast. Weekly mileage 35.7
Wed 18th 5.75 mile road run with 4 efforts. Decent session but feeling a bit tired after sat and sun runs Thur 19th. 7.5mile on road, 51 mins so 6:50min/mile. First 4 miles felt effortless then the weekend runs began to creep in and felt tired Sun 22 RACE Hogweed Hilly Half. A particularly hilly half marathon. Started at a comfy 6min/mile then the hills began. Got to 7 miles in 43.30 but fell apart on the hill that stretches from 8-9 miles. Absolutely knackered over last part and was hanging on. Managed to finish in 1hour 25min. Could have done better. Weekly mileage 27.25
Thur 26 4.5 mile hilly road run in Breacon beacons. Took it easy - legs still tired from the hilly half Sat 28 6.5 mile run up and down Fan y Big (Mountain(ish) in Brecon Beacons. Reckon I climbed about 450m in this run. Tiring but great achievement to hit the top and look at the view. Satisfying. Took 40 mins to get up and 20 mins to get down (by a different route!) Weekly mileage 11
Wed 1st 5.75 road run with 4 efforts. Not my fastest for this session but felt really good. Was holding back a bit as I have the Midland Road relays this weekend. Thur 2nd 7 hilly road miles in 48mins. Took a couple of miles to warm up but felt fine thereafter. Sat 4th RACE 5 mile relay leg at Midlands. 31.26. Felt "so, so". Ran a controlled race and could not have run faster on the day. Approx 7mile inc. warm up etc Sun 5th Got a cold. Glands came up last night and feel a bit rough today. Weekly mileage 20
Tues 7th Had a few days off with respect to cold. Ran 5.75 miles on road at approx 6.45/mile. Feeling somewhat better. Wed 8th Tried some efforts on the road. Mediocre times and was pretty knackered. End of the cold still lingering Sat 11th Took a couple more days off as still feeling the cold. Ran around 6 miles with a few half mile efforts. Feeling almost normal again. Weekly mileage 17
Mon 13th 7 miles easy at 7min/mile. Felt quite nice on this run Tues 14th 6.5 miles on road inc 4 separate efforts . Good session and running better now. Wed 15th 55 mins xc easy. 6.5 - 7 miles. Legs a bit stiff after yesterday. Fri 17th 4.5 at luchtime from work. Stride fast strides in this one Sun 19th RACE 9+ mile total for today. Did Frenchay 10k, pretty decent run and 35:50 was a decent time for this course. Happy Weekly mileage 30
Tues 21st 2 miles total for warm up and warm down with 4x600m in the middle with a 400m jog recovery. Got a half marathon coming up on Sunday so wanted a nippy but comfortable session Wed 22nd 4.5 miles cross country Sun 26th RACE. 3miles total for warm up and warm down. Stratford Half Marathon 1hr18min37sec. Pretty happy with this. Good first 5 miles, wobbly for miles 6 and 7 (ate a fly and felt sick, usually have a stronger stomach than that!) tired but steady over last miles. Pretty pleasing run Weekly mileage 24.5
Sat 2nd Pre breakfast run 1hr27mins. Picked a hilly route along the cotswold escarpment to start getting ready for the hills in the man v horse race. Lack of breakfast and children induced tiredness got me at about 1 hour so the rest of the run (despite the very nice surroundings) was pretty miserable. Around 11 miles Weekly mileage 15.5
Mon 4th Another hilly route. 1hour 20 mins picking out all the good hills. Quite a steady running and feeling quite good. Certainly covered 10 miles here. A very pleasant run. Tues 5th 1.5 miles warm up followed by a session of 4 reps around a regular circuit. Great session with decent times and feeling good. Quite pleased. Wed 6th Somewhere in the region of 6 miles cross country Thur 7th 7mile road run pretty steady (6:45/mile at a guess) including 2 sets of 6x35seconds fast strides with 35 sec jog. Decent run, albeit legs a bit weary. Sat 9th May. Bunkhouse in mid wales with family. Managed a nice 1 hour run. Probably climbed in region of 350m. All the ascent was constant running. I had to gingerly pick my way back down along a rough river edge. 6miles I reckon Sun 10th 1hour 40min run over a 2 hour period. I ran with a map and an approximate idea of where I was going. Ran from Glyntawe (200m above sea level I guess) on a loop taking in the peak Fan Gyhirych at 725m and on round Cray resevoir. Nice weather and nice views. Quite confident about getting up the man v horse hill. However, I am not seeing enough runs of 2hours yet. Weekly mileage 42 miles
Tues 12th Approx 7 miles hilly road run in around 48 minutes. Decent enough recovery run but legs felt fairly tired. Left knee twinging (has been for since early last week) but not seeming to get worse with training. Wed 13th RACE 1 mile warm up 5k Cycle path race at Bitton 2 mile warm down. Took this one steady to start and maintained a good pace to finish in 16min30sec. Tired over last 2k and weary over last 800m. Pleased with race considering last weeks effort. Thur 14th. A good steady 7 mile XC through the long wet grass. Nice run and feeling better than expected. Sat 16th RACE. Marlborough 20. A 20 mile off road race across the Marlborough Downs. Picked this one as a taster for the distance involved in ManVHorse. Ran quite controlled and though legs were quite sore over the last few miles, the heart and lungs were doing just fine. Very pleasing. 2hr 26min Weekly mileage 39 miles
Bit of a blip with keeping my training diary unfortunately between 16th May and present (19th June), partly lazy, mainly busy and also being away on me hols for 2 weeks. However I have now completed the race! On Friday 12th June I travelled to Llanwrtyd Wells (Severn bridge traffic was awful) and camped up with a few Westbury Harriers team members. Saturday morning saw a lovely blue sky which unfortunately meant relatively high temperatures. The race started as planned at 11am and a very easy, gentle, cautious start was made. As the miles passed by I picked the pace up and really enjoyed myself. The ground was quite soft and wet underfoot at times due to previous rain. This made it all the more interesting. We passed along footpaths, bridleways, fields and woods with the one consistent feature being regular ups and downs! The race was every bit the challenge that the "hype" had indicated and I can say with great surety that this was the hardest event I have ever attempted. Over the last 2 miles leg cramps became more pronounced and I was enjoying complete cramps of the whole quadricep region as I covered the last hundred metres. The final stages were made easier by the support of fellow competitors. Once the dust had settled and the results posted I was happy to see that I had managed to beat some of the horses in my time of just under 2 hours and 40 minutes.
This was a brilliant event made better by the fact that I have raised the best part of £1000 for the children that cross the threshold of the Bristol Childrens Hospital and I am delighted with that.
Barring injury or illness I shall be doing this race next year and now that I know what is in store I shall be training harder and planning to do better. I'll finish with a big thanks to all those who have given sponsorship and encouragement along the way!
Anthony |