Paris-Brest-Paris makes for an interesting distraction

First and foremost, no, I did not ride the PBP.

Why, then, does it make an appearance here?  Well, every now and then we get some inspiration from other people's crazy adventures, and this one appeared on my doorstep.  But how, one might ask, did a cycle race through Brittany get to my doorstep?  Last week, I got to spend some time with my Parisian colleagues.  Our Paris office is in an otherwise non-descript and fairly hum-drum business park in the southwestern suburbs of Paris.  The business park was also hosting the cyclists for the start and finish.  So, every morning the normally empty streets (it's August in Paris, so most people have been enjoying a holiday anywhere else!) were clogged with the few commuters as we eased around the road closures and bottlenecks put in place to protect the cyclists.  I expect they needed the protection, based on the one cyclist I saw gingerly approaching the finish with a neck brace on (either from an accident  or to keep his head up without using the tired neck muscles).

Crew / support vehicles covered every available part of the business park.

The PBP is 1200km long, and most riders finish in 3-4 days.  The riders ride all day, with their crew (volunteering friends or guilt-ridden family?) driving along in something suitable for providing a comfortable rest or at least carrying the tents.  I had the chance to talk to a couple of riders about their experience, and the overwhelming impression was "good right, thank goodness the weather was better than last year".  Apparently 4 days of wind and rain are enough to make these guys want to come back again.  This year, they were rewarded with a few sunny days to show off the northern French scenery.

It's great to see other endurance-junkies enjoying their sport.  They all looked shattered at the end, but the air of satisfaction provided a reminder that perseverance gets results.

Bugatti 2011 - Yet again, a great evening!

Another August, another Bugatti 10K.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

This race is easily my favourite 10K road race ever.  For a start, it's in August, so the chances are pretty good that the evening will be warm.  Add to that a beer at the finish line (an excellent choice from Prescott Brewery this year), a great selection of small hills to sort out all those flat-track bullies, and a fun atmosphere with plenty of familiar faces, and the result is a cracking local race.

The 2011 edition brought a few changes from the past.  It seems there's a new publican at the Bugatti Inn, and he's not too keen on a load of smelly, sweaty runners mucking up his pub.  I can't imagine why, but there you go.  So, instead of finishing outside the pub and filling its beer garden with runners and supporters, we finished by the Village Hall.  There were still plenty of supporters grabbing a drink while we ran, so the pub probably had a pretty good time of it.

On the way down to the race, Nic and I enjoyed the warm weather (28C!) and wondered what we had left in the legs for the race.  We'd both put in quite a few trail miles in the previous few days, and it felt like the heat would play a big part in the race.  But, along the course there was just enough of a breeze, and our fortnight in sweaty Georgia had us ready for the heat.

We joined in the crowd for the start, with fewer EVRC runners than usual.  I looked around for someone to use as a pacer, and was very disappointed to find that I'd have to figure it out for myself.  I wasn't feeling particularly coordinated (again - what's the deal with evening races?!), so really didn't know how I'd run.  When the horn sounded, I just eased off and tried to keep at a 7/10 perceived effort.  The crowd surged forward, and runners shot off down the gently descending road.  It's an easy start to get carried away on, and I started to recognize a few faces that would normally be running a bit slower than the 7min/mi my watch was showing.  As usual, I enjoyed the first two miles of essentially flat running, holding back a little for the hills and concentrating on technique and turnover (speed had gone AWOL, so didn't really warrant any attention).

Mile four on this course is the one that causes mayhem.  The road starts to gently rise, and then the course turns and the rise becomes a proper small hill.  It's easy enough to power up if you shorten your stride, keep a high turnover, and breathe through it.  If you hit it at full speed and run like you're on the flat, then you're going to go backwards pretty fast.  Once the course tops out, there's a nice long and fast downhill to use to get the speed back up.  The rest of the course is nicely undulating, so any loss on the up can be more than recovered on the down.

This year, due to the change in venue, we were treated to a downhill finish.  The final 50-60 yards heads down from the main road to allow a nice "sprint" finish.  I had a few targets to aim for, and put on a fair burst of speed to catch them.  When I crossed the line, I realised that I should have sped up earlier, because I still had plenty of energy left.  Oh, well, at least I enjoyed it and ended up having a nice tempo run.

Coniston Marathon

The Coniston Marathon entered my race diary as a way to ensure I didn't sacrifice my endurance as I try to improve my speed-endurance.  With a long, but not unduly arduous race in the offing, I had to keep at least half an eye on training time in spite of the shorter races dotted through the Summer.  So, having found a new marathon in a new, scenic location, I duly signed up and talked Nic into doing the 10mi race.

One of the nice things about a Sunday race is that you can drive out on the Saturday.  The 3-day weekends I'd been taking for the 7x Challenge were great, but they use up a lot of holiday allowance!  We took our time getting up to Coniston, enjoying the scenery once we'd escaped the M6.  We pitched our tent in the official campsite, and headed for registration.  The site wasn't the most peaceful, but we at least had a deal which meant the tent didn't have to come down until after the race - a real bonus!

Saturday had been quite warm, but the night was rather chilly.  We're going to have to invest in better sleeping bags if we don't want to be in our thermals during the British Summer!  Sunday morning was sunny and cool.  But, it was set to get relatively toasty in the afternoon.  I faced the difficult question of "to hat, or not to hat?"  The benefit of a hat is it keeps the sun off my head (especially where the hair has unkindly decided to stop offering protection).  The drawback is that I find hats add warmth on a hot day.  With plenty more hot running and hiking planned for my trip to Georgia the next week, I opted to experiment with a hatless run.

Nic enjoys the sunshine.

Warm & sunny, but why's the hat back in the tent?

The race eased its way out of Coniston and fairly quickly entered some narrow woodland trails.  I'd opted to start about 2/3 of the way back, to ease into the run.  I was warmed up, but didn't want to leave too much energy on the first 5k, knowing that the real uphill section started about four miles in.  For this early section, I was very happy with my hat choice - I'd have been wearing it backwards through he woods anyway to give maximum visibility, so it would have offered no benefit.

With the first few miles out of the way, I decided I was feeling good and would push on just a touch faster than an "I can do this all day" pace.  Another experiment for the day was to go without my HRM.  I managed to power my way up almost all of the inclines without walking and sped down the drops as normal. The trails and fire roads were in good condition, so I managed a steady 8 minute mile pace on the flattish sections.  There were also plenty of good views to be had along the way to keep things interesting.

One of many nice views along the early miles

By half way, I was in good spirits and feeling fairly strong - if somewhat perplexed by the course markings.  My Garmin was running about a mile behind, so either the course was short or we would have some very long breaks between markers later on.

Blue skies & green grass - wonderful surroundings for a day out.

The accidental result of fighting with the camera, but pretty cool anyway!

The course crested out at around 14 miles with some great views over Coniston Water.  We then began the long and reasonably technical descent towards mile 18 and the final climb of the day.  By now, the sun was beating down onto my shiny pate and I was thinking that the hat might have been a good bet.  I briefly considered using the buff in my emergency kit, but decided would be too warm and probably too itchy.  So, I put it out of my head and kept plowing down the tricky little rocky paths.

Fabulous view of Coniston Water.

That's how we get to earn the great views!

I'm certain that many found these trails to be pretty unpleasant, but I really enjoyed the mental challenge of finding a good line.  The reward was to quickly reach the bottom and ford a river due to a downed bridge.  The water was a bit more than knee deep (so the camera stayed in its dry pouch!), was clear, cold, and wonderful. I cupped water up onto my chest to help cool off and proceeded to smile my way to the penultimate water station.

The final climb of the day took us into a more "fell-running" style of path.  The fire roads disappeared as we headed away from the river.  By the time we peaked, I knew that my strategy of pushing to 20 and then picking up the pace down the long hill to build up for the flat final few miles was going to fail. There was no real trail now, just less boggy bits in between more boggy bits.  The more solid footing had a variety of large loose stones to add to the fun.  With fatigue increasing, heat and sun taking their toll, and no fast descent to put me back on track, I basically just tried to survive this section and hope I could get it back together for the flat finish.

Tempting to stop for a swim, but I decided to plod on.

The final water stop arrived, signalling a return to more straight-forward footing. I checked my pack and determined that I had enough water to continue (mistake!).  So, I took a couple of cups of energy drink and didn't re-fill my bladder.  I ran out of water about a mile later, with the heat continuing to grow (oh, to have worn a hat!).  I ran well for a while, but finally tripped over enough tree roots to decide to ease off rather than risk a nasty fall.  A combination of jogging and walking got me back to our campsite (nice of the organizers to route through it!), where I found a tap and enjoyed a cool drink before continuing on for the final mile.

The approach to the line was again on nice tracks.  Combined with my unofficial waterstop and the good footing, I was able to get back up to a fast plod to cross the line.  The announcer was doing a great job of mentioning everyone's name as they approached.  I heard him talk about another runner far too soon after my "shout out", so I put in a last burst for the line to avoid being overtaken.

Once finished, I was finished.  Nic led me to the picnic blanket she'd laid out while she's waited, and I duly flopped onto it while she got me some water.  finally I remembered my buff, soaked it in water and put it on my head.  that and a light fresh top to keep the sun off helped me cool down enough to enjoy the undoubted highlight of the event:  the most delicious falafel pita I've ever eaten.  The race had been marked short, probably by the amount caused by the last-minute bridge closure by the local council.  But, even with that factored in, I managed to have a wretched last 10k due to some poor heat management decisions and still come out with a new trail marathon best time.  Another day, another challenging marathon, another great way to spend a day out!

(Pictures now added 31-July-2011)

2010 Race Mileage Surpassed Already?

It's nearly the end of June, so a good time to take stock of where the year has gone and where it needs to go next.  Last week, I went back to Texas to help celebrate my grandmother's 90th birthday.  The jetlag wasn't great fun, but I got the chance to do a bit of "warm-weather training".  With temperatures in the 100s every day, and blistering southerly winds, I took the opportunity to wake up early (helped by jetlag) and go for a run before it got above 85 - it's still much warmer than most days have been here in the UK. 

This week was planned to be a nice return to trail racing after the holiday:  land Tuesday, the EVRC invitational "Bredon Bash" on Thursday, and a relaxed approach to leg 2 of the Cotswold Way Relay on Saturday. 

As it happened, a few extra hours in the office and a last-minute trip for Friday meant I went into the "Bash" feeling very tired (jetlag + too much time in front of the PC).  The race is 5.8 miles, roughly 2 of which are up the hill and 2 are down.  I ran/hiked at full effort, but clearly didn't have "it".  Nothing felt smooth or co-ordinated until the downhill section.  Even that section, which I love to run all-out, was laboured and tight. 

With my body clock, and more importantly, my meal clock, completely confused, I had been a little low on energy by the time I got home from work, and grabbed a chocolate chip Clif Bar on the way to the race.  Half of it would have been OK, but I was hungry and ate it all - very yummy.  I've felt worse after a race, but not for a while.  That said, the course, runners, and atmosphere were excellent.  Nic even won a prize (we're not quite sure what for, but she was very happy)!

Then, off to bed, up at 4am to catch an early flight, and back home for 10pm to crawl into bed in time to get some rest before the early race this morning.  Between the two races I probably managed around 11 hours of sleep.  Good prep for multi-day racing, but not the original plan.  Surprisingly, I felt considerably better today than I had on Thursday night!

The Cotswold  Way Relay is a fun concept.  Unlike a traditional relay, where you have to wait for the previous runner to reach you before you start your leg, each leg starts at approximately the time a course-record breaker would finish the previous leg.  For a 100+ mile trail race, this means nobody has to do an entire leg without someone nearby to run with / against, and it means the race finishes a lot earlier!

Today, the morning dawned wet and blustery, but the overnight rain had at stopped.  The blustery southerly wind had not.  What you don't want to see, when you look outside on the day of a North-South run, is a southerly wind.  Oh well, at least I don't have to trot out the old "up hill and against the wind in both directions" line!

I had planned to kick back and enjoy the race as a fastish training run prior to next week's Coniston marathon.  Fat chance.  I took the first mile slowly from the back of the pack.  Then, once we hit the hills I slipped into race mode and ran myself to "empty".  It felt pretty good. 

Following this week's races, I've now amassed 210 race miles for 2011 (200 of them from trail or multi-terrain races).  So, in the first half of this year, I've surpassed the 205 race miles from 2010.  I'm going to have to get some road racing in if I want to pick up a new marathon PB in October!