I did most of the plan, and only dropped the 10km tempo, this I will remove from the following weeks to ensure a running rest day per week. I am now adding the short pilates and yoga sessions. The weight is looking good as well with another kilo dropped. Last Monday, I was 82.2kg with a fat % of 29.8 or 24.5kgs, This week I am 81.1kg with a fat % of 29.2 or 23,6kgs. I have added the bin bag to the running training as well. For all runs I will wear a 25litre bin bag over a t shirt. This ensures the weight lose will continue. I am tracking not only my weight and fat%, but also muscle and water content. I want to ensure that the thing that is having the most effected by the training is fat loss. On Sunday my Rory was 24km or 60laps of my field. Next Sunday I am going for 100 laps or 40kms. The following week I will do an overnight run.
Not so 'ard Rob's running blog
Monday 28 October 2024
Monday 21 October 2024
Are numbers important?
I have had good week training. Three weight session, three interval sessions, a long run, a 2km swim and some yoga good week. I have a great feeling in my legs and I am looking forward to an incremental increase this week. I have started pushing harder and not doing just junk kms.
The weight is stable but the fat percentage is going down. When I started at the end of September I had a weight of 86.4kg with a fat of 32.9 % or 28,4kgs. This is now a weight of 82,2kg fat of 29.8 or 24.5kgs. That difference is nearly four bags of sugar. I even look thinner in the mirror.
The key is to not let up and concentrate on consistency over the next eight weeks. What is the plan? Well here it is.
Monday 14 October 2024
Benchmarking
Monday 7 October 2024
2022-2024: Years of not training
2022 to 2024 have not been good years for my running and weight. I cover less and less distance at a reduced speed and my weight stayed resolutly above 85kg about 15-20kg heavier than I should be.
I did only six races in that period.
- 2022 Frankfurt Marathon
- 2023 50km in Rodgau
- 2023 Sparta 24hour
- 2023 Lepzig 100km
- 2023 Frankfurt Marathon
The 2023 Sparti 24hour really symbolised the how everything has gone. The race was on a weekend starting at 17:00. I booked a direct flight Frankfurt to Athens leaving on the Friday. The plan was to meet two of my Spartathlon friends(Ian & James) in Athens and drive to Sparti on the Friday night giving us plenty of time to get prepared in.
Lufthansa had other ideas. By failing to pay their staff enough, they triggered a strike of ground crew. This resulted in a cancellation of flights. After much toing and froing I managed to get an early Saturday morning flight. This was delayed and I arrived in Sparti nearly three hours after the start of the race.
The people at Ultras are always nice. I think there is something intrinsic about Ultra running that means you have to be good with yourself and others in order to be able to compete.I received messages on my journey that someone called Bill would help me to checking. Bill was lovely and got me going. The first three hours was fine, but then my pace started dropping, despite running with a good friend Martin Illott.
I was crewing myself and that always makes things harder. A crew makes you more displined and prepares all your nurtition and gives you a good slap. You need to be Mark Cockbain to keep going on your own. I got several messages from my sister Anne and a few others to keep going but it was a struggle.
Several other British runners quit early on, but I kept slugging away for 14hours until my knee locked up. I think they do that when you are trying to keep going with 20kgs more weight than you should have. My doctor was less than impressed when I told her why my knee was so swollen.
I tried the Leipzig 100km but quit after 50km. I really want to quit early on, but as my freind Jan was there I needed to cover ore distancethan him.
Then the Frankfurt marathon was a shit show in the rain and my worst ever time over that distance. That said, despite being so heavy and the weather so bloody awful, my mental strength is so much better, as I kept going in the rain.
On top it all I broken my fibula in January 2024 on top of a broken metatarsal in July 2022 resulting in 12 screws, 14 stiches and yet another 8-10 weeks of no running.
The only real highlights is baskin in the glory of others by crewing in Spartathlon each year. I really do enjoy crewing. Looking after Alastair Higgins in 2023 and then Andrew McKillop this year was a pleasure. Gary Seary crewed Alastair with me and did all of the driving. he introduced me to the glory of disco and the talent that was Teddy Pendergrass. This year was another crewing highlight as my wife Chrissy was able to come to Spratehlon for the first time and we had a lovely time together.
I have really learnt that I need to loose weight and get back the pace Mark Cockbain gave me. As much as I love Robbie Britton and James Ellis' attempts to get me fit the only person who got me performing well was Mark. The only way I have lost weight is by fasting.
So now I am committed to a month of fasting and a ten week block of training twice a day, six days a week until Baracelona 24hour race on 14-15th December. The aim is the following
1) Get weight under 70kgs.
2) 10km time to under 50 minutes.
3) Marathon time under 4 hours.
I am fairly confident my mental strength is fine. I know what to do for nutrition, so I just need to stay focused on achieving the goals above and I will be on for 180km and Spartathlon qualifier. Get that and I shall return to running heaven for the tenth anniversary of my one and only finish.
Saturday 5 October 2024
Getting back to it.
Monday 6 February 2023
Went well
I ran the Rodgau 50km and it went well. Rodgau is a season opener for the German ultra running community. There were some big names there including the reigning German 24hr men's champion Florian Reus. I always enjoy this race 10 laps of a 5km route. Sometimes the last km gets rather muddy, but this year it stayed quite firm.
My friend Jan flew over from the UK to attempt his first ultra and was so confident of his speed that he predicted he would lap me before the last lap. Being twenty five years younger and a darn sight faster, I thought that this was a fair prediction.
Chrissy drove us to the start and we collected our numbers and made our way to the refreshment point start. We set up a double camping chair and I had 10 bottles of Mountain fuel in old Powerade bottles. I find these bottles the right size and weight to carry and sip from.
I wore:
- Nike Air Pegasus trail shoes,
- Sealskin double skin trail socks,
- Dri-Fit Stride Hybrid 5in 2in1 Running Shorts, these like the sock are particularly good as the inner lining rides with your body and prevents chafing,
- Some old running tops.
- A buff
- Gloves that went on and off during the race
I liberally plastered by under carriage with Vaseline and taped my nipples.
We set off promptly at 10:00am and Chrissy went of to do the weekly shop. The weather as ok. not too cold or windy for the end of January. I noticed that I was going a little too quickly over the first 5 laps at under 30minutes a lap. By this time my rather full stomach needed emptying . After this point I settled on a target of thirty five minutes.per lap.
During the race a fellow runner said to me that it was not done to have a tattoo of a woman on my leg. I pointed out that was no woman, but Pheidippides, a symbol that I had finished Spartathlon. He had never heard of the race. Imagine being an ultra runner and not knowing of Spartathlon. The shame!
On the sixth lap I saw Jan sitting in our double chair looking rather sheepish. I went to collect my bottle and he said to me
"I couldn't be bothered any more after 30km"
"Fair enough,"
"You're not going to have a go at me?"
"Jan, I could only do that if I had never a quit a race as you have done, and I have DNF'ed more times than I like to mention""
I believe he had low blood sugar because he was not eating enough.
I suggested he put the space blanket on and called Chrissy so that he could rest in the car and keep warm.
At 40km, and only two laps to go I saw Chrissy at the start that we go through ten times
She encourage me as always and I really appreciate her support! I saw her again as I went through the start of the last lap and she said she would call Jan to watch me finish. Unfortunately I was too quick and met them as they came back from the chair. As I was among the last to finish there was not many there. We did, however, manage to congratulate two eighteen year olds who had finished their first ultra. That is quite impressive.
As Jan quit after 30km, I reckon I lapped him four times. we meet some of our former work colleagues that evening and had a jolly good drink that night. as I think I deserved the celebration.
My next race is on 18th February, the Sparta City twenty four hour. Link here.
My goal is to get one of the two longer qualifiers for Spartathlon, either the hundred miles in twenty one hours or 180km in twenty four.
This requires me to run around eight kilometers an hour and this race has set me up nicely for that. I think the trick is to maintain a slower pace in the beginning. As the route is one kilometer long, pacing should be quite simple. Run quicker down the street away from the statue and return a bit slower on the slight incline
I will wear pretty much the same gear, changing tops once every four hours, so that I fill fresher each time. I will use the Powerade bottles with Mountain fuel and drink one per hour. I plan on bringing a lot of warm tops for the evening and a space blanket just in case it drops to very cold. I will also bring some cheeses and rice. Mainly, I will rely on the food provided by the race. Another important not is not to dawdle too long getting changed or eating. Relentless Forward Motion or RFM is the key.
In terms of things going wrong I have a hand written book of motivational quotes that I will look at each hour. I know that no matter how bad I feel I will feel better after thirty minutes or so. It is a matter of walking down the steps to the darkest monster infested steps and having the strength to walk out the other side.
I shall make two checklists prior to the race
1) Kit list
2) Things to do to keep head straight list
Don't wish me luck as , to paraphrase the words of the great John Foden
"If you have prepared properly you won't need it and if you haven't it won't help"
Update
I ran with Fatih last night. We talked about the race and he came up with some suggestions
- Run slow for the first hour and really focus on warming up
- Every hour have a walking break
- Ensure you have Red Bull or similar caffeine drinks for the night section