Bob Graham May 2015 Update

Ages since I update the site (just too busy running!!) Well here is the latest summary of what I have been up to. Basically I am adhering to the plan and exceeding it a few times. As said before I will not get to the lakes very often for BG specific training so I have focused locally in the Peak District. Luckily enough I have a known challenge only eight miles from home - The Kinder Dozen (about 40 Km with 3000 mtrs of climb). I have now completed it three times each time being a bit faster, mainly due to improved navigation. The fastest time being 7:53. It is a significant day out the climbs are relatively short in comparison to many of those in the lakes but there are 12 of them. While I was tired at the end I was not completely dead which is good I suppose!
Kinder Dozen Strava Plot

My first trip to the lakes in probably two years is coming up now. My intention is to complete the entire BG over two days. My plan is to start from Dunmail and do legs 3 and 4 to stay at Honister YHA. Then the following day legs 5,1,2 back to Dunmail. I just need food for the first day as a good breakfast will get me to Keswick where I can buy something to get me through legs 1 and 2. I reckon I will be OK with legs 3 and 4, it is getting up on Sunday morning and doing it all again that will be the test.

Get Serious with the Plan

I put this plan together months ago and pretty much ignored it. I had the Tour of Pendle back in November and then The Trigger in January so  I knew that in the early months I would be well ahead of the plan. Now that they are out of the way and the plan is getting into the more serious stuff I have to start adhering to it now. Just printed it off and stapled it to the garage door so that I will always have it to hand for reference.

Nice bit of new functionality on Strava with  the graphical representation of the training log. As said on my "The Trigger 2015" my climbing went to pot for four weeks before that. I have got things back on track now with 2100 last week and 1700 the week before. Expect to break the 2000 again this week. The schedule for this week is 2000 so a bit ahead. The week beginning February 9th is the long one for  this 4 week block so I must arrange to have a go a the Kinder Dozen that week.

I am not actually adhering to the particular days of the week I sort of work my training around family commitments. I just done a 640 metre climb tonight (Monday) and I will be doing that every Monday night as it fits in with chauffeuring duties. Tuesday night is the only night of the week that I am not need for running kids around so I usually get out for a long run that night. Sunday tends to be a family/rest day before the tough Monday & Tuesday.

The Trigger 2015

Brave Mountain Rescue Souls manning a check point (credit Shaun Priestley)

Back for another Trigger (number 4 now!). Bit different this year as it it part of my preparation for my BG attempt this year. I had done a lot of work in the autumn (possibly too much), including The Tour of Pendle that went pretty well despite having a slightly dodgy left ankle. Just missed the top half (again) by about 12 minutes, I found my self loosing places on the descents due to the ankle. The ankle continue to effect me after that but I just kept going as it was not too bad. I was in Tesco on Friday and I just happen to see the ankle supports below. Not cheap at £20 quid but cheaper than new ankles so I got a couple of them to see how I got on.

Got struck down by the Lurgy in early December to be followed by pre-Christmas lethargy and Christmas in the flatlands in the middle of Ireland meant that I went a month with virtually no climbing but a few decent flat runs. So it was with a certain amount of trepidation that the day arrived. I reckoned I would be OK as I just done so much work up to the early part of December. The weather forecast was pretty appaling with driving westerly winds. I did not mind this because of having to fit my training in around a young family I am well used to heading out at unsociable times and ropy conditions. With this experience I would probably handle the difficult conditions better than a lot of people.

It was the usual early start to get to New Mills for the Pennine bus and then the drive to Marsden. They brought the start forward to 8:30 to allow the back-markers more time to get back before darkness set in. This meant it is was black-dark when we arrived in Marsden. As I said last year Marsden CC is a great place to start a race from. It is just about big enough to squeeze us all in. So it resembles a bit of organized chaos as people mill around and try to work their way through to kit check. I took my camera with me and took a couple of photos before the start.

The Pennine members who heard me shout PENNINE PHOTO

Me on the left below with my brand new 300s.
Just a few quick announcements and they let us go. Nothing special about the beginning of this race the usual run up to the the Isle of Skye. The conditions at the CC were not bad at all, but we all expected it to get considerably worse. No real issues up to the Isle of Skye but then it was those flags up to Black Hill. The were not great and I heard about a couple of crashes. They were very wet and covered in slushing snow as we neared the top. The weather forecast came true then with the expected wind hitting us straight in the face.

Battling the head wind up onto Black Hill

Over the top and the necessary hassle of showing my number. Having numbers on your chest/belly does not really work when wearing an over jacket and chest straps on your rucksack, and I was not sticking pins into my good waterproof to have it on the outside. I caught up with my team mate Duncan and we spent the descent off Black Hill trading places. My trademark bum-slide down the grassy slope to Crowden Brook once again gained me a few places as the queue of runners descended down the rocky path. Now this was the bit I was worried about. The run-in to Crowden is pretty fast and if my ankle was going to object it would be here. But I was reasonably OK, I knew then I was going to have a good day.

There was a gentle bollocking on the Pennine blog a few years ago about discussing "secret shortcuts" on the Edale Skyline. Lawrence Edge would have been one of the secret routes in Tanky's Trog days, but those days are long gone with so much discussions on forums/blogs, etc. Basically most people take Lawrence Edge now. I timed myself and it took 20 minutes from leaving the tack to getting onto flat ground above the little scramble.

Lawrence Edge

The compass out and a combination of heading south, following groughs, following foot prints and following other runners (until I overtook them) led me spot on to a style over the fence and the established route to the Pennine Way.  From here it was basically follow the queue of people the whole way to Higher Shelf Stones. From there I took IanDarkPeak's suggestion to cross Crooked Clough a bit lower than the waterfall. It is shorter but involves a bit of assent to get onto the footpath. Don't know if it is any faster or slower.

Now the flags to mill hill. I was on my own here with nobody to be seen in front or behind. Once again they were not great but could have been much worse. Before the race it was my intention to head down Within Clough, but I decided to just play it safe and stay on the flags. But after a couple of Km (just before Glead Hill) I was looking over at the approx. location of CP5 and I thought to myself it does not look that far away and with a rush of blood to my head I veered off the flags to head in a straight line to it. I was just winging it and it was pretty rough going. Quite a few time I regretted doing it and by the time I got to the top of the climb I was convinced that I must have been slower. I was surprised to see another runner also climbing about 50 metres to my left.

Stevie Climbing to CP5

 It was funny at CP5 as the MR guys were not in the right place and one of them had to come running over to the style when he saw the two of us climbing over. He told me that only about 5 people had come that way and I know 3  (plus me so 4) of them are from Pennine. I was convinced it must be slower but from looking at Strava plots for some guys that finished in similar times to me it looks as it was actually a bit faster.

Off the cuff route finding!

Once we came over the crest of the hill to CP5 the full force of the wind hit us, yet again, in the face. It was to be like that for the full  length of Kinder. I was starting to feel pretty rough so I walked for quite a bit while I piled every last bit of food I had on me into my mouth. This consisted of a hand full of Jelly Babies that were great and three Aldi mars bars thingies. They were tough getting down because they were frozen solid - took ages! I sacrificed that Km because my thinking was by the time I get to Kinder Low End I would be feeling the benefit of the food so I could get in a strong finish.  Not often I have seen Kinder as challenging, with being tired, the driving wind in our face and the snow on the ground made for a difficult trip.

Bleaklow - me running!

Kinder Downfall was spectacular the wind was driving the water fall back upstream again to force us to travel through the spray. What was less spectacular was the spray freezing when it hit the rocks making it treacherous crossing them. Why does it have to be so far from Kinder Downfall to Red Brook? I know Kinder well but that bit always seems to go on forever, but once I got to Red Brook, and having been passed by a few people, I knew the last checkpoint was close as I just about managed to hang on behind the group of 5 who had just overtaken me. Showed my number and then head east to Noe Stool. Quite a bit of discussion about this at Pennine. Quite a few guys were intending on staying high, with one of the main reasons being that it is more in keeping with the spirit of a fell race. I was inclined to do the same. But while crossing Kinder I was thinking that trying to find that line around the wool packs is not what I really wanted to be doing now, so I decided to take the safe option and took a straight line from Noe Stool to the base of Jacob's Ladder. I had done this a couple of times before so I knew it was pretty easy ground. Unknowns to me, there was a team mate just behind me at this stage and he saw me veer off down the hill, he stayed up and I got back about 8 minutes ahead of him. The criticism of this option related to the climb out of Upper Booth on the Pennine way (about 80m, I was told). This could be avoided by taking the lower path to Barber Booth. I could not face that because it would mean coming down the station road then having to run up the slight hill to the campsite while all the people who had already finished would be walking down. Stupid reason but Pennine Way it was. In actual fact it was not a bad climb out of Upper Booth I ran 3/4 of it. Once I reached the top it was then a slow downhill all the way to the finish on lovely soft ground. I looked at my [daughter's] watch at one stage and saw I had 12 minutes to get back in under 5:30. That was a target so I found a new gear from somewhere and I was off. The last Km turned out to be the fastest of the race!

Gentle downhill into Edale alongside the flagstones

I eventually got home in 5:24, which gave me position 117/190 finishers. It was actually an improvement on my result at Pendle as at that race I missed the top half by 12 minutes, here it was 10!! Can't say I am not reasonably consistent. I said to my brother after Pendle that the Trigger would seem easy after this and it was. I definitly finished much stronger on this race than Pendle, that long road runout at Pendle was very hard.

What else can I say I loved it really enjoyable day out!

EDIT;
In Irish (IMRA) races they give a bit of additional information in the results, i.e. percentage of finish time. I had a quick calculation of my results over the past 4 years have been very consistent, with the exception of last year where I went wrong crossing Kinder.

2012 150%;
2013 152%
2014 157%;
2015 150%;

Even though my percentage is fairly consistant I finished lower down the field each year. Just a testominy to the standard improving as people get familar with the route I assume.

Tour of Pendel and Other Stuff

Latest charts December 6th!

It is difficult to keep up with the blog these days, I am just out running too much!! Good excuse I suppose.

Had not realized there was the training log in Strava. It actually gives a very  good weekly summary of my activities. Really it almost renders what I am doing here redundant as it is the same data, except it was not! My weekly totals on this site was splitting the week on a Saturday, so that the weekly totals were different to Strava where Monday is the first day of the week. I have fixed that now so that my weekly totals in the below images are the same as Strava to within a couple of metres climbing a week.

After three years in a row doing the Stockpot 10 in December, this year, instead, I ran the Tour of Pendle since the last time I updated the blog. Its a great race nothing special about the climb to the first check point but then it is a lovely  6Km section on soft spongy ground between CP 1 & CP2, loved that section. The hills come tick and fast after that. It really is a tough second half to the race. I had prepared a lovely map for myself with the route plotted out and everything. I send a copy to my brother in Dublin who was coming over for it and printed out a couple of copies for use on race-day. Unlike my brother who studied it closely so that on race day he always had and idea of where he was. Me on the other-hand  stuck the map in my bum bag and ignored it the whole day. My navigation tactic consisted of relying on the large field so that I would probably have somebody to follow! I was OK except that I totally lost count of the number of climbs I had done and in my "addled" state I managed to convince myself my guesstimate finish time was 2:45 and not 3:45. So when I climbed the second last hill I though that was it just the 4Km run home now. I was not impressed when the route veered off into the middle-of-no-where again :) I then managed to convince myself that I actually had two more climbs. When I was overtaken on the last climb by a friend from BG support duties he told me this was the last climb. I was not sure I believed him until a stranger confirmed what I was told. What he said was "we would not lie!" It was amazing that despite there being 400 starters we got very thin on the ground by this late stage of the race. I was OK as after the second last checkpoint a couple of people ahead of me headed across a moor without a moment hesitation. I just used my navigation skills gained from years in the mountains to follow them! My bother was not so lucky looking at our Strava times he was 20 minutes behind me at that checkpoint but ended up finishing up over 40 minutes behind  by going the wrong way at that checkpoint (they followed the path they came up and had to veer to the right to get to the last CP). That run-out at the end is cruel sheer stubbornness kept me running to the end to come home in 3:34. My guess was 3:45 to 4:00 based on looking at the previous results and knowing generally where I finish. I would loved to have got into the top half but my 3:34 was 12 minutes too slow.

I had a dicky right ankle the whole day and it really slowed my up on the faster sections. My club mate Anna from Pennine overtook me about 5 times during the race but I always caught her on the next climb. If I had been faster on the downhills I would easily have taken that 12 minutes off my time. Considering it was my first visit to Pendle I was very happy with how the day went.

I have had ankle problems (both of them at different times) off and on for years. I have now changed the work I am doing in the gym to try to strengthen them up. There is no way I could get around a BG if I am struggling on the downhills.

Eating!

On Friday night I was chauffeur for an armistice day service in Hayfield so I took it as an opportunity to get in a longish run in the bigger hills over by Kinder. It did not start off well as I was a bit late home from work so I had a quick sandwich before heading over to Hayfield. As usual with the BG training I wanted to get in some more climbing so I headed up to the Shooting Cabin and then down to foot bridge below Sandy Heys. It was my intention to try to do three reps of it. On the descent from the Shooting Cabin I did not feel great, I actually felt a bit hungry. I seriously considered wimping out just running around the res, but I decided to do one rep and see how I felt. It was not a bad night and for 4/5 of the climb it was very nice. The last 1/5 got very windy and and misty but it was for a relatively short time. Once I got to the Pennine Way I did not hang around, but just turned and headed straight back down again. Sandy Heys (both up and down) are Strava Segments so I can see how long each climb and descent takes. On my own in the dark safety comes first so I take it very gentle on the descent so my times on that are way outside my PB.  My assent PB for Sandy Heys is 15:45 but in the dark and wet ground I would not get anywhere near that, in these conditions 19 to 20 minutes would be more typical. I was not pushing myself too hard so the first one took a bit over 20 minutes. It went well so I decided I would go for the three. Second and third climbs went OK as well, each one a bit slower which is to be expected.  Not long into the 3rd descent the legs turned to jelly, I was like a drunk man trying to make my way down the steep descent at the top. A couple of times I just sat down but forced myself to move again as I knew that would not help. I was cursing myself as I knew the lack of food was the cause of this collapse. I had loads of food for my 7 hour attempt on the Kinder Dozen and felt pretty good for the entire trip, but here I was collapsing after 2 hours.There is a stream about 2/3 of the way down so I kept pushing to it so that I could have a drink. That help massively and by the time I got to the bottom I was feeling pretty OK again. It had taken me 21 minutes to descend - not good! I had recovered enough to run back up to the shooting cabin and then the longs descent on the Snake Path to Hayfield where I went into the pub to buy a couple of bags of crisps.  Despite  the mishap it was a good night  and I got in 14.7 km with 1050m of climbing.


I was a good lesson, the runs will only get harder from now to the actual attempt. I will make sure that I always carry a stocked running rucksack with me on all of these longer runs.

More BG Training and some Kinder Dozen Messing about!

An update to the training progression. The top chart below is a visual representation of what I think I should be doing. It has been recommended to me on the FRA Form that I need to be doing 3000 mtrs per week for about 3 months, before the attempt. The 100 mile training schedule that I found recommended that the schedule should be in 4 week cycles with a rest week before ramping the training up again.  The two lower charts show that I am well ahead of the schedule at this stage.

I am targeting the Kinder Dozen as ideal training for the BG. There are a few Kinder Dozen plots on Strava and they put it at about 39 Km and 2,900 mtrs of climbing. It is about 1/3 of a BG but it is much harder going with some steep climbs and very rough ground. I had a couple of night time reccies, between them doing about 8 of the climbs. Yesterday I took the morning off work as the forecast was excellent and had a go to see how far I would get. I started a 6am and knew I needed to be finished by 1pm as I had to get back to work.  I thought that maybe I might get 10 climbs in but in the end I managed 8 from the base of Jacobs Ladder, to Edale YHA. When I got to the YHA I knew I did not have time for another climb so I had to head straight back via the valley floor to Jacobs Ladder and onto Harry Moor Ford where I joined the route.  It was an excellent morning, really enjoyed it and in daylight it was a lot easier! On some of the night time climbs and descents I was trashing across rough ground not knowing there was a good trod near by.

Bob Graham Training Log

A guy, who I assume is called Jonathan O'Keeffe, has utilised the Strava API to allow Strava users to produce details reports of their activities over the past year. This is the website address http://www.jonathanokeeffe.com/strava/annualSummary.php.

I used the site to export my activities to a comma-separated file (csv) that I was then able to import into Excel (or in my case Libre Office Calc (a free version of Microsoft office)). The data was imported in a raw format, basically one record for each activity. I wanted to group the data by week so that I would have an idea of the height (mtrs) and distance (km) I am achieving each week. This took a bit of Googling to extract the week number form each activity and a lot more Googling to find out the date of the first Monday in each week. It was then necessary to group the distance and heigh gain by week, which was achieved using the Spreadsheet "Pivot Table" functionality. From the Pivot Table it was then a simple task to create a couple of charts of the weekly height and distance completed. The results can be seen in the two images below.

I mentioned in another post that in September 2013 I started to develop an abdominal muscle injury. I struggled on with that until I got January's Trigger out of the way. That is why there is a peak right at the beginning of the year. Once the race was done I really cut back the running to concentrate on gym work to strengthen my core. This can be seen in the massive drop in activities in the spring. Since the late spring I have been slowly building up my activities and it is going pretty well at the moment.

Now that that I have the spread sheet functions in place it is a fairly straight-forward job to do more exports over the coming months and update these charts.