Ed & Jim's Historic Run Series II
The second in the series of historic marathon training runs around Cambridgeshire started just the other side of Newmarket racecourse in a village called Woodditton, in a snow shower, yesterday. The
route we intended to take would have seen us run one defensive earthwork, at least two roman canal routes (Reach Lode and Car Dyke) and another two lodes I don't know the history of (Swaffham Bulbeck Lode and Bottisham Lode).
The weather soon turned fair, and although there was a brisk and chilly NE wind, we were treated to some stunning sights of Devils Ditch (or Dyke). Devils Dyke is an Anglo Saxon defensive earthwork from the 6th/7th century. In places it's ditch character is more obvious and it's more of a haha than a wall, in other places it definitely a big wall. Looking on the map you'd think it was another defense to keep the wild fen types out of the civilized central lands, but it's immediately obvious when you're running on it that it was built to stop the Britons (on your left as you're running North) from attacking the Anglo Saxons.
Photo courtesy of
Burwell Village website.
At the end of the Dyke is the historic village of Reach. From Reach we ran up the east side of Reach Lode, a
Roman navigation canal. If you study the
route we actually took, or an OS map, you'll see why this was an error; at the end of Reach Lode, we realized we were about 5yds of cold water / 6km of track away from where we wanted to be. The romans, apparently, didn't believe in bridges.
Ed felt the emotional blow of having to retread our steps more heavily than I did. That's the blow that was heavier, not our steps retrod. In either case, Ed pulled at Upware and stowed himself away in a strange pub, leaving me to fly downwind back to Waterbeach, with a little wiggle down Bottisham Lode (that Winston described weeks ago) and a diversion up Car Dyke, another Roman canal built to bring Clay from Clayhithe to Waterbeach and pottery back the other way.
Legs recovering?
Just did a
longish pace run - 16.67km at 4'12 min/km. Pretty chuffed about that, and the shin splint behaved itself admirably.
Another positive result: I can now confirm that Lucozade carbo gels do taste marginally better going down than coming back up.
Half way!
48 Days (7 Weeks) left, of the 98 days available from Jan 1st. 2006.
A good juncture, I feel, to expose myself to ridicule by raising the skirts of my spreadsheet to give you a giggle at what lies therein.
Click on it for the full glory:-
What's that you say? Is that all there is? It's like a training schedule, but shorter!
Yeh yeh, but I bet you wish you had one half as pretty (yes, the blue does match my asics). And besides, I've shown you mine, show me yours.
Like last year, I reckon I'm right on course to run a good half marathon.
Hout Bay - Land of Treadmilling
Recipe for a long run in the Republic of Hout Bay:Leave Athol’s house very very early (thus avoiding heat which would make any self respecting Englisher faint). Go down very very steep hill. Turn right at the township. Continue to beach. Here you have two choices: if the wind is down, gambol as if on the cover of Runner’s World. If the south easter is blowing, grit your teeth and remember that this kind of full body sand exfoliation would cost you a fortune at home. From beach, join Chapman’s Peak Drive. Go up, round bend, up, round another bend, up. Repeat until you hit the land-based treadmill. Pray for small break in the wind to allow you to get off treadmill and continue round the next bend and on up. Once at Chapman’s Peak, wonder at the beautiful views, feel very pleased with yourself and retrace your route home. On leaving the beach for a second time, if you are Jim, revel in the now insufferable heat and steep hill back (it’s all money in the sub-3 hour bank), if you are Winston remove as much clothing as possible, and check in for breakfast at one of the beach front cafes to nurse your baboon bottom (heat, sand, distance…need I say more!), if you are Steve think it’s a bit chilly round here and these hills are a bit flat, I’ll just nip up Chapman’s Peak again.
On on to Jo’burg and the prospective pleasures of Blondie…
Running Repairs
I'm determined not to drone on about niggling injuries, but I've just come back from the physio so I'm feeling on the up. Basically on the longer runs my left leg would seize up painfully starting at the ankle and working up the leg. Turns out to be shin splints (always wondered what they felt like) caused by my over-pronation that could have been prevented by doing up my shoelaces around the ankle better.
Right, I'm off to gird my loins (or least relace my shoes) and prepare for a big old run this weekend. Woo hoo!
Going all the way
Sarah has rationed Winst to talking about running for only 10 mins a day, so I'm going to make sure this only takes 1min to read.
Yesterday I went out for a long, long slop through a lot of mud and rain with the Uni H&H. The route would be a nice one in the summer. With a days worth of rain, on the other hand, it turns into a 40km ordeal. If there are bits of that map that look too straight to be believed it's because we were too deep under the mud for the satellites to pick up Alex Ho's GPS and my mind has blocked out the wiggly details.
Anyway - some lessons learnt by myself and others on the run. Don't expect to do 40km cross country in the rain without: -
- 3+ gels
- Water
- Two sticking plasters
- Suffering at some point
Winter Training Camp
It's been a mixed bag the last couple of weeks. The step change from no-training to training to no-training to training has taken its toll. Not to mention the recent transition to old age and of course the abstinence (come on everyone knows abstinence good for boys performance, bad for girls performance...and Big Hands isn't delivering...although despite an important sporting engagement on Saturday he made time to enquire after me, and he's also kept me up to date with his travel arrangements to Rome this week-end - clue Winston clue!). First it was ITB trouble, which I alleviated with stretching and the services of my new sports masseuse, Kelly. Now it's lower back pain, which Jim advises me could be due to tight hamstrings. With Bury 20 and now the Boundary Run on the near horizon, something must be done and I think I have the answer...if it's good enough for Dame Kelly it's good enough for me...I'm off to South Africa for two weeks of winter training camp. On On Marahashers.
The Histon Railway Run
It's been two weeks since the Folksworth 15. Since then I've only done short runs (~5x4 miles) and circuits (x2). Sunday was arse on the line time again (or lines on the arse, never again!).
I met up with the University Hare and Hounds at St.John's porters lodge to do their 14 mile "Histon Railway Run".
There were 11 people running. Some of the faster people were away as it was the BUSA competition weekend, but a good core of their Marathon training group were running. A good route, except for the 2-3 ankle twisting miles on railway ballast near Histon. It keeps me off the treadmills. The lack of a knob to dial up 14.1 km/h is a great advantage. How long would you stay on if the treadmill had a rock ballast and railway sleeper setting?
Who wants to do this? 2006 Cambridge Boundary Run: 23 miles or 1/2 Marathon Sunday 5th March
Lastly, Rachel's email proposing tonight's cross training schedule:
Subject: [hashers] for the beautiful, brave and Monday Hashers..
A reminder that tonight equals run...beer....run...beer....beer....beer.....DANCING AT THE FEZ!!!!!
Happy birthday Rachel!
The 27th Mile
"..Silvio Berlusconi says he will not have sex until the election... on April 9th." (The date of the Paris Marathon)
"...though he is a multibillionaire, and therefore not unattractive to certain avaricious tastes, Berlusconi is also a bald 69-year-old married man. For most men of his age, 10 weeks without sex qualifies as a typical interlude rather than heroic denial."
The BBC looks at the training implications. "Use it or loose it", says Dr Roy Levin (a former employer of mine in Sheffield, who used to warn that chart-recorder ink is really hard to get out of bedroom carpet, "it goes everywhere", he said, during departmental coffee.) :
"It's not a fantastic exercise, but for people who don't have any, it will help to maintain their cardio and respiratory functionality."
Does anyone want to make a declaration of "heroic denial"? Has it begun? Is this the loneliness of the long distance hasher?
Jim's FIRST marathon programme is silent on the issue, but the treadmill has been whirring, lots. A Big Hand to Rachel for pioneering the Drink/Flirt/Swoon/Metabolise technique. Ed, Hermione? Sleeping with the enemy may raise issues for our competitive couple. Marathons two weeks apart (Paris & London) means never being on the same page of the training schedule.
But I'm still perplexed.
Steve, we remember from last year, used the pull of "the 27th Mile" to help him steam toenail-less through the finishing line, but what was the training regimen, Berlusconi or bonking? Does it only work for Yorkshiremen?
The weather soon turned fair, and although there was a brisk and chilly NE wind, we were treated to some stunning sights of Devils Ditch (or Dyke). Devils Dyke is an Anglo Saxon defensive earthwork from the 6th/7th century. In places it's ditch character is more obvious and it's more of a haha than a wall, in other places it definitely a big wall. Looking on the map you'd think it was another defense to keep the wild fen types out of the civilized central lands, but it's immediately obvious when you're running on it that it was built to stop the Britons (on your left as you're running North) from attacking the Anglo Saxons.
