Quick Dash up the Wrekin

Yesterday, I ran up the light side of the Wrekin . I didn't time it, but reckon it was 18 mins up, then 13 down. I wore the Five Finger Flow Treks, and where it was not too steep, concentrated on Pose-style running. It's the first hill run since Langdale 4 weeks ago, and just something to keep me in the game ahead of the 8-mile Wrekin Wrecker race in a couple of weeks. I fasted until lunch, when I was celebrating with a family member. This degenerated, later, into non-paleo food. I am fasting today in penance. ... Read more

Death-Defying Somersault on Langdale Horseshoe

Location: The Lake District, UK
Date: 9th October 2010

Distance: 14 miles
Elevation: 4000 feet

I was on a mission to get a good time for this. It was no time to worry about avoiding 'chronic cardio', taking photos, taking leaks or drinking water. F@ck all that.

After last year's humiliating attempt (the only time I have given up on a race) I was determined to make this one count. Plus, Lightning and I had unfinished business. Last month my 40-second margin at Ben Nevis had been trumped by his 4-minute lead at the Peris. It was my turn.

Time: 3 hours, 17 minutes. 39 minutes ahead of Lightning :-)

Here are the photos and the story of how I nearly ruined myself one one of the downhill sections:

Breakfast at 7am: 6 eggs with coconut milk, 2 bananas, cocoa


The feast I took for after the race: mackerel, herring & avocado for savoury; fruit, coconut cream and cocoa for dessert; nuts just to be greedy.


The Langdale Pikes come into view as we arrive, the start of the route.


Crinkle Crags on the right, Pike O'Blisco on the left, the final stages of the route.


Ready for action.


Race over, the huge pot of fruit, coconut cream and cocoa, about to be devoured.


Just before bed, some leftover chicken and leftover sauce with nuts.

The Somersault

There is a long section after the first main checkpoint behind the Pikes involving a long steady descent on boggy ground, ideal for running very fast. If you have lunatic tendencies, which I do, then you can overtake a lot of people here.

This time, my lunacy nearly did me some serious damage. As I careered past a fellow runner, one foot found an unexpected hole. Normally I would correct with the next stride. However, the other foot found another, deeper, unexpected hole. I lurched forwards towards my head. It was only the sheer speed I was travelling, a sudden dip in the terrain and the instinct to tuck my head which stopped me slamming into the ground head first.

A disturbing crunching sound came from my neck as I performed a full forward roll and for a split-second I wondered whether I would walk again; but as I rolled forward over my back I was catapulted back into the running position and continued hurtling past other runners. The guy behind me was stunned.

Validation of Low Frequency Training?

I was pleased with the time. 3-minutes slower than my best (3:14) several years ago. But several years ago I was training obsessively. This year I've mostly just done races and rested in between. So to achieve a comparable performance feels like a validation of that approach.

To be fair to Lightning, he had an off day. If he'd been on song, I reckon 3:40 was on the cards. Still not even close :-D

Refuelling - Just Eat Big

I decided to eat big all day and include lots of fruit. After the 6-hour Peris race last month I went on a bit of a non-Paleo rampage afterwards - yet my recovery in the days that followed was good. This had reminded me that it's pointless to starve your body of what it wants after an effort like that just because you think it's an opportunity to get a little leaner.

So this time I had the best of both worlds - loads of food, but all healthy.

Season Finale

This was the season finale for me. I am going to take a good few months out of long mountain runs to let me legs get really strong. Whilst my foot (which I was recently wrongly grizzling about possibly being fractured) was fine, there was a general sense that my knees need a little R & R, and they were getting a bit sore on the final descent. ... Read more

Scrambling, Hiking and Running in Wales

My brother and I had two great 6-hour outings in the mountains of North Wales over the weekend. It was a medley of scrambling, downhill jogging, uphill power walking and normal hiking. Great training for next week's Langdale Horseshoe Race.

Scrambling is and excellent all-body workout. I used to think it sounded twee and unadventurous before I really understood what it involved. In reality, it's a hybrid of hiking and rock climbing, capable of being very hard indeed.

I took my pulse at various points. 120-130 for the hiking, 150-160 for the scrambling and downhill jogging, 170-180 for one 10-minute power hike to a summit.

The Joy of Scrambling and Climbing

I enjoyed the scrambling so much, I have vowed to take more of an interest in pure climbing.

Natural Messiah is a serious climber, as you will know if you are a reader of his blog. I think I am starting to see how well this gels with the Paleo philosophy, and why it works so well for him. There is something incredibly primeval about scaling a rock face.

In the evenings my brother showed me some climbing videos. These guys do things that give you the fear just to watch.

Mixing it Around

Conversely, my brother has agreed to try a fell race. I think the days of long hiking slogs are over. The mountains offer an excellent opportunity to mix walking with running and climbing, so I'd like to take advantage of that more.

Oh - and of course, swimming. I am ashamed to say I failed to grasp the wild swimming opportunity this time. The best chance came at the end of day 2 when we walked past an inviting lake where some people were already swimming. Since I had no swimming shorts and no towel, there was no way to swim without risking public indecency.

Minimalist Kit

I also had an epiphany about kit. Chris from Conditioning Research, who also has a hillwalking blog, says he hikes in Innov8 shoes, which are basically fell/trail running shoes. That got me thinking.

Previously, my brother and I have always loaded up with kit. Boots like deep sea divers, rucksacks full of food, water, emergency this, emergency that.

I guess some of this is necessary for comfort and safety... but the reality is that a little less comfort and a realistic assessment of risk can radically reduce that load; and if you are scrambling or climbing, that makes a huge difference.

Comparing an archive picture from a previous trip with a photo from the weekend shows the difference this can make. I did spend the whole of the first outing this weekend with wet feet - which was fine, once I accepted it. Not sure it's viable in winter though.

Here are the key differences with my new approach:

- waist bag, not rucksack
- food beforehand if possible, rather than carry
- water from streams instead of carrying a bottle
- no change of clothes

This is pretty much the kit I take on a fell run. Why would I need significantly different kit for this type of outing?

Eating Big

I ate big all weekend, but still avoided breakfast, according to my Leangains experiment. One pre-walk epic lunch consisted of 9 eggs scrambled and drizzled in coconut cream, avocado, nuts and fruit. It took the entire 6-hour walk for my furnace to burn that one off, but when I got back I was ready to nail a baked mackerel and roasted vegetable feast.

There were also, even this late in the season, opportunities to forage some berries in the mountains. Up there, these wild berries probably contain several times the antioxidants of the big, overly sweet berries available in supermarkets.

The Foot

This was a big test for my foot, which I mentioned in a previous post might have a stress fracture. In fact it took everything I threw at it, and felt fine.

Participation in Saturday's 11-mile Langdale Horseshoe race therefore looks likely. Perhaps my previous diagnosis was a little over-dramatic. ... Read more

Hill Intervals and Suspected Stress Fracture

Location: Lickey Hills, South Birmingham (map)
Date: 2pm, 25th September

Workout

• 5-minute warm-up jog
• 3 x hill intervals. 70-75 seconds each, 3-minutes rest between.
• 5 minutes of mobility work in the sun.

Total Time: 20 minutes

First part of the hill

Second part of the hill...with a sting in the tail

Nutrition (for my Leangains experiment I saw this as sort-of intense workout)
45 minutes before: 10g BCAA
2 hours after: 10g BCAA
4.5 hours after, huge dinner:

Chicken-bone broth with leftover lamb

Bakes sea bass, courgette, fennel, tomato, kale

Foot Problem

It's been two weeks since the big fell race in Wales. My right foot was pretty sore after the race - those rocky descents had given it a fair pummelling. It had slowly recovered, so that yesterday it was fine to run downstairs on.

However, when I started jogging yesterday, I could tell it was not 100%; and once I hit a couple of tree roots on the intervals, I got warning shots of pain.

'The Internet' tells me this is probably not a broken foot (no swelling, okay to walk on etc) but possibly a stress fracture. 6-8 weeks rest is recommended, if so.

I have another race scheduled for 9th October. Also big and gnarly. That gives me another 2 weeks of rest from running. Leading up to the race I will do some careful evaluation of the foot. I would not like to start a race like that unless 100%.

Intervals

In spite of that I did manage to do the intervals as planned by avoiding uneven parts of the trail. I did not push it too hard, but given the likely enforced rest period (which I had already figured out as I was running) I did go into leg jelly territory for the third interval.

Feast

It was a funny day of eating. I felt like I needed a full 24-hour fast, but was very hungry by the evening so I ate pretty much everything in the fridge! ... Read more

3 Reasons Mountain Running Won't Destroy My Legs

You may have noticed I've been doing a lot of fell running recently. Big ones. Tough ones. A few of the posts have mentioned sore legs, feet, knees and other body parts.

In Scotland last month, I briefly met an older guy who'd been a top performer in the Ben Nevis race in previous years. He was struggling up the stairs at the bed and breakfast where we stayed.

"You'll have knees like me one day," he said, paternally.

Then, in a recent forum post I came across, a runner was explaining how bad his knees had become from years of mountain running.

So I have been thinking about this a lot. I do not want 'bad' knees or legs. Part of being Paleo is being in tune with our ancestral past and therefore living in a way which is optimal for our bodies. Optimally-used bodies don't start giving up at the age of 60.

I think there are three reasons this won't happen to me.

1. Recovery.
2. Diet.
3. Style.

Recovery

Many runners, especially the faster ones, seem to run a lot between races. "I managed to get a couple in" is a phrase often heard from someone seen at a race the previous weekend. As though it's an obligation.

I think we were designed for more episodic, traumatic runs. Perhaps a long hunt or sudden move across the mountains to a new camp. We would then have rested when we got the chance, rather than feeling obliged to do yet more activity.

There is a line, different for each person, where the volume of running exceeds the ability to repair. The sweet spot is where your body has just finished a full repair when you next traumatise it. I doubt whether the training regime of most runners in the top 25% is on the right side of that line.

By mainly running only races, I will remain on the right side. I am certainly listening to my body, and right now it tells me I need at least another couple of weeks without any significant leg trauma. I will duly oblige.

I am happy not to be one of the faster runners - I think that is an important place to get to. The law of dimishing returns can make striving for ever more improvement a depressing long-term strategy for the mid-pack amateur athlete.

These days, my priorities have shifted towards enjoying the mountains, avoiding being timed out, and following the correct route. I am choosing longer and longer distances, which means a lower heart rate and therefore more of a Paleo-friendly workout.

Six years ago I was finishing much farther up the field, but I was training hard, running hard and only really getting pleasure retrospectively from the experience.

Diet

Another factor may be diet. High volume cardio training is often fuelled by a high carb diet, which can mean a lot of grains. There is evidence that grains aren't good news for the joints.

Could my Paleo diet further protect me?

The phrase I used earlier might actually say:

There is a line, different for each person, eating a given diet, where the volume of running exceeds the ability to repair.

Style

Mountain running, which is almost exclusively the type of running I do, takes place on a more random terrain. This means runners are less likely to get the kind of specific oversuse injuries road runners can expect.

Nevertheless, many fell running shoes have big heels just like normal running shoes. A heel strike on any terrain will create more force through the legs than a forefoot strike and therefore promote more injury.

If I successfully apply the pose running technique (I am still working on this) in the context of mountain running, it should also avert the threat of leg deterioration. ... Read more

Peris Horseshoe Slain by Leg of Lamb

Last week I ran the Ben Nevis race, saying in my write-up: I can honestly say it was one of the toughest mountain races up I have ever done...

If I am not careful, I may get a reputation for exaggeration: one week later I am compelled to make the same declaration once again.

Fortunately, there's little chance I will be saying it yet again anytime soon, because the combined effect of Nevis and the Peris have left me feeling like I've been hung upside down by a Bond villain and my feet pounded by a meat tenderiser. I will not be tackling something like that again for a little while.

Yesterday's race, the Peris Horseshoe, is 8500 feet of ascent over nearly 18 miles. Here are a couple of select quotes from a forum thread:

"Tough? Very tough. Serious terrain too, few races go through such serious terrain. "

"...this is in the top handful of hard fell races in the UK."

Here is what happened.

The Leg of Lamb

The day before the race I roasted a 2 and a half pound leg of organic lamb. This was to fuel the race. I also roasted some organic gourd-like vegetables. Breakfast was the vegetables plus about a pound of meat, and post-race I had another pound. Half a pound was my mid-race treat.

The Cut-Off Threat

Last year, Lightning and I did the Half Peris (my write-up is here) - and I remember thinking, at the finish for us, but the mid-point for the 'fullers' - "Jeez, I am glad I am not doing the Full Peris."

After the Borrowdale failure in August, Lightning and I had been quietly brooding about our fell running credentials, so I think we were both determined to get round the Full Peris without being timed out.

There is a small turnout for this race. As we were briefed by the organiser, up ahead we could see the zigzag path we'd be taking up the side of the quarry (yellow arrow on second photo.)

Last year I did the half in around 2:45 (Lightning was 2:40), so our prediction was for 6 hours this year on the full - but with the halfway cut-off being 2:45, it was by no means secure.

As it turned out, we nailed the first half in 2:36. This was a 9-minute gain for me, but one that could be explained by 1) not getting lost this time, and 2) not wearing smooth-soled Vibram Five Fingers. Then again.... last year, I was knackered and the race ended there. This year I felt fresh and ready for the second half. So my maths tells me this is and improvement.

Razor Sharp Granite

Don't get me wrong, the first half is tough. There were rock-fields to cross consisting of sometimes-loose, razor-sharp granite, utterly impervious to the supposed grip of our studded shoes, and no shortage of tough climbs to be had; but we'd done it before, and somehow the knowledge of what is coming makes a difference.

At the halfway point, Pen y Pass, we consumed our respective treats. My cold lamb versus Lightning's Snickers and caffeineated energy drink. As we set off, he emptied the dregs at the side of the path. Even he was alarmed by it's appearance - a kind of nuclear yellow. I half expected a Simpsons-esque scene whereby the surrounding widlife began to die before our eyes.

Cruel Second Half

The second half was cruel. Lighting had repeatedly warned me about this, but it still took me by surprise. These photos show the first ascent, with an arrow on the first one indicating where we would go

At times, we were virtually climbing. Snowdon's acscent felt like the North Face of the Eiger, a relentless, barely walkable steepness that anihilated our already wasted quads. And by the time we descended from her, my legs could scarely tolerate the twisting and turning of another steep, rocky descent. My IT bands were tightening up and it felt like someone had a fish hook embedded in my right knee.

So the final ascent of an apparently benign peak actually felt disproportionately tough, as did the equally grassy descent to the final set of marshals. The look on Lightning's face in the second photo says it all.

By now my feet and legs were unravelling by the second, but Lightning looked stronger, and he pulled away, calling back "we can crack the 6-hours if we crank it up." To this I replied something along the lines of "I no longer have a crank." The magnification in the first photo shows how we could just see the final checkpoint in the distance as we started descending.

The photos at the final checkpoint are a fair reflection of our respective conditions (thanks to Alistair for taking them.)

The Beast was Slain

In the end, he clocked up 5:56 and I clocked up 5:58. The beast was slain. The ghost of Borrowdale, exorcised.

Our navigation had been largely spot on in spite of poor visibility at times, thanks to Lightning having come down a couple of times to scope it out. I was able to correct a potential error in the first half so I felt I had contributed at least something to our navigation.

We chinked our award mugs, glad it was over, then headed out the lake for some leg-cooling action.

In the evening, we were joined my Mrs L and Mrs M to celebrate. A few glasses of wine and body crazed with desire for food led me astray from the Paleo path, as the photos show. This I can live with. I will fast today and allow my body to recover from these dual assaults with some dignity.

Now You're Just Showing Off

One amusing story to add. As we were descending to the mid point on the grassy slopes, I was following Lightning, who was following another runner. The other runner suddenly lost his feet and slid down a bank on his behind.

"Now you're just showing off," shouted Lightning.

The words had scarcely escaped his mouth when he executed an exact copy of the fall himself, to join his fellow runner at the bottom of the slope on his backside. How I laughed. ... Read more