The Difference A Year Makes

With many family connections around Morecambe Bay and spending lots of time up there over the years, I have always thought that I really should do a bay crossing sometime. Last year, whilst queuing for fish and chips in Hest Bank, I noticed an advert for the “Cross Bay Challenge” a half marathon run across the sands from Flookburgh to Hest Bank. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.
 
At the time, whilst I occasionally ran, I wasn’t serious about my running and was carrying a bit of extra weight, but did a few runs up to ten miles and knew I could get around the course. I knew I wouldn’t be particularly fast, but thought that I could probably do a half in an hour and forty-five minutes on the road, but across the sands might be a little slower.
 
Come race day, I set off at seven and a half minute mile pace, but by three miles was starting to struggle with the rutted surface and standing water and finding the running pretty exhausting. I took the first water station as an opportunity to walk a few hundred metres and the same with the second at five miles.
 
Crossing the main channel of the River Kent at between six and seven miles was another opportunity to walk and whilst I tried to run the second half of the race, it became a war of attrition and much of the rest of the race was spent running half a mile, followed by walking a hundred metres then running another half mile and walking a hundred metres. I staggered over the line in a few seconds under two hours.
 
So what happened after that? A few weeks later I ran in the Rochdale Harriers 10k and had another disappointing performance, so decided to do something about it. I joined Rochdale Harriers and began training regularly, three or four times a week at first, then as much as six days a week. By September I wasn’t struggling quite so hard to keep up with my training group and felt confident enough to enter a few races. My first 5k was in twenty-one minutes and forty-six seconds, far from spectacular, but an improvement. I also tentatively started doing a little fell running and cross country. Despite a few injury problems towards the end of the year, my times were slowly falling and the New Year seemed to bring a substantial improvement. In February, I went below twenty minutes for 5k for the first time and continued to chip off more and more time through March and April.
 
March was a big month race wise, a 10k with PB potential at Trafford and an opportunity to run a fast half marathon at Wilmslow, both successful, breaking forty minutes and an hour and a half respectively for the first time. Fast forwarding to July, I had run nearly fifty races since completing the Cross Bay Challenge in 2010, I was around a stone and a half lighter and felt I could put in a much better performance, but was still a little nervous.
 
I knew I would not get too close to my half marathon PB, but hoped to beat my 2010 time by a decent chunk. I travelled up to Hest Bank on the morning of the race with my club mate Jill, dropped the car off at my Mum’s house and walked down to the finish to get the coach to the start line. In 2010 there had been around three hundred and fifty entrants, thanks to some very positive publicity in the running press, numbers had swelled to over five hundred and fifty this year.
 
At twelve thirty, after a short safety briefing, we set off in hot but breezy conditions. Starting at the front of the pack, I did my usual trick and set off fast, actually leading the race for a short time. I soon dropped my pace a little and settled into a position around eighth or ninth. Out on the sand I soon felt the heat and was working quite hard as I passed through the first mile in six minutes and twenty seconds. Too fast I thought, this sand must be slowing me down by at least twenty seconds a mile, so don’t overcook it, just keep it below seven. With the slight reduction in speed, I began to feel a little better and manage to do the next five miles between six minutes forty and six minutes fifty, despite some difficult sand conditions. The first lady came past me at around four miles, I thought about giving chase, but decided I needed to run my own race.
 
The main crossing of the River Kent took place at between six and seven miles, this involved wading a could of hundred metres of water that was above my knee at its deepest, this would add at least a minute and a half to my mile split. As the race turned towards Morecambe the wind became more difficult, progressively getting more difficult as the race went on. The race continued across various combinations of sand and water and at ten miles I was hurting, but the last years racing had taught me that I could hurt and carry on, although my pace was obviously slowing, in part because I had a strong wind in my face. Frustratingly a couple of people passed me within the last half mile and I could do nothing to respond.
 
I crossed the line with an official time of one hour thirty-one minutes and twenty-eight seconds in twentieth place an improvement of twenty-eight minutes on my 2010 performance. As expected, not as fast as my half marathon personal best set on fast Cheshire roads, but much closer than the eight to fifteen minutes slower that most people reported. I took from that the feeling of being in good shape.

Going Downhill Fast

No, not a comment on my general physical and mental state, a skill to be learnt in fell running.

I am something of a fell running novice, having only competed in my first race last October. I have two main weaknesses on the fells, but they are significant, running fast up hills and running fast down hills. Now running fast up hills is a problem I seem to share with the vast majority of competitors and in comparison to many I am reasonably fast, I just need to work on my endurance for long ascents and probably man up a bit. Descending fast appears to be much more of a dark art.

A number of times I have been overtaken on descents by runners who I am much faster than on ascents and particularly the flat. Whilst I am never going to worry the sharp end of a fell face, I definitely want to try and get better.

I don’t descent particularly fast even on the road, I have quite a short stride, which helps me climb those hilly roads at a decent speed, but isn’t great for gravity assisted acceleration. On the fells this is compounded by the technical nature of many descents which make the action as mental as it is physical.

The standard advice is to turn off the brakes and disengage the brain. Braking not only slows you down, it causes additional stresses on your body and some would argue actually makes you more likely to have a fall. The problem is you only want to disengage part of your brain that tells your body to constantly brake, not the part that reads the terrain and helps you stay upright.

I think a big part of the problem is that I am a chicken, who likes to feel in control, as my bum twitching experiences of forty mile an hour plus hill descents on my road bike can testify to. That said; there are skills to be learnt and practiced to at least give the brain an illusion of control and most importantly get faster.

I thought it would be useful to try and gather some more detailed advice from some people who have managed to hardwire the skills into their partially disengaged brains.

A common theme seems to be that great descenders are born and not made, but some basic schooling in the art can improve the ability of most. I have looked at and practiced to varying degrees, three tips for going downhill fast.

1.         One international mountain runner and winner of numerous fell races, told me that the position of your upper body is crucial, it is in effect both accelerator and brake. Lean into the descent and keep you body weight forward. This takes a certain amount of bravery and can look somewhat reckless, but it does seem to work.

2.         Linked to body position is the position of your feet, when descending all but scree, foot should be pointing down the slope, to maximise stud contact. This takes a bit of work, but it is definitely easier if you are starting to get your body position right.

3.         Norman Mathews in his book, Fell and Hill Running, talks about “fast feet” by this he means having good eye / foot coordination. I guess this is the hardest and most natural skill to learn, I have certainly found it the most difficult part of my running to change, but there are tricks to make it easier. Look ahead and trust your brain to move your feet without actually looking at them and make sure the length of your stride is matched to the terrain, long strides are inappropriate on ground that is strewn with boulders.

So, how have I got on trying to get faster running down hills. I have had a couple training runs and a fell race since I first started researching and I think I have seen some progress. I managed to overtake a few people on steep descents when I raced at Bull Hill and think I have got quite a bit faster on less steep descents simply by adjusting my body position, but I still have a lot to learn and don’t think I am a natural, so learning will be hard work.

Sensitive Stomachs

Not for the first time, I had a race performance ruined by stomach cramps the other night.

I was running in the Rochdale Harriers 10k, a tough hilly course, which I was aiming to run a sub 40 on. The forecast was for cool temperatures and rain showers, come the start it was warm and humid. Things started well, after two miles, including the toughest hill on the course, I was comfortably running at just under thirty-nine minute pace. Over the next mile I started experiencing increasing amounts of stomach pain, I slowed a little, but went through 5k in 19:40, still OK.

My second 5k was a disaster. My Garmin was telling me that I had slowed to below seven minute mile pace and the cramping was becoming more and more uncomfortable. At four and a half miles I had to stop running and walk for thirty yards, feeling a little better I managed to run to the finish, but at a little below the pace I would hope to achieve over the last mile and a half of 10k. I crossed the line in 41:09, having run the second 5k nearly two minutes slower than the first. Whilst I am a fast starter, I tend to run races pretty evenly, so this was very disappointing.

So why did it happen? I doubt it was just the heat, I don’t run particularly well when it is hot, but it was warm rather than hot and I have run in hotter conditions without any problem. I have two theories, both relate to hydration.

The first is simply that I did not hydrate enough. Expecting cooler and wetter weather, was I too casual about my hydration. The only drink I had in the two hours before the race was a sip of water, had I drunk enough during the day?

My second theory is that the drink I chose to hydrate with did not suit my stomach. I am not particularly loyal to any brand when it comes to sports drinks, so during a day which involved lots of rushing around, I picked up a couple of bottles of Lucazade Sport, the only choice in the shop I went in. I always find the flavouring quite strong with Lucazade and on this occasion it felt quite harsh on my stomach. Did this cause my problems later on?

So what have I learnt? Hydrate properly and be careful what with, I think I might experiment with a few brands and stick with the one that suits me best.

Will it make a difference? Only time will tell.