Four weeks and 198 km of running, with 5,245m of ascent, plus 56km of fast walking. This is my hilliest ever month – some 2½ times hillier than any other month in my 18 years of running, though to be fair I’m thoroughly blurring the line between running and walking when I’m going up steeper inclines – but that’s as it will be when I get to September. (I’m very comfortable with the principle, but it does distort the stats somewhat!)
Week 1
41km of running including 674m of ascent – including one 10km hill repeats session in Bury, and 10km from Christchurch Park parkrun immediately followed by 5km of hill repeats – rather amusingly, I named the latter run on Strava referencing “hilly loops”, then checked for any Strava segments I’d matched, and discovered my little circuit was officially named “hilly loop”. Running again and again up the same hill can get boring, but it’s good for both physical and mental toughness. Judging the right speed to run uphill is not easy, either, so it’s a learning journey. This is my hilliest ever (in terms of elevation per km) week of running in Suffolk – so far!
26km logged of walking (mostly better than 6km/h)
29 minutes of single-leg step-ups in 4 sessions. These leave my legs aching nicely so I’m hopeful will cumulatively have a positive impact. Where it fits into the day, some of these are being done immediately after a flatter local run, though it will get more difficult to combine the two as I gradually increase the duration.
I’m keen to make the most of the 26 weeks I have, but equally must avoid overdoing it.
Week 2 (including training camp!)
46km of running (well some run/walk or walk/running) including 1443m of ascent, with just 12km of pure walking logged. Just one stairs exercise recorded – 7 repeats of a flight of 50 stairs up and down in 7 minutes.
Tuesday afternoon after a work meeting I had a trip up The Wrekin in Shropshire – it’s about 2.3km up with 230m of ascent, i.e. 10% average, so comparable with parts of the Wengen to Wixi section of the Jungfrau ascent (which averages about 7% but has a kilometre at 11%). In reality, of course, both have varied gradients – so can I make the most of the easier gradients and push on through the steep sections, creating a reasonable effort on average? A good experiment. I found that the first 2km had all the ascent with an average 12% gradient, done in just over 9min/km. I’m allowed 14 minutes per km in my current marathon pacing plan. Obviously on tired legs but doesn’t seem totally implausible.
On Friday evening I travelled to the Lake District for a few days – both to visit a place I love that I have been too long away from, and to experiment with some uphill running/brisk walking.
There’s not a huge amount of gain from a small number of training efforts out of 26 weeks (though I hope to be back later in the year too), but it all helps in terms of the physical, and I’m hoping it will also help in terms of reassurance that I’m starting from a reasonably good place, and in determining some sort of baseline of current ability.
On Saturday I did a moderate paced parkrun (Cockermouth Greenway, my 248th parkrun location) and then went to Skiddaw where I got to the top in 57 minutes (5km distance and 710m of ascent) and back down again in 38 minutes. The second km had 246m of ascent, similar to the steepest section of the marathon, and I did it in 16:40, with kms 3, 4 and 5 around 9% or 10% on average at between 10 and 11 minutes per km, all ahead of marathon pace. Standard caveat that the circumstances aren’t directly comparable, but still encouraging, and hopefully over the next 25 weeks I’ll get stronger.
Sunday I did 10km undulating around the eastern half of Grizedale Forest with my first visit to Grizedale Tarn (not to be confused with Grisedale Tarn). The modest slopes, perhaps 6-8% gradient with occasional forays to 13%, are interesting – a bit of a challenge for continuous running (or maybe I’m going too fast) and getting the right balance of run/walk, especially with constantly varying gradient, needs focus. But in general, another encouraging outing.
Week 3 (training camp concludes)
51 km of running with 2475 metres of ascent (including treadmill incline).
My Lake District holiday continued on Monday with 10km in two halves: a 5km from the Seathwaite side to the top of the Walna Scar Road gaining me 414m in 2.26km (average 18%) in under 28 minutes – with very rocky footing in the early part too. I almost kept the first 2km under 12min/km which I was happy with. On average it was steeper than Skiddaw and worse footing, though Skiddaw had steeper and flatter sections. Then a return down to the car and immediately a further 5km up the reservoir track to Seathwaite Tarn for a total of 667m height gain in 10.2km.
Tuesday was a more gentle climb over about 7km on the forestry roads of Broughton Moor. That means that in four days I’d run a marathon distance with 1900m ascent (essentially the Jungfrau parameters) in 5 hours 20 minutes – obviously it’s a lot easier spread over four days than in one single block, but still good to see.
The trip concluded on Wednesday with a walk/run up Helvellyn from Wythburn, getting to the col on the ridge (up 660 metres in 2.8km) in 46 minutes, then running to six summits on the ridge before descending. 16min/km for the 2.8km of ascent at an average gradient of 24% is another that is well ahead of the desired marathon pace – but again in isolation and out of context. Also worth noting that today (unlike on Skiddaw on Saturday) I was very warm – getting clothing right (when 6 hours and 1800 metres up may make quite a difference) will be another thing to think about.
But a very satisfactory end to a lovely break and one in which I gained a lot of confidence about my current ability, which I hope to enhance in the coming weeks.
Some local Suffolk running then followed, including a new course PB at Lowestoft parkrun, and ending the week with my first visit to the gym in some years, doing some treadmill inclines (or “treadhill”) – a total of 20 minutes running up an 8% slope, and 20 minutes walking up a 15% slope. I was again pleased with how they went: I think I’ll continue on a pay-as-you-go basis for now as I’m not likely at the moment to go often enough to warrant the commitment of membership, but as another option to throw into the training mix, it’s a good one.
Week 4
More local running, including multiple times up the local “hill” (which totals about 15 metres of ascent).
I gave myself an intermediate focus by entering the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on May 4th (Star Wars Day) with a friend – away from parkrun, I’ve never attempted to run a race with anyone, so it should be a new and interesting experience. The pace will be just a little off my limit, but still nicely brisk.
I rounded out the week with Highwoods parkrun (a 6-minute course PB for Lucy) and then a bit more distance with a nice 16km to keep endurance up, followed by a bit of cross-training with my first UK swim for a year (and the little in Cyprus last September was very relaxed), with a distant eye on the London Aquathlon that Lucy and I plan to enter at the end of October – pace was close to my best recorded, but I must find a way to stop my toes cramping when I swim.
Leave a Reply