Hellrunner 2016 - Hell Up North

So time again for my favourite race of the year Brook Hellrunner Series - Hell Up North

This race is run in Delamere Forest about 40 mins away from my home town the terrain is very hilly and muddy with bogs and a freezing cold lake you go through and is billed as "the toughest HM in the UK" it lives up to it's name

Preparation - Nutrition and Training

So after EHM I decided to go into this race a bit more prepared both training and nutrition wise

Training for EHM started the following day 19/09/2016

I dropped straight back into LCHF and MAF 

I normally level about 1960-2000 calories but when doing LCHF I just log my food choices and don't count the calories 

My weight dropped from 238lbs (19/09/2016) to 224lb (13/10/2016) over the period

At first it was hard doing the training and LCHF as my body adjusted but all of a sudden it just seems to click into place

Training was different story - I decided to try and focus on some hills it's not really easy where I live we have a few hills but nothing like the terrain that I would face on the day 

The is a hill called Red Lane about 4 miles from my house so I decided to run there do a few loops (3) then tack on about 9ish miles to get me up to 13.1 as I needed it in my legs I suffered on that run as I didn't hydrate properly and it was a hot day and we have another bridge which is quite steep I did 5 miles run over and back 

I hit 72.3 miles over the 4 week period which is 18 miles per week on average as you can see to the left.

Race Day

I was getting picked up at 7.30ish so I had my Fat Burning Coffee we arrived at 8.40 to a light rain shower the race started at 9.45 ( I was in the 1st wave at 9.45am the second wave is 10.15 and 3rd wave is 11.00) 

We met up with some members of my running club who were running it dressed as Daffodils and waited round for the race to start

I'd decided last year after the first year of doing this race ( I plodded it with some friends from club) that I was racing it this year around so I'd got myself in the right mindset and off to the start line we went

5...4...3...2...1 and we were off for the first climb up Old Pale Hill for about 450- 500ft of elevation in the first mile - I set off too fast even for me I'd aimed for 12mm average the whole way round and I was sub 9 mm for the near the first mile....I dropped back but what goes up must come down we ran down the side of Old Pale back past the start and into the forest - the route follows a pretty similar path each year with a few tweaks.

This year was different in that you ran more before you got to the first Bog ( mud pit to crawl through) last year was about 4 miles in this year it was about 6.5 miles in after the Bogs you move onto the Hills of Hell very steep climbs and descents repeated 4 times minimum added into the other hills and terrain during the race

After HoH it's onto more running through the forest until you hit Lucifer's Lido at about 10-105 miles in - a very cold lake my strategy during the Bogs and Lake was move through them as fast as possible I cleared the lake very quick and was off again

You then are back into the forest for 2 miles until you hit the Bog Of Doom the final Bog but it's more like a small lake you climb over logs but there are one hidden under the water again my idea was move through as fast as possible which I did, once done it the last half mile to the finish slight forest run and then.........DONE.

Once done I got showered off via the Fire Service (for charity) got changed into warm clothes and had my food 

Breakfast

Sign

Bit muddy afterwards still smiling

Post Race Nutrition

Free Sugar Bars

Free Carbs

Different types of sugar

Jelly Sugar

Sugar and more sugar

As if one type isn't enough

13 different sugar flavours

War wounds

Bumps and scratches

2016 finish time

2015 finish time

 

Strava Route

Pizza for tea

Goody bag

Review

This is the part where I learn and reflect on the race............firstly I love Hellrunner it's one of the best races I've ever done it's very tough but I really enjoy it and it will be included in my race schedule as long as it's continued that said it's a race and upon reflection what I would do differently is below

• Increase the weekly mileage personally 18 mpw wasn't enough as during the race the body is being stressed from the constant changes in elevation and terrain and while I went it prepared I could have done more longer runs

• More hills - the 13.1 mile run I did on 02/10/2016 included Red Lane but after 3 loops I sort of give up and started to run back home - I should've done more loops as when my legs got tired during Hellrunner I still had more climbs and more running to do

• WARM UP.... This was probably my biggest error I did a bit of jumping around and stretching but I could have easily gone for a 20-30 slow run before the race I will definitely not make this error again

• On the plus side the course was much tougher than last year and I did it 17 secs faster not a major PB by any stretch but still faster so with the fact I've been injured most of 2016 and only started back training in August it shows MAF works and I've got some base built from the last two years work

So while I resisted the trappings of energy bars and noodles on the day it got me on Sunday in which I indulged heavily see below

 

Nice LCHF breakfast which was ruined by Pringles, Biscuits, Ben and Jerry's and Full Sugar Coke.. I own this reaction and am currently back on LCHF

Still smiling after 12.5 miles of Hell

Post Race

So I'm currently in my rest phase - the week after my race and I've discovered ChiRunning so I'm researching that and seeing if I can incorporate it into my program

I've got a 10 mile race on 12/11/2016 in which I hope to get up to 20 miles in prep for Manchester Marathon in April - I might slot another Hellrunner during Jan 17 if possible but if not it's back to Hell Up North in Oct 17

Thanks for reading

EHM 10k Race Blog

So it was my first race of the year and my first back from injury 

This year hasn't been the best I deferred Manchester Marathon until 2017 due to injury I'd been off running for a while and my nutrition had been everywhere

But I managed to put in a good solid 5 weeks of MAF in the build up to EHM

***Bit of background EHM or English Half Marathon is a race that's ran for 8 years in my home town of Warrington in the North West of England there's normally a very food turn out and with 2 main distances (10k and HM) and a family mile later in the afternoon it's a great event adding in a festival running all over the weekend it adds to the whole atmosphere throughout the town***

Demons with 10K distance

I was aiming to run with some members of my running club who where hoping to gain the elusive sub 60 minute 10k time (this would be my 3rd 10k race with 2 previous attempts in 1hr 5 mins 14 secs in 2014 and 1hr 4 mins 10 secs in 2013 I'd hit it in training but never in race conditions

As you can see below there is a time line of my 10k ability over the last 3 years

Top picture (1hr:05) is Birchwood 10k in 2014 
Middle picture (57:42) is my first non -MAF run after 4 months base build in Feb 2015
Botom picture (58.37) my finish time from EHM 10K


**All splits are next to the runs**

Anyway back to my prep and the race itself

I started my plan in August (see below for my plan) ** all runs were done between my MAF range of 140bpm-150bpm**

As you can see I got some good build in especially coming back from injury I started slow then jumped up a bit too much maybe but then dropped back as the 0.7 session was meant to be above MAF but I tweaked my calf so rested until the Thursday before the race.

Race Day

This race is a big race to my running club we had 220 odd runners taking part which is a massive moral boost seeing them on course every 3rd or 4th person

The day before hadn't been great as we'd been at a party and the food was not LCHF but I'd decided to not focus on the nutrition a few weeks previously

I was up at 7.15 slept ok - had a Fat Burning Coffee (coffee,20g coconut oil,25g Kerrygold Butter and 50ml Double Cream)

I got picked up at 8am for the 10 min drive into town - had 500ml water with SIS Go Hydro beforehand we had a club photo (there's a few off us)

After at 20 minute warm up and 4 toilet stops it was time to line up at race start I headed over to the 50-60 min section - I was meant to be running with some club members aiming for sub 60 mins but couldn't find them - the race was due to start at 9am but was delayed by 5 mins

3...........2......................1 and we were off 

Felt pretty fast the first half a mile and I glanced at my watch and say 8.35 pace I knew to slow down I was aiming for between 9.30-9.45 average all the way round 

Above are the screenshots from each mile (blue is the mile itself)

2nd mile was the turning point as I was off target and 20 secs slower than the 1st mile so I decided to speed up slightly which lead to get a little bit faster and even posting some negative splits - when people asked me how the race went I've been saying it hurt the whole way round - I mean it, it was tough to the point I felt slow and sluggish but I've had these feelings before when I've been working hard during a Parkrun and I've hit a PB there was times I thought I wouldn't do it and even wanted to quit 5k and 7k mostly but I powered through after all it was only a 10k

I really enjoyed this race and put some demons to bed regarding sub 60 minutes finishing time 

What's next for me

Well I've took the opportunity to maximise my next race performance ( I mean if I can hit sub 60 on 4 weeks MAF and not ideal nutrition what can I do with 3 weeks focused MAF and dialling in my nutrition ) my next race in 15th Oct and is a trail HM called Hellrunner - billed as the Toughest in the UK - it's a great event I did it last year with a group in 3 hrs 32 mins and I want to shave at least 30 mins if not longer from that time

I know MAF can take me a very long way I aim to get back into it more consistently

Thanks for reading 

#HappyMAF #allaboutthebase

So I'm back....

So my last post was 22nd Jan 2016 when I edited my post regarding my deferral of Manchester Marathon until 2017

I had a plan and it failed...BUT I know where I went wrong and am laying it out here

The Ultra...the holy grail, where I wanted to be and what happened to get there?? Injury during training I developed Plantar Fasciitis and of course I ignored it and within a week of the race being completed (41 miles in 10 hrs 10 mins) I'd gone for a run one word....STUPID!!

Looking back at the whole process in training for the Ultra I went about it the wrong way I was hooked on MAF and thought it would be my cushion or safety net and it wasn't my training wasn't suitable as can be seen from my Strava and the table below

The (- minus) numbers and % are decreases

As you can see there is a big drop between weeks some massive increases and decreases which didn't help my training at all going from 0 mile week to 13.4 or 0.9 to 18 miles per week

So what is my plan well EHM 10K is just under 5 weeks away and I'm not near running 10k yet (I probably could but it would be a struggle) I went to the physio on 20th July and was told I can run again slowly starting with 2 miles per run and increase 10% or 20% per week so this is where I'm at 

I decided to split a weekly mile increase over the numbers of runs I do either 0.25 or 0.5 of a mile per run to build up slowly but to give me time to get to 10k and see how it feels I think it's the easiest method for me to increase my mileage and I'll continue it to get to the distance needed for my other races in October and November and then build fully until April for Manchester 

I've also started Primal eating and while I've had a slip after 6 days I've dropped straight back into it with no issues 

The best thing is I'm on my way back it's slowly and steadily taking shape BUT let's be honest if we wanted quick results we wouldn't be doing MAF