Ian Frame Challenge

Getting things going

2010-05-13T20:46:00.002+01:00

Once again this year I'm going to be trying to raise as much money as I can for the BHF, in memory of my Uncle, Ian Frame. Last year you all managed to help raise over £200 which was awesome so thank you all very much!

This year I'm planning quite a few events, probably about the same as last year with maybe one less marathon! The season is kicking off a fair bit earlier than last year though, the end of the month to be exact! (note: I started writing this in March so it's already started!) I'll go into a bit more detail about my race schedule in a later post, suffice it to say I should be kept pretty busy again… In the meantime, have a look at the race schedule over there on the right hand side of the page.

If you would like to make a donation and help support the Challenge for another year you can use my JustGiving page, which will be getting updated soon - I promise!

Once again a big thanks to everyone who supported the Challenge last year, I'd like to think we can do even better this year!

Here we go again…

2009-11-19T13:08:00.002Z

Southern Uplands Sportive a.k.a. The Radar Ride '09

2009-07-07T21:37:00.001+01:00

This weekend myself and Dave are heading down to Wanlockhead for the 2nd edition of the Souther Uplands Sportive, now know as the Radar Ride.

I've been getting some decent training in for this event, at over 100 miles long I needed it! I've been mixing it up between high speed blasts round a short loop and then this weekend put in a nice 65 mile ride, tracing the large majority of the Etape Caledonia route.

The key to this race I think will be to take it easy at the start, this isn't something that we can go out from the start guns blazing and expect to still finish strong, if at all! Apparently last year quite a few people did exactly that and went out hard and fast only to blow up on the later climbs. It would be very easy to go out incredibly quick as the first 7-15 or so miles are pretty much all downhill!

In a strange way I'm quite looking forwards to the final climb up Lowther Hill to the radar station, in recent weeks my I seem to have improved my climbing skills further still so hopefully I'll have enough in the tank to make a good effort of it. There's even a time split at the bottom of the climb to see who is King of the Mountain. I don't quite think I'd be up there with the leaders but it's nice to give it a try!

Radar 105 '09 Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Blowing out the dust!

2009-07-05T21:59:00.001+01:00

Hello all, it's been a while since I've blogged anything (if you discount Twitter) on here so thought it was about time I blew some of the dust and cobwebs away!

I've not had any races since the Cairngorm Classic a few weeks back which has actually felt a bit odd after the intensity of all the racing in May. It's given me a bit of a chance to recover from it all but I've still be training pretty hard, especially on the bike.

This coming weekend myself and Dave are heading down to Wanlockhead in Dumfriesshire for the Southern Uplands Sportive aka The Radar 105. The Radar in the name is because the race finishes at the radar station atop Lowther Hill and the 105 is for the distance. 105 miles. Pretty far, huh?

I'll put up a full write up of the event later this week but I'd once again like to extend my greatest thanks again to everyone who has donated so far, we've broken the £200 mark on JustGiving and I'm sure there's still more to go yet!

If you would like to donate you can do it easily through JustGiving or the BHF Gift of Hope that's been setup in Ians name.

Finishing with a bang - Cairngorm Classic 50 '09

2009-06-16T23:02:00.002+01:00

So that was event no. 5 of the season, yet another wet bike ride!

First things first, while the ride was wet, the route was really good fun! Starting off form the Cairngorm Ski centre the assembled riders gingerly made their way down through the cloud, no one wanting to make a mistake this early in the ride! From the bottom of the descent the route took us out through Coylumbridge along some pretty nice rolling forrest sections. I had managed to hook onto the back of a few other riders and was pretty happy to trail along with them, conserving my energy. Looking down at my bike computer I was amazed to see that we had covered just shy of 10 miles already after only around half an hour!

Shortly afterwards the group got considerably larger as another peloton of riders took their place at the head of the group. Heading out through Boat of Garten the group got completely blown to pieces with the combination of a road crossing and a choke point round a tight corner where roadworks had closed one side of the road quickly followed by a small climb. I lost the group by virtue of hanging on the back so I ended up heading through the most exposed part of the course, Nethybridge through Sliemore towards the 'other' main climb at the halfway point. This was also the point where the 50mile route split apart from the 100mile so suddenly the road ahead was looking very empty!

My strength is definitely not on the descents so the few riders that I had made time up on during the climb very quickly dropped me on the way down through Lynmore to Speybridge. Shortly after we got back onto the road back to Nethy Bridge I made it up to the back of a couple of girls who were heading along at a good pace. I have to say I owe so much of my finishing time to those girls, being able to draft with them saved my so much energy and really helped keep my pace up. I feel slightly for not taking more of a turn on the front but I did take a few pulls when I could. Part of my problem was that while I could keep pace when I was in the draft I was just not quite strong enough to keep up quite the same pace when I was leading.

The one thing I really noticed going through the forrest sections of the as just how much drag you get on the rougher surfaced sections of road. The simplest thing as unsealed tarmac really made a huge difference to the amount of effort you had to put in in order to keep up a pace compared to a fully sealed main road surface.

Coming out of the forest yet another group surged past us but didn't get too far up the road so we managed to bridge up to them and formed another peloton of around a dozen or so riders. I have to admit that through the second part of the race I did start to wonder if I might be on for a decent finishing position since I'd seen so few other riders on the way back towards the Cairngorms. I had started relatively towards the start of all the riders in the morning and I just couldn't remember seeing that many riders go past me! I tried to keep such thoughts out of my head as much as I could as I was only too aware of blowing up before the final climb.

Approaching that final climb, billed as Scotland's Alpe d'Huez, the group really bunched up and some of the riders who had been a good half a mile off were suddenly getting that much closer! Hitting the first ramp up I kept things steady just to see how the legs were feeling and how the other riders were taking it on. Soon I decided it was time to give it a go and I picked up my cadence, still trying to keep it as smooth as possible, not jumping out of the saddle to try and make a big break. I had passed the majority of the group going into the first switchback and tried to give a big dig into the flat section, passing another couple of other riders who were already deep into the red. Into the second switchback and I had cleared almost everyone I could still see through the cloud which had come right down again!

Pacing through the cloud I was absolutely on the limit and then my left calf started to cramp up yet again! I could see someone in the cloud just in the distance and decided that even with my leg giving out I was still gonna try and chase him down! Coming into the final turn I had made it past the last man only to be taken again and I was staring into the cloud, trying to remember if there was another switchback still to come! Suddenly the ski centre came into view over the top of the cloud and I made one last final push, making past the last man and attempting to sprint to the line. In reality I was probably rolling along at a quite sedate pace despite being out of the saddle trying to emulate a Cavendish style sprint finish!

All in all I finished up in 36th place, just inside the top third of the field and about 25minutes off the winning time, which I'm really pleased with. Once again I have to give a big thanks to everyone who I took a draft from through the ride, I couldn't have done it without you! I reckon that with a bit more training in my legs (the marathon training has a lot to answer for!) I could maybe try and push into the top 10 overall, maybe next year!

Cairngorm Classic 50 '09 Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

The kindness of strangers

2009-06-12T22:54:00.001+01:00

It's refreshing to know that even in the midst of an apparent recession and with so many people facing financial uncertainty that there is still such a thing as the kindness and charity of strangers.

During the week I had an email from Justgiving announcing that Ian Frame had made a donation to the challenge. It turns out that this Ian Frame found the Justgiving page and decided that, as he shared the same name as my uncle, he would make a donation because it was a worthy cause.

So if you're reading this Ian Frame, thank you so much for the donation!

In related news, I've now broken the £200 mark in donations so huge thanks go out again to everyone who's supporting the challenge so far this year! And remember, if you still want to donate, there's plenty of time left, I'm keeping on going all season long!

Event No. 5 - The Cairngorm Classic

2009-06-12T22:11:00.001+01:00

Well, number 5 of the season is up, a nice 50miles through the Cairngorms in what I hope will be some pretty nice weather - I'm getting fed up of wet bike events!

I had originally been planning on entering the 100mile route but I've just not had enough time on the bike recently to be able to get round the full distance. The only bike time I've really had recently have been the Bealach and the Etape Caledonia, any other training time I might have had was being devoted to getting ready for the marathon the other weekend.

After a slightly lackluster performance at the Etape Caledonia I'm hoping for a better performance this weekend, I'm certainly gonna be going all out for it given it's the shorter route. Both routes finish up with a pretty sharp climb back up to the Cairngorm ski centre which I'm planning on giving it a big push on, providing my legs are still feeling up to it!

Looking back to the start of the season, just 7 short weeks ago, with the Edinburgh 10km it's crazy to think I'm already onto a 5th event! As quick as the time has passed that first race of the season seems like an age ago.

Edinburgh Marathon '09 in review

2009-06-11T07:46:00.002+01:00

Scratch it off the list, I've completed my first marathon!

Or, as I txt some friends and family after the race, 'I am marathon man!'

I might have finished but it was far from a walk in the park. It was in fact probably the toughest thing I've ever done. The distance, the heat, the cramp, the heat, absolutely brutal.

I'd do it again though! (In Berlin actually, in September)

I set off with Al, Graham and Malc from the start at a pretty decent pace in one of the slower groups of runners and got into a pretty decent rhythm just plodding along at the pace we had been training for. The opening few miles were pretty quick as we were dropping down from the center of Edinburgh to the coast road at Leith and then all the way out past Musselburgh to Gosford House. We were all sticking together through the 10km mark but the group started to split up a bit around the 11 or 12 mile mark. I had dropped back a wee bit with Al but bridged up to Graham and Malc at about the mid way point. Right then I seemed to be hitting a really good stride and was feeling pretty comfortable going along at a good pace.

From then on I was pretty much away from the group just keeping to my own internal pace. I was really pleased to get as far as I did before starting to see the elite groups coming back down the road towards us, it had been on the back of my mind that it could be pretty demoralizing to see the elites pounding back down the course before the half way mark!

The heat really started to get to me out at the Gosford House loop where the course doubles back on itself. For some reason it seemed considerably hotter out there than on the rest of the course, maybe there was a very slight coast breeze cooling us down a little bit. From then on each feed station I got to I was basically just pouring the water straight over my head and down my back to try and stay cool. Up until then I had been conservatively putting it into my cap a wee bit at a time but it was past the stage where that felt like it was really making a difference!

I was still keeping a decent pace going up until about mile 23 or so where I started to get a cramp in my left calf which just killed my stride and my pace dropped right off. I just kept telling myself it was only a wee 5km left, I can run that (when I'm on form) in about 20mins, that's not long!. In reality that last 5km probably took me the best part of 40mins if not longer! I was in a constant mental battle with myself to not stop or not just walk for a few steps to get my breath back. Even if I was barely running I was that close to the end I knew I'd always feel I'd let myself down if I got that far and then took a breather. Full credit and a huge thanks goes out to all the crowds shouting encouragement along the way back, it's amazing the energy you can get from people shouting and cheering you on in the final stretches of any race.

Crossing the line didn't quite feel like I had thought it might. I was fully expecting to be taken by a huge wave of emotion and end up in absolute bits but instead I was just so drained from the whole experience, physically and mentally, that I crossed the line with my arms in the air in pretty much a daze. Once I'd got through the channels to pick up my bag of free stuff I pretty much just slumped to the ground to wait on the rest of the guys. Pretty much everyone was in the same state, there were a lot of very glazed expressions walking about that field after the finish I can tell you!

For the rest of the day I was pretty much in bits. I was completely empty and would just be staring into the mid-distance. Our group were supposed to be all heading out for a curry in the evening after getting cleaned up but I had to bail out and head home while I was still awake! I had to drive back through to Glasgow and was starting to get a bit twitchy about being alert and awake enough if I stuck about any longer.

All in, it was some experience, one I'm not likely to forget in a hurry! Now I have a target to aim for in Berlin later in the year, can I put in an improved time…

The day of reconing

2009-05-31T06:10:00.001+01:00

So, the Edinburgh Marathon is finally upon us!

This is just a very quick post to say thanks to everyone for all the support so far, it means a lot and I'm sure it's gonna keep me going on the final long hard miles of this race!

See you on the flip side!

Etape Caledonia '09 - Prologue

2009-05-17T18:59:00.001+01:00

Dunno if I'll have time to do a proper write up of the event tonight so I'll leave you with this news story about the event and a rather apt video from the Beastie Boys…

4 seasons in as many hours? - it must be the Bealach Beag '09!

2009-05-11T07:47:00.002+01:00

Wind, rain, hail, wind, snow, rain, wind, sun - this years Bealach Beag had it all!

The 480odd starters all deserve a medal for even getting to the start line if you ask me! There were about 5 of us taking part in the event all staying up in the Ledgowan Lodge bunk house and there was some amount of trepidation about even starting the event the weather was that terrible.

I ended up heading down with a couple of guys who were across from Aberdeen, Calum and Ruari, and we took our time getting them registered then getting the bikes ready for the off. A big consideration was what clothes to head out in, I very nearly ditched my baselayer thinking I'd be far too hot on the clim up the Bealach, I am now so glad I listened to Calum and kept it on!

The first mile or so of the event was nice and dry without too much wind but sure enough the rain and wind kicked in and proceeded to drench everyone. At that point I also felt completely justified in having opted to attach my new mudguards I picked up on Thursday - they worked like a charm!

Before we even hit the bottom of the Bealach though the weather had another trick up its sleeve, hail! Thankfully it didn't last too long, somehow the stones were even managing to get in behind my sunnies into my eyes!

Now for the main event - The Bealach Na Ba. I'd love to be able to give you some really evocative descriptions of what it was like but in all honesty, I spent most of the climb staring at the murk shapes of other riders' back wheels we wound our way up! The shapes were all murky because I only had a very slim field of view cos of bits of snow stuck to my lens! Yes it was cold enough to snow for the last few miles to the summit although by that point I don't think that many people really noticed, everyone just just concentrating on keeping the bike pointing upwards and the legs going round in circles!

I was pleasantly surprised by my performance on the climb, I didn't push it too hard for a good 75% of it, knowing full well that there was still a lot of road left to make it along after the climb was over. The last 25% odd, where the gradients really kick in and we got some alpine style switchbacks I pushed it a bit more and was amazed to find I had a lot of pace left in the legs to bridge between different groups or to cut past entire groups by taking the inside (much steeper though) line through the hairpins.

Stopping to get my split time at the top of the climb I picked up a massive cramp in my left calf which I unfortunately couldn't shake for the rest of the ride, it's still a bit sore just now but I'm hoping resting it up today and doing the whole hot/cold compress dance will help. By the time we hit the food station at the bottom of the Bealach I was chilled to my very core. I had been that drenched coming up the hill I absolutely froze during the descent, hitting speeds upwards of 30mph will give anyone a chill with wet clothes!

The final 20miles or so were just all about keeping the legs going round and not stopping. I think I really messed up my eating and drinking on the bike since the that last section was just a slog and I had just about nothing left in the tank. The sun did however come out for that section which was nice! It sounds weird but I actually found the ascent of the Bealach easier than the rest of the course!

Finally dragging myself back to Shieldaig I put in one final sprint to the line to try and catch up with Calum, who had passed me about a mile or so from the end, but was alas denied by a car in front of us. My legs felt almost like jelly by that point and I had to get off the bike and stretch out my calf a bit before handing in my chip to get my times. First thing I did after getting back to the car was getting into some dry clothes to try and get some heat back into me. I had been starting to get genuinely worried about how cold I was for the second half of the race so I was really really glad that the village wasn't being rained on right when we got back!

Some food and a post race massage, which I'll be doing a lot more after events now I can tell, and I was feeling much more together. Calum and Ruari & I then hung out for while, trading war stories of the event, before heading to the pub for our free portion of chilli and salad - and more of the awesome flapjack that was at the feed station!

On a slightly darker note we were unfortunately passed by an ambulance in the last few miles which was heading back to tend to a rider who had collapsed on the route. I don't know anything concrete but I believe he had had a heart attack and was subsequently airlifted out to a nearby hospital where he's currently stable. Thoughts go out to him and his family, I hope he gets through it ok and is back on his feet again soon.

My final time for the full event was 3 hours 21 mins which puts me where I had ben aiming for, middle of the table. My split of the climb was 59 mins which I'm pleased with but I'm even more pleased that I didn't get off the bike on the ride at all aside from getting my chip swiped for the timing loops. My climbing split actually put me a fair bit higher up the standings but I just didn't have it in me to keep up a pace in the latter stages. Still, not a bad effort considering I'd ridden the bike for about 10mins in the last 3 weeks! The full results are online on the SPORTident site already.

Big thanks go out to all the organisers, the residents of Shieldaig & the surrounding areas and especially the marshals, they really put on a great event which ran smoothly even with the pretty iffy weather conditions! I may have been snowed on, hailed on, rained on and blown about all over the place but I'd do it again!

Bealach Beag '09

2009-05-07T22:08:00.001+01:00

Coinciding with the first day of the 92nd Giro d'Italia, Saturday will see 600 hardy folk heading up to Shieldaig (near Ullapool) to tackle the feared Bealach Na Ba, the highest road in the UK, as part of the Bealach Beag sportive.

The Bealach Beag is, at around 43 miles, the shorter of two events that take on the Bealach Na Ba this year, the other being the Bealach Mor which is 50 miles longer and still includes the climb from Tornapress over the pass to Applecross.

Have a look at this site if you want to see just how fearsome the climb really is, it ranks the Bealach as the toughest climb in Scotland! Looking at the profile of the Bealach (from Tornapress) compared with Glen Quaich (from Garrow) is worrying, I thought Glen Quaich was one of the hardest climbs I'd ever tried!

bealach na ba beag Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

I'm actually feeling pretty nervous about this event since I don't feel I've done nearly enough training for it so far. Since the Edinburgh 10k last weekend I've not had time to get out for either a run or a cycle and I've not actually been out on the bike since taking on Glen Quaich nearly 3 weeks ago!

The more I hear about the climb the tougher it sounds so I really hope that the level of fitness I've built up with all the training for the marathon at the end of May will pay off. It might not be explicitly bike based fitness but I'm sure it'll help in some way. I also really really hope that the weather takes a turn for the better come Saturday, right now it's absolutely chucking it down in Pitlochry and blowing a gale and the one thing that always ruins a ride for me is a heavy wind!

Wish me luck and I'll let you all know how it goes sometime on Saturday or Sunday!

1 Day in July - The Radar Ride 2009

2009-05-06T08:53:00.003+01:00

So the secret new event I mentioned the other day is The Radar Ride! Formerly known as the Southern Uplands Sportive, it's going to be 105miles long with over 6000ft of climbing around Wanlockhead, the highest village in Scotland.

Southern Upland Sportive Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

So while the likes of Armstrong, Contador, Leipheimer, Sastre, Evans and the Schleck bro's are taking on the mighty Col du Tourmalet in Stage 9 of Le Tour, we'll be heading over and up the Wall of Talla and the final climb to the finish atop Lowther Hill!

Great Edinburgh Run '09 - a good start to the season!

2009-05-04T22:05:00.002+01:00

And so it came that on a sunny, if windy, Sunday afternoon in May, 10000 odd folk took to the streets of Edinburgh for this years Great Edinburgh Run and I put in a new P.B. for the 10km!

I got through quite early with Lesley, one of my running mates, as she needed to pick up her timing chip before the event so we had plenty of time to get ready and not have to be rushing about like mad trying to get to the start!

Time enough in fact that we went and got a wee cup of pre-race hot chocolate at one of the cafes that was open right by the start/finish straight! Since we had so much time on our hands we managed to get a wee short warmup jog in as well which was a massive help come the end of the run since we ended up covering the last 1km or so of the route. I always like to know a bit out the course before I set out so I don't get a nasty shock that there's suddenly some beast of a hill I didn't know about.

The start was pretty frenetic and very very twisty down into Princes Gardens. I'm glad we were in the first wave of runners to head out, any further back and there would've just been too many folk trying to funnel down the Mound and through the Gardens to be able to put in a good time. The route definitely felt a lot more 'lumpy' than I remember it, you almost always seemed to be going up or down a hill as opposed to just rolling along on the flat.

I was pretty pleased with my pacing over the course of the race and I only really started to feel the burn in the last couple of k's, not so bad that I couldn't drop in one of my usual sprint finishes though!

My final time (which has just tonight changed as it happens) was 43mins 14secs, a good 10mins or so faster than my time 2 years ago! I set out to hopefully do something in the region of 45mins so I'm really pleased with getting considerably under my target. Next time - sub-43mins!

Another new event???

2009-05-01T14:11:00.002+01:00

I'm not saying which one yet because I've not had a chance to fully sign up yet but it's another very tough bike event that's on the cards for mid July… I'll be hopefully taking it on with Dave B, who's also doing the Etape Caledonia in a few weeks time, and it's definitely gonna be the toughest event either of us have attempted!

And no, it's not Le Tour!

It's the final countdown!

2009-04-28T21:51:00.004+01:00

So here it comes, the first event of the season and the first in what is going to be a very hectic month!

On Sunday I take on the Great Edinburgh Run, a 10km blast through the center of Edinburgh and skirting round the foot of Arthurs Seat. A couple of years back this was the first race I ever entered so it'll be quite nice to go back to it after a years break.

Great Edinburgh Run '09 Run, walk and hike @ StepWhere.com

My time to beat is 53mins something (I can't remember exactly what my time was) and I'm hoping for something around the 45mins mark. I tried to go out on Saturday and put in a quick 10km around Glasgow Green but set off a little bit fast and was knackered after 5km! There's a lot to be said for the different types of fitness needed for long and short distance running.

P.S. I make no apologies at all for the title of this post!

Glen Quaich 0 - 1 Me

2009-04-18T23:28:00.002+01:00

Now that was a tough climb to tackle! It's probably the closest I ever got to try and alpine-esque stage of the tour in that it even had a few insanely tight switchbacks on the way up. For most of the climb my heart rate was hovering around the 183bpm mark and it certainly felt like it. A lot of riders would fit either a triple chainring or a very large bottom ring on the cassette to get up climbs like that but I managed to force myself up in on my Trek's standard compact double gearing. I won't deny it though, a triple would've been nice at some points though! And no, I didn't stop until I got all the way down to the other side of the pass in Kenmore.

As soon as you got out of the sun the wind was bitterly cold so I had set out in my long sleeve windstopper top as well as a base layer. By the time I was a quarter of the way up Glen Quaich I was wishing I just had my summer top on!

The descent down into Kenmore was a bit hairy too, I've never been that quick on the descents of anything, let alone a narrow, twisty singletrack road where there could be a car just waiting round the next bend or about to come over the next crest! Something borne out by only hitting a maximum speed on the whole ride of 33mph. Last year I hit 42mph on the decent down Devils Elbow up at Glenshee but that was a much better stretch of road, most importantly it was 2 way!

Towards the end of the ride I was pretty much spent and I also seem to have tweaked my right knee a bit which is slightly concerning considering I've still got a lot of training to do before May…

Hopefully after todays success I should be ok for the Bealach-Na-Ba climb in a few weeks time.

Here's the route that I finally ended up doing, it's slightly different from the one I posted the other day because I didn't realise what roads I was actually wanting to ride on.

Glen Quaich loop 18th April '09 Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Taking on Glen Quaich

2009-04-17T22:04:00.006+01:00

I'm going to try and take on Glen Quaich tomorrow, a climb regarded as one of the toughest in Scotland by many cyclists. I figure I need to try something challenging if I'm to be anywhere near prepared for the Bealach-Na-Ba climb at the start of May!

Here's the full route I'm going to be taking on.

Glen Quaich loop Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Gearing up for Etape Caledonia

2009-04-16T20:43:00.008+01:00

One of my main events this year is the Etape Caledonia which is coming up on the 18th of May. It's been hard trying to split my time between training for this and training for the marathon so after putting in a long long run over the holiday weekend (20.5 miles) I'm heading up to Mum n Dads this weekend to try and get some long miles into me on the bike.

Earlier on I got an email through from the organisers with my start time for the event which I think is a fair bit earlier than last year. With any luck we'll be able to hook onto a relatively fast group and share the load most of the way round, last year we only caught a group in the last 20 miles or so. Or maybe I'll get blown straight off the back and go backwards until I find some folk closer to my actual pace!

I'll post again over the weekend with info on how the training goes, at least the weather looks good for both days so far!

Two more events added, I'm going international!

2009-04-13T16:45:00.001+01:00

I signed up for another couple of events last week which I didn't get the chance to write up. I'm now doing The Great Edinburgh run on the first weekend in May which I'm quite looking forwards to. The Edinburgh run was the first ever event I entered a couple of years back although the route is considerably different this time round. I'll be aiming for something around a sub-45mins I think although with the distance training I've not been doing that much threshold work, just have to wait and see! The other event is a biggie, the Berlin Marathon! More on which in another post.

Lets take this show on the road

2009-04-07T07:32:00.002+01:00

Yesterday I signed up for the Berlin Marathon in September! A whole bunch of friends are heading out to do it as their first marathon experience so I figured I'd head out too, from what I've heard it follows a pretty good route and is very well organised. Also, it'll make for a nice break towards the end of the year and I've never been to Berlin before, not that I can remember anyway.

This does of course mean I'm assuming that after Edinburgh I actually still want to pull on a pair of running shoes again!

A quick thanks goes to out everyone who's donated so far - Richard, Jen & Al - cheers guys!

6 weeks to go!

2009-04-03T10:38:00.003+01:00

I was talking to my mate Dave the other day and he pointed out that the Etape Caledonia is only 6 weeks away! I've been so fixated on when the marathon was that I had pretty much forgotten how soon the Etape was going to be. Not to mention that the Bealach Beag is the week before that! Have I bitten off more than I can chew???

Confidence booster

2009-03-31T23:00:00.001+01:00

I headed out for a long overdue endurance run at the weekend on Sunday with perhaps not the *best* prep for it; 2 day conference in Edinburgh eating junk and not sleeping much, curry and a wee bit of a night out the night before AND losing an hour of sleep with the clocks changing. What I ended up on was a time about 10mins slower than last years Glasgow Half marathon and kept on going for a total distance of just shy of 15 miles. To have gone and just dropped a run like that in with such a bad prep makes me feel a lot more confident about the Marathon in May. I know that I'm still a long way off race distance but even at the end of the run on Sunday I wasn't feeling too bad aside from a wee bit of cramping in my left calf, probably because I've been pretty dehydrated recently. The other good thing about the run was that I kept my pacing pretty constant the whole way through the run and at the right pace for my target time. I've always ended up running too quick in the past so to finally be able to hit a good race pace should help me no end come the event.

First half century (in a while!)

2009-03-24T20:13:00.001Z

Since the weather was brilliant at the weekend I set my sights on a long ride first thing on Saturday morning, taking in the 50+mile route that I've done in the past out from town and over the back of the Campsies via Crow Road. Crow Road is well known in cycling circles as being a pretty challenging climb, not so much because of it's grade (it's relatively shallow) but because it just keeps on going and going and going! Considering I'd not taken on Crow Road in at least 6 months I was pretty pleased with how I fared on the ascent. I deliberately didn't push too hard on the way up, knowing that I still had a good 35 miles or so to go before I got back into town. Aside from the headwind, which seemed to follow me about no matter what direction I was facing, the ride felt pretty good. My legs started feeling a bit tired about 10miles from the end but I still made it through the climb up out of Strathblane pretty well, it's surprising sometimes just how much of a dip Strathblane sits in compared to Mugdock. A pleasant surprise was that my average heart rate for the full 50miles was in the 145bpm region, considerably lower that i was expecting given the time I ended up putting in. Hopefully that bodes well for the Etape Caldeonia in May and the Cairngorm Classic in June. Don't ask about the running training, it's still taking too much of a back seat to the cycling. Oops.

Marathon prep

2009-03-23T22:43:00.001Z

Most training articles I've read say that you don't need to do a full marathon distance before your first attempt but I really want to get at least a 20mile run in my legs so that I know what the distance feels like. I've always found that I'll feel better going into something like this knowing what I'll be facing. Last year before the Etape Caledonia I recce'd the full route so that I knew what to expect from the climb at Schiehallion. On the route profile it looked truly scary but once we actually got to it, it was a far cry from the alpine epic I had made it out to be in my head! My plan is to start adding laps onto my usual 10km route round the south side up to Queens Park and back into town. While doing laps might sound boring as sin I kinda want to put myself through that to get used to mental stresses of running constantly for 4hours. I figure, if I can do it when the scenery is the same, It'll make things all the more easy when it's a one lap deal in the actual event. This is going to be one of, if not the, toughest thing I've ever done. And I might do it again in September.