Thursday 27 October 2011

2011 Completed challenges

  • November - Mud and a Micro adventure
Muddy Hell run The Bordon Turbo X - 10miles 1hr19mins
Wild camping + 22miles in 4 hrs
  • October - Running 100 miles in a week?
Completed 101.5 miles in around 15hrs30mins.
  • September 16th - Jurrassic Coast Run
26miles taking 5hours (+/- 3700ft)
  • August 26 to 29th - Adidas Terrex Coast to Coast
200miles in 27hours with +/- 25,000ft
(23miles paddling, 40m running, 36m Mtn Biking and 101m of Road cycling)
Placed 22 out of 48 teams.
  • July 8th & 9th - South Downs Mtn Bike
133 miles with over 15,000 feet of ascent and descent for 18.5 hours.
  • June 18th - Welsh 3000's - North Wales
14 Peaks in 14 hours over 40kms.
  • May 10th - Isle of Wight Off Road Randonee Mtn Bike
53 miles taking 9hrs.
  • April 30th - XNRG Pony Express Ultra - New Forest
30 miles - My first Ultra, competing on day 1.
Time = 4hr55mins

  • April 16th & 17th - Quest Adventure Race - Purbecks
2 day (12+hrs) challange of riding, kayaking and running (plus nighttime orienteering).
Came 5th overall (2nd for the last day).

  • March 26th - Quest Adventure Race - New Forest
6 hours of riding, kayaking and running.
Came 2nd in class (out of 34 teams) and 7th overall (96).

  • February - 20 mile winter run.
  • January - Winter climbing in Wales.

100 Miles from home

After returning from holiday and recovering from jet lag, a family bereavement  and my knee playing up. October was fast disappearing and I had yet to set myself a challenge. It came to me on my second consecutive run. How many miles could I achieve in a week? I had to abandon this straight away as I strained my calf muscle and so, spent the next few days frustratingly inactive. But, i still wanted this challenge, plus, I couldn't think of anything else.
The following week came and so i went for it. Again, this was badly planned as the previous night i had played squash for the first time in a few years and so had the dreaded squash bum and thighs to contend with. But, i was not trying to break any speed records etc and so took each day as it came and decided ad hoc on where to run and what distance depending on how i felt (which was generally pretty tired i have to say, not helped by having a groin strain by day 3).

Day1(pm) Baddesley, 8 miles off road.
One of my usual runs through uplifting wooded areas. Upset to see the loggers destroying another area of local forest - why do they do this?!

Day 2 River Itchen, 10 miles mainly off road (18)
Another favourite (in fact i love all these runs). A short road section to Otterbourne woods. Then down to the river, a stunning up and down loop of this breathtaking area.

Day 3 New Forest, 15 miles off road (33)
A superb rolling loop around Fritham. Plenty of deer, pony and donkeys to look out for to keep the mind ticking. extremely tired towards the end where i think i might of pulled my groin huddling the heath. My only run I drove to.

Day 4 Ampfield, 14 miles off road (47)
Sore groin but more energy levels (my yin yang). Weather still holding out perfectly on some great trails. Worried that evening that my challenge could be over depending on how it goes tomorrow.

Day 5 Winchester, 18 miles off road (65)
Got to Winchester via the Monarch and Claradon Ways and although my groin was stiff and unsettling it was no worse and so i pushed in an extra loop for extra mileage. Has to be one of my favourite runs (have i said that already?). It does take in all there is. Trails, woods, open land, rivers, hills, a village, a town and a city on a beautiful Autumn's day.


Day 6 Eastleigh Running Club, 7.5 miles road (72.5)
I have contemplated joining a running club for a while now. I run on my own and maybe it was worth trying to link up with like minded people. So i went down and the rain certainly came down. We ran at pace and stopped every so often for people to catch up. Not my ideal running with roads and breaks but the club itself is full of enthusiastic friendly people and so will be a good break from my routines especially through the winter.

Day 7 Southampton, 21 miles (93.5)
Stiff groin today due to the extra pace that was put on last night resulting in a very slow pace, but, I got the mileage in (and some hills). A great run, this has a strange feeling of solitude even if surrounded by 2 large towns and a city and with the fresh downpours it felt like a proper wet and muddy winter run.

Day 8 Chandlers Ford, 8 miles (Yeeha made it = 101.5)
Bread and butter run. Finished off with the run i do the most and made sure i did it before 5pm and so it falls into a calender week i have completed these runs and made my goal.

Totals : 101.5 miles in 15.5hours)

So, delighted that i had run over 100miles in a week, my previous best was around 40 miles. And now done something i know I could handle if I ever needed to do this sort of mileage again. Although next time with lessons learnt I would definitely not play squash the day before as this prevented me from doing a couple of double daily runs early in the week so that i could take in a much smaller run at some point and then maybe be able to go for an extra long run. For next time then, if i have the urge.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Vegas Trip

Video and Photo's of recent trip to the USofA.