Taking on Bob

Firstly we need a date. I’m looking at the first weekend in May 2012. And now I need to pull together team and training!

So what happened to the last 27 days!? I blinked and missed them. So, four months four days and I should be set up for BGR2. Tomorrow I face Chris at f2k (@lovetotriuk) to have my monthly fitness test.

4×20secs for each of press ups, squats, heaves. 54, 84 and 17 respectively. So much better than this time last year and I need to keep reminding myself of this. It’s really easy at this time of the year when I am getting less running in that I am not achieving. I also need to remember that it was about this time last year when I started to pull in the bigger sessions, both running and in the gym.

So tomorrow, 10.30 am. Beginning of the next 123 days!

Having not finished last year I have found that this time around the certainty that I will finish that I had in training last year just isn’t there. I’m trying to decide whether this is a bad thing or not. I see myself training all the harder for it but it was self-reassuring to think that I wasn’t even contemplating not finishing.

When doing ultra events I have been told that you cannot consider stopping. The idea shouldn’t even cross your mind.  But not only did I consider stopping, I did stop. Actually I didn’t stop, I just could not go further.

I guess this is what is keeping me focused right now; I did not stop, my body could not continue. So the training was right but the preparation was not. I cannot consider not training hard. That bit worked last year so actually training harder makes complete sense. I cannot afford to get the planning of the actual weeks before and the day wrong this time though. At the moment the team for the day isn’t quite finalised and that is preying on my mind. Equally I don’t think I have my diet completely under control and that’s where I went majorly off last year.

Perhaps when I have these bits sorted the certainty will come back. For now I will have to get by with confidence.

Arghh!

Okay need to seriously get my head down with the training now.

With this in mind, I have started a regime of out by 6 am for an hour with the dog, 9 am gym and then another hour in the evening again to keep the dog amused.

Today’s gym session looked like this:
20 split leg squats (each side) with a 20 lb medicine ball
squat jumps to collapse
20 tap press up
20 stabiliser squats
5 single arm half heaves (each side)
5 pull ups with thighs at 90 degrees
20 v-sits with weights
1 minute bridge
20 back extensions over a ball.
500m row
then repeat three times.

For the first session it was pretty comfortable, but then knowing that I have a PT session this Friday, I know that that will all change soon enough!

The dust has well and truly settled and I thought before I start training for Round 2 I should just put down some notes from Round 1.

1. You can’t carb load enough for a run like this. Marathon runners carb load for 48 hours, Ironmen a week. BGers should consider no less than 2 weeks and if you are doing it fast, I’ve been told now that I should look at three weeks or so.

2. Super-hydrate before the day. Drink lots and lots and lots of fluid. Keeping drinking as you go along.

3. If you feel like you need to check out any parts of the route in the week before, don’t. You need rest. Rest is far more important than route finding. And if you really don’t know the route. Don’t do the run.

4. International travel takes it out of you in a number of ways. Jet lag, bugs in the air to name but two. Travelling internationally 10 days before isn’t ever going to be a good idea!!

5. Check the weather forecast and don’t be afraid of changing the plan before the day if the weather calls for it. Change 1 week before, change the day before and as you are running, if the weather is getting to you, change it again. Being flexible is good.

6. Back to food again. Train with the food you are going to eat on the day. Don’t try anything new. (that being said, the craving for chicken noodle soup was insane! and luckily Jane in my support crew could rustle some up for me!!)

7. For me the cross-training really worked. Lots and lots of steep treadmill mixed with ski and rowing.

8. Long circuit sessions in the gym were great too. Making your whole body work out for five hours at a time really did work.

9. Carry food, water and emergency clothing when you are out on the fells training. But on the day, get the support runners to carry it all.

10. One support runner per leg isn’t enough. Ideally three. If going at pace expect to get through at least a litre of liquid per hour (maybe more). Since most legs take over 3 hours that’s a lot of liquid! Then add in food. Three runners looks like this. One ahead checking route and navigating, the other two running with to chat and keep mind focused on the run and not the pain that sets in. Three runners should all now the route perfectly so that you don’t need to. Amazing how when energy levels are low the body switches off non essential organs. Navigation part of brain went about 12 hours in. Yep, messed up on fuelling, but even still.

11. Remember to change socks even though you don’t feel that they are wet. If you have run through a river, odds are they will be and you will regret it when you start again after a stop and you have cooled down a little!

12. Liquid – hydration fluid is good, water is essential too. The taste eventually gets to you.

13. More Jelly Babies!

Lets go with that as a starter for now – will add more tips and I remember.

Just read a great interview with Badwater 135 legend and ultrarunner Pam Reed.

Badwater for the uninitiated is a 135 mile run from Death Valley to Mt Whitney.

An amazing race. If you want to know more about ultrarunning though, Pam Reed’s interview is a must.

45/70 miles, 30/42 peaks, 18,000/28,000 ft. Bob may have won this round, but round two is already being planned!

OK, this is not Raj but Hannah writing this from the Team Raj base camp here in Grasmere. I have just been with Jay to see Raj off accompanied by the lovely and always up-beat Chris on the first leg of the Bob and I must admit that our man is in fine spirits. Goodness knows if the back-up team will be up to the job but the boy himself is fighting fit and mentally more than ready for the challenge.

As we passed Dunmail at just before 3am heading towards the start, we saw lights up the side of Steel Fell marking the Steel Fell gully that Raj famously missed on his first recce. Then, as we got closer we found the lay-by was a hive of activity – back-up cars with boots open, burners lit, coffee brewing, dark figures stretching and lines of socks flying like bunting.

A line of eight torches coming down off Seat Sandal was the cause of all the excitement and I have to say caused a frisson in the Team Raj car too. Raj thought that they probably would have started at midnight and have been scaling the heights of legs 1 and 2 in the dark! It was just awesome to think that if Raj does what he says he’s going to do, by the time he gets to Honister he should be right on their tails and, if they are on a 23 or 24 hour schedule, possibly even passing them.

Anyway, with a sudden realisation on my behalf at least, that this thing really was happening (yes, I know, I know!), we arrived in Keswick just as the last teenagers were staggering drunkenly homeward. Our boys however leapt up the steps of Moot Hall, set up the GPS, syncronised their watches and on the dot of 3.30am, were off.

As they streaked off into the darkness leaving Jay and I to wend our way at a rather more leisurely pace back to base camp, all I could think about was the message on my own “round” presented to me by my loving husband in the early morning darkness. The inscription reads, “Dream a little dream” because that is precisely what Raj has been doing all these months and what he has got so may of our friends and family involved in dreaming too.

And now he’s off to live it. Good luck my darling one, we’re dreaming a little dream with you.

I am getting quite a weather report junkie in anticipation of this weekend. Ideally I would have a little cloud, rain after doing the biggies of Leg 3 (so after 3pm would be perfect). Here’s the weather report as of just now from the Weatherline (the Lake District’s dedicated weather service)

Forecast for Saturday

Weather:

Most ranges will again be dry. There will be some patches of mist and low cloud at first, soon dispersing. Then a bright day with sunny spells and just a small risk of a few showers breaking out towards evening. The showers will be most likely to occur over hills to the west of Keswick and Ambleside.

Visibility:

Some patches of poor visibility at first, otherwise very good during the day with most hills in sight easily discernible.

Hill Fog:

Patches of fog down around 300M at first, soon dispersing then most hills again staying free from fog. However occasional fog will form around 900M in association with any showers.

Maximum winds above 500m:

Southerly winds will increase 20mph during the day.

Temperature:

Valleys/Low level: 8 Celsius rising to 22 Celsius.
At 900m: 10 Celsius.
Freezing level: Staying well above the summits.

I decided to do a quick check of leg 1 yesterday. I say quick check, I mean I walked it rather than ran it so it took significantly longer than it should have! And I was carrying my SLR, which means that the Halls Fell descent became all that more trickier (not to self, do not carry big camera on Saturday and also avoid big Aussie cowboy hat which needs to be held on in high winds!).

The upside of carrying my camera.