I can see for miles...

My last post of Challenge 2019, towards the end of May, concluded with a mention of the training programme I had just started in preparation for the Thames Path Challenge 100KM Ultra taking place on 7^th September.

I had prepared a 16 week plan which started immediately following my participation in one of the Bearcat Running Club teams at the Green Belt Relay on 18/19^th May and 6 weeks after I’d completed the Vienna Marathon.

The plan has been based on a standard pattern of 4 running days per week, usually Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday with a Pilates and swimming evening typically on Wednesday, a bodyweight strength workout on Friday and, on a daily basis, a mixture of stretches and foam roller exercises to get me moving each morning. 

Where I’ve done a long run on the Saturday, I’ve tended to run with the Bearcat Running Club on the Sunday, usually a run of about 10KM or sometimes something more technical such as hills or intervals.  Alternatively, if I’ve done my long run on the Sunday, I’ve tried to do some faster work on the Saturday, usually at a 5KM Parkrun.  The Tuesday runs have developed over the training period with the latter weeks moving up to runs of 10 miles or more with half an eye on preparing for the Amsterdam Marathon in October.   Thursdays, where possible, have been interval sessions usually running with Ranelagh Harriers at Isleworth Track.

The long weekend runs are the cornerstone of the plan and I’ve been absolutely thrilled with how well they’ve gone following the first two or three when I was still getting used to the run/walk strategy I’d adopted for the Ultra.  As I explained in my May post, when I first used this approach I found myself stiffening up towards the end of 16 mile runs.  Not great when I still needed to find a further 46 miles in order to complete the Ultra!

By the third or fourth long run, I began enjoying the strategy a lot more and have really taken to the rhythm which allows more time and energy to enjoy the surroundings I’m running through.  I stick very rigidly to a cycle of 15 minutes of running (starting off at about a minute a mile slower than my marathon pace) followed by 3 minutes of walking during which time I have a bite from an energy bar and a few swigs of water or electrolyte drink.  At intervals of about 7 to 9 miles, depending on things such as the location of cafes and public toilets, I’ve taken a break of about 5-20 minutes, depending on the stage I’ve reached and my needs at the time!

I knew I’d made a breakthrough on the fourth of my long runs when I ran from home to Windsor, covering 26.5 miles.  This was on a really hot June day and, though I’d started  in the relatively cooler temperature at 7am, by late morning and into the afternoon it was getting close to 30°C.  A week later, in similar weather conditions, I stretched out to 31 miles and one week after that I had the best of the series in notably cooler conditions and covered 32 miles in 6 hours.  This was yet another breakthrough as my running pace showed only a modest decline in the second half of the run whereas in the previous two weeks I’d found myself slowing noticeably in the latter miles.

Since that series of runs I’ve changed the intensity a little by doing a “mega-run” only every second week to achieve a further 31 miler and most recently a run of 41.7 miles undertaken through an initial run of 15.5 miles followed, after a 1 hour break, by the Thames Meander Marathon.  This was always marked out in my plan to be the longest run but over the weeks I’d changed my mind a number of times about exactly how far it was going to be.  In the days leading up to the run I increasingly felt a psychological need to get past 40 miles so I committed myself to running about 15 miles in advance of the marathon. 

It seems I am fated with the Thames Meander Marathon!  I have now run in this event three times (having done so previously in November 2015 and March this year) and each time it has blown an absolute gale!  I’ve run along the Thames so many times now over the last six years and can only think of possibly a couple of occasions when the wind conditions have been as difficult as they have been on the three times I’ve run the event.  Nevertheless, on this occasion the run went pretty well, though I was a bit more fatigued than I would have liked by the end.  Even so, on reflection, I have convinced myself that with the better resourced break stops there will be on the Thames Path Challenge (and hopefully better weather conditions) I will be less tired at the comparable distance.  I think I was too tired in the immediate aftermath to feel too much satisfaction but I’m becoming increasingly pleased with myself that, inclusive of all stops, I completed the 41.7 miles in just over 8 hours 20 minutes (my official time for the Thames Meander being 4 hours 45 minutes).

Over the twelve weeks of the training I’ve done so far, I have had a couple of minor concerns with injury niggles but thankfully both issues seem very well under control.  The first was a week of feeling twinges to my left ankle – a body part with which I have a lot of history!  This having dissipated, a few weeks later, I had a week with a bit of a groin problem but again, mainly by temporarily slowing the pace intensity of runs rather than reducing mileage, I seem to have overcome the problem.  A thing that has really pleased me is how quick I have generally been to recover following my long runs so any aches and pains in the aftermath have largely dissipated by the following day. 

I have used most of my long training runs as opportunities to recce the Thames Path Challenge course.  So far I have run the stretches from Fulham to Richmond and Hampton Court to Windsor three times each, and many more times the stretch between Richmond and Hampton Court.  The final stretch is Windsor to Henley (about 25 miles) which I am planning to do this weekend as my final 20 mile plus run of the training plan.  This will then lead to the three weeks of tapering before the big day.

The April post in Challenge 2019 provided further details about the work of Kaira Konko Scout Active Support, the charity I am fundraising for.  One of the key people that makes KKSAS work so well for the community of Soma in The Gambia is Lamin Kinteh and I am pleased to say that I met up with him last month on one of his visits to the UK at an event hosted at the school of my daughter Carmella. 

These pictures with us in front of an African Roundhouse were in fact taken in the grounds of Carmella’s school in Fleet!

As ever, any support for the fundraising I am doing for KKSAS gives a massive boost to my motivation for getting to the finish line.  Donations can be made through my fundraising site and are very gratefully received:  https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/JohnReece

Closing for now, I feel I’ve given myself the absolute best chance I possibly could to complete the Thames Path Challenge and I hope that I will be posting in Challenge 2019 again in September with news of doing so with a finish time of about 14 hours!