Car trouble

Well… my 2009 racing season has got off to a particularly bad start. Regular readers of this blog will know I was done to run the Gloucester 50k this weekend. I had a race entry sorted, a hotel booked and just needed to drive over. Unfortunately this last step proved the problem. I left Cambridge on Saturday around 4.45pm, it was a bit late but I still had plenty of time to get over to Gloucester but I didn’t make it very far out of Cambridge; in fact I only made it as far as Trumpington High Street before my car developed a fault. At the minute I’m driving an Alfa Romeo 156 selespeed which was a kind gift from my Dad after he upgraded to a Spyder. The car is great but it has a semi-automatic gear system which means all the gears are controlled by an onboard electronic control unit (ECU) even if you use the gearstick. Unfortunately mine has developed some kind of fault and keeps getting stuck in gear it’s done this a few times recently but has always corrected itself. It’s due an MOT next month so I was waiting on that to check the problem out. However, on Trumpington high street it got stuck in neutral and wouldn’t move, leaving me no option but to switch on the hazard lights.

I knew I was in trouble when an old lady who looked about 80 came over and asked if I needed help pushing the car to the side. I thanked her and told her I’d be OK and got the car to the side of the road and called the RAC. They were pretty good and came an hour and a half or so later. Unfortunately the prognosis for the car is not great. The chap said the only thing we could try was unhooking the ECU from the battery and then disconnecting the battery, apparently losing power resets said ECU and so should remove any faults. At first this seemed to work and I even still had time to make it to Gloucester. Unfortunately I had only got as far as the petrol station a hundred yards down the road when it got stuck in neutral again. The RAC man (who had followed me just in case) sorted it again but advised that I had probably better go home. There didn’t seem any point in risking getting stuck half way to Gloucester and so I reluctantly agreed and set off for home. To his credit the RAC man followed me all the way back. Three or four times the same problem reoccurred but this time it got stuck in first or second so I was able to keep going and each time the problem fixed itself after a short while. However, it seems likely there is some form of potentially quite serious fault with the car and I didn’t think I should drive it until I’ve had it checked out. Apparently there is an Alfa specialist in Sawston which is good although how I’m going to get the car out there is another problem altogether.

Anyway, after all this excitement it was too late to hop on the train to Gloucester and too late to grab a hire car. I thought about trying to get a hire car or train very early the next morning and driving over for the race but in the end I thought better of it. I’ve driven long distances to race events on the day in the past. For the Great North Swim I even got up at 4am drove up the lake district, did the mile swim and then drove home again, however I felt almost dangerously tired all the way there and I’ve never performed at my best when I’ve done an early start. So, very reluctantly I realised I was going to have to pull out of the race and so phoned the race organizers and hotel (who said it was too a late to get my money back).

To cheer myself up I decided to make myself the bean curry I’d been waiting to try out from the recipe in my vegetarian cook book and it actually turned out quite well. However, I was left in a bit of a quandary. I’d told everyone at work I would be running 30 miles and I’d carbo loaded and reduced my training as if I was going to do so. I figured I’d better go for a long run the next day so the work was not wasted.

I awoke on the Sunday at 8am to the sound of rain against my window. “Just great” I thought “I can get wet as well as knackered”. I decided to go back to bed for an hour and then see what the weather was doing. At 9.45 it was still raining but I decided it wasn’t too bad and I did have a waterproof so I thought I’d go anyway and see how far I got. I’d run 24 miles round Cambridge two weeks before so I figured I could try and do that again at least.

Things actually went quite well I did the 24 mile route but on the river section I went all the way up to Waterbeach rather than turn round at the lock. I ran a little way around Waterbeach and then headed back. A detour back through town and a lap of the park opposite the house gave me a grand total of 30.25 miles on my GPS system. I had done it. It took me longer than the last time I ran 30 miles (and that time it was cross country) but this time, as it wasn’t a proper race there were no gels or bananas or biscuits as I went round as I only had water with me. On the plus side I was home in time to get the weeks shopping in and go out for a meal with my friends and see Jimmy Carr at the Corn exchange which was really good.


Negative

I missed the race which I had been looking forward to.
I lost the race entry and the hotel fees.
I missed out on the “official” start of my quest to do a marathon a month in 2009.
There is still a potentially serious (and expensive) problem with the car.
Running long distance the day after a bean curry is not the best idea in the world.

Positive

I still ran 30 miles at the weekend so technically am still on track.
I got the car home without too many problems and didn’t need a tow from Gloucester (which would have been very expensive)
I still got to see Jimmy Carr
Using no Gels or sports drinks means I burnt off more calories overall


This is a screen grab from my training software that came with my T6C watch. I used GPS to ensure I really did 30 miles (see below for proof).

Week 3...

Another good week, similar in terms of training load to the last two, the swim on Friday was 62 lengths at Parkside rather than the usual 82 so I could finish in time for dinner with friends) but yesterday I swam 106 lengths to make up for it. I decided I might as well while the pool was at a reasonable temperature. Parkside Pools seem to vary quite dramatically from warm to absolutely freezing and the pool temperature indicator near reception bears no relation at all to what the actual pool temperature is. I’m a real wuss with cold. If I get in when it’s cold I stand around for ages rather than just putting my head under the water and getting on with it. I really should try and be better about this.

Weights in my room are no problem with weather and so far I’ve been very lucky running outside, a lightweight waterproof stops the wind and light rain and keeps my train ticket and railcard dry and sweat free (which were problems with my old wrist wallet). The waist mounted water bottle I bought for the Doyen of the downs race is also working really well and my Suunto t6c watch is great. I really like the extra dimension it brings to training, even if I probably don’t make full use of it.

This week I will cut back a bit on the swimming and running by a couple of sessions so I can taper for the big 50k race in Gloucester on Sunday. I’ve got to do a reasonable time so I can get back for a meal out with friends and a Jimmy Carr show in the evening.

Hunger pangs

Well it’s started the cravings. I’ve been a veggie for over three weeks now and doing OK. It’s been a bit weird. At first I didn’t miss meat at all, I guess because I didn’t each much anyway. This week has been a bit harder though. A couple of times when I’ve been out training I’ve run past places cooking/frying bacon and/or sausages and the smell is really tempting (the houseboats down by the river are quite bad for this). I’ve found in the past that, when running, my sense of smell seems to get better (possibly because I am breathing in more deeply) so smelling any kind of food would make me hungry. So far though I have not given into temptation so that is good. Also I was a bit worried my favourite sandwich (the brie, tomato and rocket baguette in Eat) would turn out to be made from non-veggie brie, meaning I couldn’t eat it. Going and getting one of these for lunch is a favourite activity of mine on a Saturday when I am loading up for the big Sunday run or race. Actually, I have to confess, I forgot to check this out the first time I bought one after Christmas but thankfully, when I did, it said it was suitable for a vegetarian diet so I guess I am OK there for now, unless I go vegan.

I’ve also had to be extra careful checking things in the supermarket; many things that you wouldn’t think had animal products actually do have them. For instance, Flora ultra light margarine has pork rennet in it so I can’t have that anymore. I’ve replaced it with a soy based spread which tastes OK but actually has more fat in it (so I am trying to eat less of it). I also decided, that being a veggie, I should also stop buying leather and animal based clothes. I’ll use the ones I already have as far as I can to avoid waste but anything new will be non-animal. To this end I bought a pair of shoes from http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/. Everything this company makes is vegan standard. I’d highly recommend it. The shoes are very comfy, stylish (or at least I think they are) and a reasonable price. Customer service was also very good. They have a lot of other stuff on the site so if you get a second it’s well worth a look.

Week 2 – The training continues

Training went well this week. Last Sunday (the 11th) I ran just over 24 miles round Cambridge. Usually at lunchtimes I take one of three routes round Cambridge, by starting from my house rather than work and doing the three in one go with a lap of the park opposite my house at the end I ended up with a nice long run. The rest of the week I did one 1.5 hour workout a day (Monday to Friday), an hours swimming on Monday and Wednesday and Friday and well as four, hour long runs at lunchtime. I’ve also managed to avoid eating scones at work and snacks in the afternoon. Replacing these with fruit seems to help. OK so fruit can be as high in sugar as plenty of other things but so far so good. I’ think I’m well on the way to reducing the Christmas overindulgence.

Going Veggie

2008 was a year of firsts for me. My first Marathon, my fist triathlon, and later on my first ultra marathon and my first races abroad (including my first Olympic distance triathlon in Stockholm and first sub 3.30 marathon in Berlin). Contrived as it sounds, all this showed me that setting goals really can help make things you’ve wanted to do for years (as well as things you thought you’d never be able to do) a reality. This year I’m aiming to do at least one ultra marathon or marathon a month as well as few half marathons, 10k’s and triathlons. Of the latter I’m hoping to do my first Ironman 70.3 (half full Ironman distance) triathlon in June. I’m also going to try and do this on a fully vegetarian (and possibly even vegan) diet (well maybe not the vegan part…yet).

Why go veggie? I hear you ask; well it’s something I have been wanting to do for a while. I first started eating veggie food when I was at my at my Mum’s one weekend and the only food I could find was my sister’s Quorn burgers and sausages (my sister, to her credit, has been veggie for many years now). I found that I actually quite liked it and proceeded to annoy my poor sister by constantly the veggie stuff in the house even when meat was available. Meat replacements like Quorn are much lower in fat than meat and so when I decided to try and lose some weight back in 2006 I stopped buying meat at the supermarket and just ate Quorn instead – it worked quite well. I still had the odd burger/sausage etc when I was out though.

There is also an ethical dimension to this. In the past I have tended not to think too much about where my food comes from, although I don’t like the idea of animals suffering just so I can eat and I certainly would not be able to kill one myself. Anyway, this went on for a few years. Often I’d be eating a veggie diet for weeks and then getting sausage and mash or a bacon sandwich when I was out. I kept wanting to take the next step but the smell of a cooked burger or bacon always was too tempting. It was the same when I tried going veggie once before back when I was about 12 or 13. Anyhow with the advent of the New Year I decided now was the time to act and have committed to going fully veggie, or at least lacto-ovo veggie (for the time being I still eat milk and dairy but no meat (including fish)). So far it’s going very well, you have to be careful not to eat non veggie cheese (contains animal rennet) or food like jelly babies (which often have gelatin in them) but as I had already largely removed meat from my diet it has not been too hard so far and my training has not suffered at all. There are many vegetarian sportsmen and women from sprinters to weightlifters and I once met a veggie farrier who was built like a tank so you can clearly do very well on such a diet if you are careful.

My friends and family have been very supportive of this decision and I’ve not had any of the gentle ribbing I was expecting. I’m not trying to force my opinions on anybody else. I don’t think meat eaters are evil or anything like that. What you eat is a personal choice for you and nobody should judge you for it. All I know is that this is something I want to do. Will I go further and cut out all animal products? Well, we’ll see. I have tried vegan soy yogurt and it wasn’t too bad, and I really like the taste of Soya milk. If I can take vegan cheese I may just try it…

Week 1: Getting back into it.

Well, that's the first week of New Year training almost over and it wasn't too bad. I came back from Manchester on the 3rd of Jan and training started on the 4th with my standard Cambridge to Ely run. This time I used my new Suunto T6c and GPS pod to measure the distance and was pleased to find it came out to be just over 18 miles. I thought it was 20 miles when I first ran it this time lat year but I looked like 17 when I measured it with mapmyrun.com and that was what a few other people from the Running club thought it was. However, good as mapmyrun is it's hard to follow footpaths on it. If you use the overhead shots the trees hide the path and the paths are often not marked on the maps.

The run itself went well It too just over 2.5 hours to get to Ely Station and I had no reoccurrence of the calf problem I picked up in the Doyen of the Downs race which had been bugging me over the Christmas holiday, so it seems like the rest over Christmas was good in one way and didn't cause too much loss of fitness.

The route is great and reminds me why I love running, the views in early morning and late evening in the summer are simply mindblowing. You run along the river for most of it as well as proper cross country sections, up hill and down dale (well as far as you can in Cambridgeshire) and out into the wilds of the fens and often get covered in mud. There are so many different types of scenery. It's fairly flat near the end so you can see for miles In fact you can see Ely Cathedral from about four miles away once you get up to the dykes but most of the time you don't see any other people. It's just me and elements (and my iPod). The wind can be really cutting but it usually doesn't bother me too much. I managed to get straight on a train back to Cambridge as well so it was all good. Of course the only problem there is that having run for 2.5 hours the train gets you home in 20 minutes.

The rest of the week went well as well; on Monday I did a 1.5 hour workout in the morning, hours run at lunch and an hours swim in the evening. Tuesday was workout, run, Wednesday, workout, run and swim, Thursday I had a meeting at lunch and the pool is closed in the evening so it was just a workout that day but Friday was workout, run swim again. Today is Saturday which I usually have off so as to be rested for the long run on Sunday. I think it will be another Ely run this week, then another week like the last one. I only hope the pool is a bit warmer next week.

Here we go...

OK, the Christmas holiday is over and it's time for me to get back in training for the new year. I'll be doing a lot of races this year and if anybody is interested in tracking my progress this is where I'll be posting race reports and (if I get time) some of my training logs. I'm aiming to do one marathon or ultra marathon a month for 2009 as well as a few half marathons and as many triathlons I can fit in. I really like triathlon so I'm looking forward to the new season starting. i'm aiming to do Blenheim with the University club and a few others with the town club.

My first race of 2009 will be Gloucester 50K on the 25th of Jan http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/events/viewevent.asp?sp=&v=2&EN=45692 followed by the Watford half marathon on the 1st Feb.

Reports from my last two races in 2008 are below as a taster.

Just before Christmas running was going well on the weekend of the 14th Dec 2008 I was in the
Hastings 100th Anniversary Marathon. My watch said I did it 3:25:59. A few minutes slower than my best time for the distance set in September 2008 in Berlin but I was still quite happy as this course was cold, wet and very hilly compared to Berlin which was warm, dry and flat. In addition I think I still had the 30 miler Doyen of the Downs (http://www.extremerunning.org/index.php?page=Doyen%20of%20the%20Downs) in my legs (the last six miles on Sunday were really painful) but all in all not a bad way to end the year. Especially I discovered that the runnersworld website lists sub three hours as an advanced marathon time :-)

The Doyen of the Downs race the weekend before last was the longest race I have ever done in fact. It was 30 miles across the South Downs. It was great. We started off in a small town called Arundel at 8am. Dawn was just breaking and there was frost on the ground. The countryside round there is so pretty it was almost like running in a snowglobe This is the first off road race I have done and it was hard, really different to anything I have done before. We ran along the river, through a forest, up some bloody big hills and through a bog (which I really didn't like). It was amazing watching some people on the muddy hills, they were so sure footed. I wasn't! I fell over a load of times and missed some of the markers, my trainers were so black by the end that I had to hose them down when I got home and but I did finish and a lot of people didn't or were too slow.

They had biscuits and bananas and water every five miles or so, which was good as one of my energy gels split when I tried to open it so I had less than I thought. I had a new waist mounted water bottle that I bought at the last minute as well, which worked fairly well. The nice lady at the guesthouse kindly let me go back and have a shower there even though I had technically checked out, she even let me leave my car in her drive while I went into town for lunch. How nice was that? One of the other chaps staying in the B&B is apparently going for the record
for the youngest person to run 100 marathons. He's 22 or something and has already done 30 and most about half hour faster than my best time. That's the thing with running, you can train and train but I think the genetic component makes up a huge chuck of it as well and there is
nothing you can do about that. Still, I do OK I guess.