Spine Race Part 1 - Preparation, Planning & Lessons Identified

A week on and I’m still not quite sure what happened to me on The Spine or how I feel about the race.  Without a doubt it was the hardest thing – physically, mentally and emotionally that I’ve put myself through.  I suspect it will be several weeks or months before my brain has really processed it all and by then the version of reality that my brain accepts may well have a different slant to it to what actually happened.

I recently came up with my own kind of race preparation/event log book which encapsulates the process that I went through for planning my Spine Race so I guess the best way to write up the race would be to go through that. 

I’ll do a second blog post on my memories of the race itself which will be more of a typical narrative.  This is more to help me remember in the years to come.

PREPARATION

What were my strengths going into the race?

Good base fitness – without a doubt 2015 was my best year running and despite a Refusal to Continue on the self-organised Memorial Run overall I was in the best shape I’ve ever been in.

Reasonable navigation – fairly confident using a mix of map, compass and GPS to nav.

Looking after myself.  When I was first thinking about entering the race someone told me a finish was 80% looking after yourself and 20% fitness.  I think my military experience stood me in good stead for this.

Areas to work on
Some upper body strength – especially carrying the weight.

Getting used to using poles/moving quickly with a pack.

Knowledge of the route – apart from some walking in the Yorkshire Dales I had no knowledge of the route at all.

What did I need to find out about the race?
Kit choices – never having done any multi-day races I wasn’t sure what would work?

How to approach this race – I needed to work out a strategy.

What other factors were going to affect my preparation?
Work/life/other races was going to mean I wasn’t going to be able to physically recce any of the route.

With recovery from Chiltern Way/Memorial Run I was going to have about a 10 week block for specific training before an extended taper going into the race.

TRAINING - PHYSICAL
After my failure on the Memorial Run I took a few weeks off and had very low mileage in October before building the mileage up in November.  I was working in at least one 10+ mile run with my Spine Pack and poles although in retrospect the pack was probably a kilo or two light on what I ended up running run.
I had some fairly big mileage weeks (for me) in November with the weeks going 43, 67, 80 and 86 miles.  The first weekend in December I’d organised a local SocialUltra on the North Chiltern Trail which was 43 miles and 3,700 ft ascent.  I’d always planned on this being my ‘dress rehearsal’ for the race and was quite happy with how it went.  With hindsight I probably should have done a bit of a back to back to see how I’d feel going out on a longish run the day after doing 43 miles with the Spine Pack on.
The remainder of my specific training was trying to get down to Pegsdon Hills for some hill training.  Although it’s a fairly small area I never seem to get bored of running here and it’s the best spot locally for hill training without travelling too far. 
I’d always planned on having an extended taper as I wanted to go into the even as fresh as I could be and most of December consisted of fun running without putting any pressure on myself.

Physically I felt pretty good going into the race with none of the usual pre-race niggles that seem to appear for no reason.

TRAINING – Non-Physical
This consisted of reading as much as could about other people’s experiences of the race.  The collection of blogs put together by Anne Green was my one stop reading shop and I thoroughly commend it to anyone looking at doing the race.  Ian Bowles series of articles is particularly valuable for the newbie.

I also spent a lot of time reading Wainwright’s books on the route, reading them with the maps next to me to try to relate the route to the description and photos.  I checked out any roadcrossings with Google Streetview so that I could visualise certain points.  I’m not sure how much this actually benefitted me but I did have the occasional ‘lightbulb’ moment so maybe some of it paid off.  With hindsight I should have spent more time on the later parts of the course for when I would be tired.

RACE WEEK
I was fairly confident going into the race.  I felt physically fit, had managed to get some half decent sleep in the Christmas period and generally felt quire well prepared.  I was confident using my kit even if I felt it was slightly heavy.

RACE GOALS
I like to have 3 goals going into a race – a main aim, a fall back aim if things are going badly and a ‘stretch’ aim if things are going better than expected.  This helps me keep focussed regardless of how things are going.

Main aim – finish within the cutoffs feeling like I’d been in control throughout the race.
Fallback aim – drag my sorry arse across the finish line still breathing.
Stretch aim – Top Ten finish within 36-48 hours of the winner.

Never having done a multi-day event like this I didn’t want to set anything too specific and wanted to be focussed more on how I was feeling.  Listening to some people at the Youth Hostel the night before the race they had very specific plans about when they wanted to be at certain points and how quickly they planned to move.  I didn’t think this would survive contact with the race so I just wanted to make sure that I kept my feeding up, kept moving quickly even if I was walking and concentrated on my nav.
The following are the rules I set myself for the race:

DURING THE RACE I WOULDN’T
Go out too fast.
Get sucked into someone elses race.
Let myself make the decision to drop on an uphill section

DURING THE RACE I WOULD
Deal with problems as quickly as I could after identifying them as problems.
Concentrate on my feeding.
Walk quickly if I couldn’t run.

FEEDING PLAN
I was  2 days worth of boil in the bag rations as well as energy bars, nuts and pepperami.  I planned to stop and cook myself a hot meal once during the day.  I planned on 4-5 SiS energy bars between each CP.  I didn’t plan to rely on buying anything at shops but would take advantage when I could.

I never stopped to cook myself a meal. In future I would take the lightweight dehydrated meals as the boil in the bag rations were really quite heavy.

I’m doing a separate blog entry on the race narrative so I won’t go into the ins and outs of the race here.

WHAT WENT WELL?
Largely hit my main race aim – in control for most of the race and even though I only finished with 4 hours to spare I could have compressed this with less rest at Bellingham and not sauntering casually down from Hut2.

Kit choices – see below.

Layering – very rarely cold or wet and when I was it was largely down to feeding rather than layering.

Navigation – a few stupid errors but nothing major.

WHAT DIDN’T GO SO WELL?
After my knee swoll up on day 1 I never really got going at the pace I’d hoped to again.  While this was partly physical (at least till about Wednesday) I think I also got into a routine pace that became difficult to get out of.

Developed hip flexor weakness later in the week that really impacted on climbing speed – this is something that has happened before in 100 mile races and I need to get to the bottom of it as it is becoming a limiting factor – could still move quickly when I didn’t have to lift my leg too high.

Faffed around a lot at CPs – largely due to not being able to concentrate when lack of sleep hit. In future I would take a laminated checklist to follow.

Took a long time to get over not sleeping for first 36 hours – would have been quicker if I had had a 45 minute kip at CP1. Stop trying to be ‘sleep macho’.

At times did get sucked into to other people’s race – this paid off sometimes (thanks Luke – not sure I’d have finished without you) whilst at other times I maybe slowed too much.  There were advantages to this e.g sharing the navigation and just having some company.

KIT REVIEW
Jacket:

Rab Zenith – excellent, via lightweight but never gave into the elements.  The underarm pitzips made venting really easy.  Picked this up for £60 from GoOutdoors and was phenomenal in my opinion.
North Face Mountain Guide – very old school mountaineering jacket that was probably older than Ryan Wood.  I decided to use this from CP5 after hearing the weather forecast.  I think this was one of the best decisions I made all race and whilst I wasn’t in tip top condition when I reached Hut 2 I was still reasonably warm.

Trousers:
Montane Atomic – not massively impressed.  Comfortable and very waterproof but I ended up with 4 rips in them which the ripstop did little to restrict. 

Shoes:
I’m a big MoreMile Cheviot 2 fan.  I’ve worn them on the Lakeland100, South Downs Way 100 and even use them for some road running (don’t judge me).  Thought they were great on this.  Great grip (except on icy flagstones but I don’t think any shoes would be much better), drained fairly well and didn’t give me any blisters.  Went up a shoe size at the half way point.  If I’d had some spare cash I would have bought some lightweight walking boots and I think if I was doing it again I would definitely invest in some.
Mountain Warehouse ankle gaiters – kept the dirt and snow out of my shoes even if they didn’t keep the water out.  I don’t really like knee length gaiters.  I was surprised by how many competitors wore their gaiters over the top of their waterproofs missing the point that water then runs down your waterproof trousers inside your gaiters.

Socks
Cheap Karrimor Dry ankle socks with knee length thick SealSkinz over the top.  Feet generally stayed dry unless they’d been submerged for long periods (e.g after Tan Hill) and even when wet the SealSkinz kept my feet warm.  The only time my feet got really cold was when we loitered a bit too long at Hut 2 – by then I was very run down.

Layers
Peter Storm Merino base layer – I had a few baselayers but didn’t change out of this as it was so comfortable. Never felt clammy and quite warm.
Microfleece – I had a couple of these of different brands.
Buffalo Special 6 Shirt – another piece of kit that was probably older than some of the competitors. Probably nothing better in cold, wet conditions.  If I’d ever got soaked to the skin (which I fortunately didn’t) the plan was to strip the other layers off and wear this next to the skin.
Rab Generator Vest – another old favourite that ounce for ounce is very warm.
Kalenji and MoreMile winter leggings – quite heavy duty but wicked well and when I ended up waist deep in a bog dried very quickly preventing me from cooling too much.
At times I ended up with all of this on and my heavy duty North Face mountaineering jacket as well.

Head and Hands
Extremities Ice Cap Goretex hat – won’t win any prizes for fashion but was very warm.
SealSkinz mitts – these were a SportsPursuit purchase and one of the best things I bought for the event.  Even when I managed to get both hands soaked my hand stayed warm – I normally suffer from poor circulation so this was quite a feat.  Actually quite devastated when I managed to slice one open on the fence between Hut 1 and Hut 2. Now searching for a new pair.
Berghaus Powerstretch neck gaiter.  Another very versatile, very warm piece of kit that I’d got specifically for the event but will now be going anywhere cold, wet or windy with me.

Daysack
Berghaus Hyper 37 - this was one of the larger packs being carried but having failed to get my sleeping bag down in size I didn’t really have a lot of choice.  Overall a great daysack with easy to reach hip pockets.  I’d added a Raidlight Waterbottle pouch to the front strap so I had a bottle on hand.
OMM 3l bumbag – I started off with this on day one for keep ‘ready to use items’ e.g. gloves in.  Ditched it at CP1 and just stuffed things in my pockets.

Cooking
Alpkit Kraku stove – tiny, light and worked a dream.
Alpit MyTi Mug – mug, stove pan in one. Could fit gas, stove, lighter and spork inside with room to spare. Very light and more than happy with this.
Windproof jetflame lighter – bought off eBay for a couple of quid and lit even in very windy conditions.
Alpkit Spork – I guess a Spork is a spork but this was light and virtually indestructible.

Sleeping
Softie 9 – the only sleeping bag I had that met the entry requirements.  Not small and not particularly light.  I didn’t end up using this but I’m pretty sure it would have done the job if I’d needed to.
Mountain Equipment hooped bivy.  Not used.

Headtorch
Started with my trusty Led Lenser H4 until I managed to pull a wire out.
Petzl Tikka – no real issues.
At one point I had two sets of batteries die really quickly and still had an hour till daylight.  My trusty old school Nokia with ‘flashlight’ setting saved the day otherwise I think I’d have had to bivvy down until it got light.

GPS/Mapping
Fenix 3 – no mapping but great for a quick check on whether you were on route. Worth noting that the GPX file provided drew straight lines between points rather than following the path – at times you could therefore be ‘on the track’ but not ‘on the path’ or vice versa.
Garmin HCX 60 – borrowed from a friend. Easy to use and very long battery life.  Didn’t have OS mapping on it but a good bit of kit.
Harvey Maps – still not a real fan – guess I’m just too used to OS. If I was doing it again I’d print off A4 OS sheets for the route.

Part 2 to follow.

Run Until You Drop?

“Fancy a 28 mile Ultra?”

Pah I hear you say - “I wouldn't get out of bed for an ‘ultra’ that short.”

“How about a 28 mile Ultra after a 27 mile Ultra the day before?”

“That's just a decent back to back” I hear you say.

“What about a 28 mile Ultra after a 27 mile Ultra after a 26 mile run the day before that?”

“Can we just cut out this mythical conversation and get on with the article?” I hear you say.

OK, OK - for those who didn't see the social media event organised this year by Paul Ali and James Adams the idea is quite simple.  Run 1 mile on February 1st, 2 miles on February 2nd and keep adding a mile a day until the end of the month.  You don't have to run the mileage all in one go - just get it done in that 24 hour period.

It all sounds quite simple and not too difficult until you do the maths. The first week isn't too bad, a low mileage week of 28 miles but after that it stops being easy. Week 2 is 77 miles, Week 3 126 miles and the final week a whopping 175 miles. There aren't many top ultrarunners doing weekly mileage like that and it was certainly well above anything I’d done. 2016 is a Leap Year so if you're planning on doing it you’ll get an extra 29 mile day at the end.

So what was like? In a word ‘consuming’. The first week was fine - I knew all my local routes and I didn't do much more than my local commuting runs but after that it all changed.  I spent an inordinate amount of time each day planning when, where and how I’d fit in the required miles.  By the 3rd week it became THE thing I thought about.Any spare idle moments were overtaken by “I wonder how far it is from X to Y” or “I wonder if I can squeeze a few miles in at lunch time.”

Finding the time became a challenge in itself and the alarm clock started getting set earlier and earlier. I spent somewhere in the region of 60 hours running in February.On some days I’d misjudge a route and have to go out to ‘bag’ an extra mile or two here and there.  If all you had to do each day was run then the challenge might not be too hard but fitting it all in around work and a family life became difficult. How many of us regularly run a half marathon or more before a day in the office and then go for another longish run straight after work?

I guess I was lucky in that I didn't pick up any twinges until the 2nd day of week 4. Only 5 days to go - I could tough this out. It was then I worked out I still had 130 miles to go. Luckily the twinge didn't get too much worse - many others weren't so lucky and had to drop.

So was it worth it? I think so. As base training goes it was great. Lots and lots of very slow miles, 420 in fact. Off the back of it I ran a sub-20 hour 100 miler later in the year, something I couldn’t have done before the challenge. It also built my mental strength in a big way. There were lots of days when I just didn't feel like running, or running again. Going out and doing it anyway proved something to myself. When I’ve found myself in dark places mentally since I think back to February and remind myself it’s not as s*@t some of those dark mornings in February.

That might not sound like the best sell for the event but I’d do it again. Being in a full time job I couldn't have done another week but given the opportunity I’d love to see how many days I could reach - injury free I reckon I might make 50 or 60. So if you find yourself at a loose end or 29 in February why not see if you can run until you drop?

Chiltern Ultra

The following appeared in Issue 2 of Ultra Magazine.

It was only in the weeks running up to the Chiltern 214km race that I realised quite how it was.  I mean I knew how far it was I just didn't know how far it was. If that makes sense.

Up to now the furthest I'd gone was the 105 miles of the Lakeland 100. Surely this wouldn't be that hard would it - even with the extra miles?

Forward wind to near the 100 mile point at Sharpenhoe Clappers and I've just spent an hour thinking "Holy Shit I'm not at the hundred mile point and this feels as bad as the Lakeland100." I was also thinking about how I knew the hills between here and the finish. Well. Really well.

So what made this race hard? The first thing was the number of competitors.  There were 3 of us now and only 5 had started.  Why so few?  Maybe it was the busy race calendar; maybe that you needed some basic navigation; it could have been the above 100 mile distance or maybe it was that the route goes round Luton.  Whatever it was it wasn't helping.  I've not been running ultras for long but one of the things that's always helped has been being out there with other people.  I'd now spent 20 hours without seeing someone in a worse state than me to encourage me about what good shape I was really in. I'd now spent 20 hours without seeing someone in better shape than me to shame me into feeling better.

The Chilterns may not have a Boxhill or a Blencathra but they still manage to cram lots of elevation in. It's not even the kind of elevation you can gird your loins for, attack head on, revel in summiting and then coast downhill for a while.  It's the kind of elevation that's big enough to be a bit depressing, big enough to build some lactic up with really disappointingly short descents; the kind of elevation that sneakily repeats itself very, very often.

The route is also full of rural technical. You might not have heard of this. No-one GoPros rural technical runs and I doubt Kilian runs much of it. But there's definitely a technique to it. Flowing sting free along a nettle strewn path; floating effortlessly above a just ploughed field; skipping over tree roots.  Unfortunately I hadn't been flowing, skipping or floating for a while.  On the bright side the nettle stings were keeping my legs warm and tripping over a tree root had shaken me out of the lethargy I’d been feeling.  As for the freshly ploughed fields it’s probably best if we never speak of them again.

On the brightside I was just about to meet up with a temporary pacer.  I’d never had a pacer before and it kind of made me feel special.  Running on the ‘home turf’ section of the route did mean that I knew exactly what was waiting for me next but it also made it easier for someone to come and meet me.  Chris had run out from his house to join me, was going to do a few miles and was then going to run home - handy huh?

So as I ran into the hundred mile checkpoint at Sharpenhoe Clappers I was feeling pretty upbeat.  In his Race Director’s blog Lindley mentions me smiling a lot at every checkpoint.  This is something that works for me.  Smiling at checkpoint staff and them smiling back at me makes me feel better.  So I do it.  And even when I force a smile to start with it’s not long before I’m actually smiling and feeling better about the whole thing.  It was shortly after I left Sharpenhoe that things started to go a bit south.

Chris carried on with me for a few miles and then branched off on his own long run home.  It was then that I started feeling sleepy, very sleepy and just a little bit sad.

In a recent post on his blog James Adam’s recommended trying to ‘sell’ your race to someone else when things got bad.  To pick out all the best bits and focus on them.  I’d already been doing this off and on but now I’d get to focus on it for most of the rest of the race. 

So what are the best bits? 

Well the views are pretty special.  Again it might not be the Lakes or the Highlands but most of the race wends its way through an Area of Outstanding National Beauty.  And it is.  I’d frequently been turning a corner and seeing something really special; ancient forests, picture post card villages and stand out features like the Dunstable Downs.  The wildlife had been pretty special as well.  I’d seen huge Red Kites throughout the day and at night I’d come across several small herd of deer in the woods and narrowly avoided a fox orgy.

The organisation had been superb as well.  Apart from one race which never happened I’ve never been disappointed by an organised event and Challenge Running put on a really good event.  Considering the number of competitors the CPs were well manned and well stocked.  Starting and finishing at a Boys Brigade HQ there’s also accommodation at the start and finish if you want it.  For anyone travelling from further afield the start point of Hemel Hempstead is well served by public transport so it’s easy to get to.

It’s also a long race.  For a single stage 100+ race in this country there aren’t that many options.

Yes you need some basic navigation but it’s just that - basic.  There are easily identifiable features for 95% of the route.  Let’s just never ever talk about me taking a wrong turn in Hemel Hempstead a mile from the finish shall we.

So that’s what I came up with in the next 28 miles.  Until I took a wrong turn and then got caught right at the end by a 100k runner who’d started a day after me.  To his eternal credit Mike Abel was a true gentleman and let me finish ahead of him, winning the 214k race in a new course record of 34:54.  David Pryce, 12th at North Downs Way this year and last years sole finisher of this race had been forced to drop about 30 miles in with an injury.  I’d spent a lot of the last 20 odd hours thinking about what the race would have been like if he’d stayed in.  I’m pretty sure I’d have been chasing for the win rather than chasing for a course record.

This year two of us finished the race.  Ed Jones I salute you.  I think the mental fortitude you showed was way in advance of mine.  In the 2 years the race has run there have been 10 starters and 3 finishers.  That’s a pretty high DNF rate.  The record I set this year wasn’t a bad time but it wasn’t a great time.

Gauntlet laid down folks.  There’s a great race to be run next year and new course record to be had.

Chiltern Way Ultra Aims

I think it was only really today that it's actually sunk in how far this race is. 214km is 132 miles or nearly a marathon further than I've gone before.

If that's the main threat going into the race then there are a few strengths. For a lot of the top half of the race I'll be on "home ground" and map reading shouldn't be a problem. This also means the terrain is what I've been training on.

Training has gone well - last week I ran the fastest marathon distance I've ever done and it was fairly comfortable. I can also draw a lot of strength from my SDW100 run where I didn't really tire until about 85 miles in.

So aims are:

Bronze - complete it. If I can run 214km I'll be happy.

Silver - Win it. With very few entrants and only 1 finisher last year then if I get round this is a reasonable target. Main competition is likely to be David Pryce who won it last year.

Gold - Sub 33 hrs. This would be close to 4 hours inside David's time from last year and would take a performance similar to my SDW100 run to achieve.

Sub aims:

Feed well.
Pace steady.
Look after my feet.

South Downs Way 100

First off for anyone reading this this post is more a reminder for me than an informative article for you!

Writing this a few hours after I finished I'm still basking in the post ultra, pleasantly tired and aching glow of a good result.  So whilst it's still fresh here's a bit of an analysis of my run.

This was only my 2nd 100 miler and while I'll always be immensely proud of finishing the Lakeland100 after the race I felt I'd 'survived' it rather than 'run' it.  This was totally different.

I'd set myself a few aims before the race mainly:

Overall 

• Pace well 
• Feed well 
• Don't take too long at CPs 

Time aims for the race

• Main target                              sub-24 hours  
• Really Good Day Target         sub-20 hours  
• Not So Good Day Target        finish within the cutoff  

So how did I get on:

Pace Well

With the exception of the last 5 miles when it felt like the wheels fell off a bit I thought this went quite well.  I was still running what felt like a reasonable speed for most of the last quarter which suggests I got it pretty much on track.  The gradient on the climbs/descents meant that they were comfortable to walk up at a fast pace and I could run the downhills quite fast without smashing my quads.  Although I ran some of the gentle climbs early on by the second quarter I was already walking pretty much anything that felt like a slope but I think this helped me keep my overall pace higher than if I'd tried running them for longer and tiring myself out. Timings for each quarter were:

• 25 miles    3:47
• 50 miles    4:32 (+ 45 mins)
• 75 miles    5:09 (+37 mins)
• 100 miles   6:10 (+ 61 mins)

Part of the reason for the longer last 25 miles was:

Don't Take Too Long At CPs

I was in and out for the majority of the checkpoints up until Saddlescombe Farm at 66.6 miles.  I was carrying a zip lock bag and picking stuff up and then moving on - eating it whilst walking until it was gone and then picking the pace up again.  This worked well until I started having a few stomach problems which fed into:

Feed Well

I started off trying to get some solid savoury food down but even quite early on this was proving difficult - with it taking me about 3 minutes to chew a savoury egg ball enough to swallow it.  I was happy to see a lot of fruit at the checkpoints and must have eaten about a half a water melon during the race.  I think most of my calories came from flat Coke which towards the latter stages of the race my stomach took a real dislike to.  I didn't really get any energy lows though and even when I was struggling for the last 5 miles this seemed to be more due to a loss of leg strength than any real energy dip.  During the latter stages of the race I was spending longer at the CPs trying to get some solids down which had something to do with the longer split for that quarter.

Time Aims

My finishing time of 19:36 was more than I could have hoped for.  When I started to fade towards the end I became quite conservative to make sure of the sub-20 hour rather than push for something faster.  I don't think this was the wrong choice but maybe psychologically it made me slow down and walk at times when I could have run.  On the last road section I was run/walking between lamp posts when I could possibly have run the whole way in. This was one of the main reasons for dropping from 12th at Southease (83 miles) to 20th at the finish with about 5 of these places going in the last 7 miles.  It was never really about the places though and to go 24 minutes under a time I didn't think I could do is something I'm really happy with.

Motivation

Overall this never really dropped - I didn't go to a 'bad place' once which isn't necessarily a good thing.  I certainly need to be careful of this going into my next big event as undoubtedly it will happen at some point and forgetting how to deal with the dips is risky.  Even when I felt a bit wobbly towards the end it was so close to the finish and I was easily going to go sub-20hrs that it wasn't an issue.

So What Did I Learn?

• I can run a sub-20 hour 100 miler - although I think the variety of the course and the gradients helped a lot with this.
• I still need to work on my nutrition a bit and try to find someway to eat a few more solids.
• I need to be careful about treating this as 'typical' I reckon I'll get a lot more lows in future events. 

South Downs Way 100 - Aims

I think it's quite useful to set down what you hope to achieve from a big event.  For me it's a bit of a commitment to what you want to do and if it all goes horribly wrong it can stop you trying to reinvent what you wanted to do to fit events.

So general aims for the race:

• Pace well - I'm a bit of a believer in Stuart Mills mantra of bag the miles while you feel good but I got this wrong on the Lakeland 100 last year and it led to me being really slow on the second half of the race.  I know I'll be tempted to run too fast to start off with and I need to watch this.  I'll be happier if I run a slower well paced race than if I run too fast at the start and end up walking a lot.
• Feed well - I'm getting better at this but I still didn't get it quite right at Peddar's Way and the last few miles were pretty grim as a result.  I want to try to have a 'little and often' approach this time which feeds into my next aim...
• Don't take too long at CPs - definitely been guilty of this in the past, partly because the CPs tend to be staffed by such nice people who make a fuss of you.  I kept it short and sweet on Peddar's Way and want to do the same.

Time aims for the race:

• Main target - sub-24 hours.  I think this is achievable.  I felt really comfortable at the end of my last long training run which was 40 miles in 8:38.
• Really Good Day Target - sub-20 hours.  Really don't think I've got this in me yet, particularly as I don't know the course but then I surprised myself at Peddar's Way.
• Not So Good Day Target - finish within the cutoff.  

Le Grande Ultra Tour De Luton

The idea for Le Grande Ultra Tour came out of a post to the Ultra Running Community facebook site. I'm running the Chiltern Way 200k race later in the year and looking at the route online I'd noticed that the top section looked a bit like a cat's head - or many other things according to some of the comments on the site.

I doubt I'll get to recce the full route before the race but the 'cat's head' was close to home, about 40 miles and could be made into a circular route with only a small deviation from the Chiltern Way.

The name came from the idea that the route circumnavigated Luton and I figured the idea of looking at Luton all day was at least as challenging as doing the UTMB race.

I'd posted it as an event on the Social Ultra website but with the race calendar getting pretty busy I'd never really expected much response.  In the end 3 of us ended up doing - Scott and Chris were friends outside of Social Ultra as well as being members of the group

Aims
Although I'm not using a structured training programme at the minute I do try and consciously set myself aims for some of my training runs. Le Grande Tour was going to be my last long run before the South Downs Way 100 so my aims were:

• run at a similar pace to that I planned at SDW100
• work on my feeding. I still struggle to get this right and end up having big energy dips at points on long runs.
• carry my race kit for the SDW100

I picked Chris up and we met Scott at the Lilley Arms at 9am. It didn't get off to an auspicious start as I left my phone in the car and ended up turning round almost straight away.

The Chiltern Way is fairly well signposted in this part of the world although at this time of year signs are easily covered by vegetation. I'd run the first mile or so of the route which was lucky as we nearly ran past the first turn off in Lilley.

Although the route crosses some major roads and passes built up areas you very rarely feel like you are in an urban environment.  The route wends it's way through the rolling countryside - if you'd never run in this area you might be surprised how hilly this area is.  We were soon off the stretch I knew which made the navigation more interesting. We made one minor error when a finger post seemed to point across a field. We fairly quickly recognised our error and got back on track.

I don't normally run with other people and it probably helped me to slow down. Chris had run 70 miles a few weeks before and was still in recovery mode. The rape seed growing in many of the fields made life interesting and after cutting through one field we looked like we'd done a colour run. 

We hit 'civilisation' again at Harpenden and then had the delights of crossing a major junction under the M1.  Pretty soon it was back to the countryside though and until we hit Dunstable Downs Luton was lost to us.

We stopped at the Downs visitor centre for a coffee and cake (highly recommended if you are ever in the area) and from there on in I knew the route back to Lilley.  There's a major link road being built between the M1 and the A5 which crosses the route and will be interesting when I'm back there for the race later in the year.

Overall it was a great day out.  Superb weather, fantastic countryside and very very few glimpses of Luton.  I managed to hit my main aims although I got lazy with my feeding near the end.  Legs felt great at the finish but I was running low on energy.

I'll quite probably run this again next year after some interest on the Social Ultra site.  It's just difficult finding a space in the ultra calendar these days.