Photomap

Check out the map on flickr that shows where the Jungfrau photos were taken. Very useful for those who are running the Jungfrau. This covers the last half of the race. Zoom in to the map then click on the red dots.

No More Training

Well, it's all over now. I ran my last training run last night and it's time to taper (and hopefully get rid of this heel problem in the process). I did eventually manage to get a good series of runs in the last few days after all. I did a 20km off roader on Sunday plus an hour on the bike, a 20km multi-terrain run on Monday and last night, while away from home on a business trip to Stockport, I hacked my way round a lovely 25km run along a disused railway track (Middlewood Way) and back via the Macclesfield canal. This included running the down the impressive flight of locks and aquaduct in Marple. The heel probelm is still hovering around in the background but not getting any worse so maybe I can get rid of it while I rest.

Pass the pasta please.

The Back of My Race Shirt - nuff said

Unflummoxed (maybe)

Further to my Flummoxed post of last week I may have found a reason for my lack of form. Apparently, a high protein and fat diet will result in a much lower endurance than a 'normal' mixed diet whereas a high carbohydate diet results in much higher endurance. We all know the carbo loading side of this but I wasn't aware of the effects of the protein diet.



Anyway, the night before my run I went to a barby and had two large mackerel. I also tried to get as much pasta as I could but there wasn't much around. I also don't know what my diet was leading up to that but it could have had a lot of protein in it as I'm a bit partial to fish. So, that combined with a deceptively warm day and insufficient fluids may be the cause of my problems. I'll keep telling myself that anyway.

I've been out a couple of times since and have felt fine. The hills are still fairly flat. My heel is still slightly sore but doesn't seemed to be getting any worse (or better) and I'm enjoying my running which is good. There's still that little mental niggle about burning up after 15 miles but I'll just have to change my strategy to mitigate that. I'm also very conscious that I've effectively blown my last chance to top off my training in these last weeks. The aim now is definitely to finish rather than get a good time although I'm still hoping to beat 5 hours.

Off out on the bike now. Can't waste the only sunny weekend we've had since records began.

25 Miles

I've chosen "25 Miles" sung by Edwin Starr (a Northern Soul classic) as my marathon anthem. The lyrics (with a slight tweak swapping "walk" for "run") are great for the Jungfrau, especially "I got five more miles to go now, over the hills, just around the bend". As with any song. the lyrics alone don't do it justice so listen to a clip here.






25 Miles (Edwin Starr, Harvey Fuqua, John Bristol)

Twenty five miles from home, girl
My feet are hurtin' mighty bad
Now I've been runnin' for three days
And two lonely nights
You know that I'm mighty mad
But I got a woman waitin' for me
That's gonna make this trip worthwhile
You see, she's got the kind of lovin' and a kissin'
That make a man go stone wild

I got to keep on runnin'
Oh I got to run on
Let me tell you, y'all I'm so tired
But I just can't lose my stride

I got fifteen miles to go now
And I can hear my baby callin' my name
It's as if as though I'm standin' at her front door
And I can hear her doggone plain
Now I'll be so glad to see my baby
And hold her in my arms one more time
Now when I kiss her lips I turn a backover flip
And I forget about these feet of mine
I got to keep on runnin'
I got to run on
Let me tell you, y'all I'm so tired
But I just can't lose my stride
Yeah I got to run on
Let me tell you, y'all
Hope my feet don't fail me now

I got ten more miles to go
I got nine, eight, seven
Six, oh six

I got five more miles to go now
Over the hills just around the bend
Although my feet are tired I can't lose my stride
I got to get my baby back again

I got to keep on runnin'
I got to run on
Let me tell y'all I'm so tired now
But I just can't lose my stride
Oh, I got to run on
Let me tell you now I'm so tired
But I just can't lose my stride
I got to run on

Photos

Check out the photos from my training week in Switzerland.

Flummoxed

Three weeks to go so I thought I'd have a intensive training week this week before tapering down for the big day. So, start with a nice long run on Sunday I thought. Off I went for a nice steady 25 miler on the road. Loaded up with a litre and half of isotonic, energy bars and good old banana and honey sarnies I set off on a damp but warm day. My right ankle / achilles made itself felt but it didn't hurt so I soon forgot about it. Up and down the Chilterns I went, nipping through Champneys in the process. The first fifteen miles were fine. The hills felt particularly flat and easy after my week in the Alps. I was very pleased with my performance until my calf muscles started to feel tight. Then the pain down the outside of my right knee that I've had in the past, and assume is a referred pain from my ankle, appeared. I persisted on but was not a happy bunny.

I'd drunk some 500ml of isotonic drink per hour and had my energy food so I should have been fine. The distance shouldn't have been a problem having done simlar runs several times recently without any problem. I'd rested all the previous week apart from one treadmill session so I should have been well recovered from the Alps. None of this seemed to matter as I plodded on. My legs were aching but strangely didn't feel tired. I couldn't run down hill properly because of the aching and eventually running uphill became too painful due the pain in the side of my knee. To cap it all my Polar ran out of memory so I've no record of what my heart was doing after 20 miles. I bent down to rub my knee and found the inside of my knees and my shins covered in a layer of thin white froth. I tasted it. It was salty. I kept going till around 24 miles on the grounds that if this was the real event then I'd not give in but I was worried that I might injure myself so I called home and got a lift for the final mile or two.

Here's the mystery: when I got home I found I had lost six pounds in weight and my urine was very dark (but not red as in my previous long run) and my legs were cramping but I'd been drinking sufficient fluids. What the hell was going on? I haven't cramped in months. Was that white froth actually salt from my sweat? I can't imagine that I'd sweated enough to cause all that damage. I'm still puzzled and not a little worried as I don't understand what went wrong and until I do I might screw up the actual marathon. If I feel as bad after fifteen miles on the actual event then I'm in for a horrific time as that's when the climbing starts. Knowing the route as I do now I'm not sure that I could finish if I felt as bad as I did on Sunday.

Now my legs ache too much to run so I've lost a few days a irreplaceable training. I might try a bike ride tomorrow. I know this was never going to be easy but I could do without this especially at this time.

Bollocks!

What a Week that Was

This will take a while so I'm going to do it in stages. In a nutshell I've just had the most amazing running week on the Jungfrau Marathon Training Camp in Interlaken. I'll be building my blog entry for the whole week over the next few days. Richi the head trainer (and former Swiss marathon record holder at 2:13) has asked me to write an entry for the Wednesday run so I'll do that out of sequence. In the meantime I'll post a few photos. How this for a taster:

Monday August 6: Day 1 – Getting there and introductions
Got the 7:20 Easyjet flight from Luton to Basel – Mulhouse – Frieborg. An uneventful flight landed pretty much on time. The weather was nice and sunny. A bus trip later and I’m at Basel SBB Station. The trains to Interlaken seemed to run every 20 minutes or so so I jumped on the next available one and waited to see the famous Swiss railway punctuality at work. Sure enough, the doors slid shut with 20 seconds to go and the train started to glide out of the station, in that incredibly smooth way that only Swiss trains do, bang on time. Got some lovely views of the Eiger (north face), Moch and Jungfrau from the train after leaving Bern (note that the train leaves the way it came in so make sure you’re facing backwards with the window to your left going into Bern).

Arrived at Interlaken West then Interlaken East. Had I know it I’d have jumped off at the West station as that is nearer the hotel. So I walked the half mile or so in glorious sunshine to the Hotel Metropol. I can only assume that the town planner had one of is bad days when he gave permission for this hotel to be built. Don’t get me wrong it’s lovely inside, well located, good food and a cracking view but it’s 14 stories high, ten higher than anything else in the town (city?) and is made of concrete. It sticks out of the surrounding classic Swiss buildings like the proverbial sore thumb. Mind you, I can't complain with a view like this out of my window / balcony:

To be continued.....

Wednesday August 8: Day 3 Up the Wengenwand (The Wegen Wall)
On the map Lauterbrunnen and Wengen are almost joined at the hip. It is little over a kilometer between their centres. A run of 5 minutes or so should get you from one to the other, until you look at the contour lines. Vertically there is a height difference of 480m (or 1560 feet in old money). That’s steep in anybody’s book.

I don’t know if it is intentional or not but there is a cruel trick in the route of the Jungfrau Marathon. You are taken to Lauterbrunnen via a gentle run climbing only 250m over some 20km. On your right are the stunning vertical cliffs hundreds of feet high over which several small rivers and streams launch themselves into space, vapourising on their way down. However, your attention should be on the left where the almost as steep Wengenwand sits immutably awaiting your best efforts but, and this is the trick, you don’t get to suffer it just yet. Instead you are taken in a loop up and down the Lauterbrunnen valley, allowed to stew in your thoughts. Enjoy the view because you’ll soon be staring at the ground in just in front of your feet for many weary minutes.

And so it was we set of on the train to Lauterbrunnen on a grey and wet day. The torrential rain from overnight was now coursing its way down the many streams feeding the Lutschine river. This was close to bursting its banks in many places and as we passed the path that we’d run along the previous day I could see that there was a small section of the path missing, washed away in the night. That would cause Richi to replan the run on Friday, but back to today. Some of us were familiar with the wall having run it before. Thanh has been up the wall some 20 times and I’m sure Richi could do it with his eyes closed. Personally, I had no idea what to expect, more from my own capabilities rather than the actual route. I knew from studying the map that it zig-zagged its way up mostly through trees, the path and the railway line taking it in turns to lead the way but a map is very different from reality. Would it beat me?

The rain had fortunately stopped when we reached Lauterbrunnen. We left our bags in the capable hands of the Jungfrau railway company hoping to see them next in Wengen. Off we went at a gentle pace up into Lauterbrunnen and along the highstreet heading south, deeper into the valley. Past the shops, then the car park where I'd parked with my family two years ago on the weekend when I first discovered that the Jungfrau Marathon existed, then out past the graveyard and the Jungfrau Camping site and out of the town. We didn't know it two years ago but our route to the Trummelbach falls followed the Jungfrau Marathon route. Running it brought back memories from our visit. Just before reaching the falls the route turns back along the road, this time east of the river, and we head back to Lauterbrunnen. I've used this time to drink most of my energy drink from my Camelbak bladder in preparation for the Wengenwand.

We turn left and find the river, following it back to Lauterbrunnen. Not far to go now before we leave the comfort of the valley floor. We cross the river, a few hundred metres alongthe west bank then out onto the road, across the bridge then a left turn and we're running northwards parallel to the river but slightly uphill for a few hundred metres before the route turns right up the side of the valley. We stop at this turn and Richi demonstrates how the Jungfrau Marathon record holder, kiwi Jonathan Wyatt (at a staggering 2:49), ran this stretch. He also shows us how we should run it, either short steps on the balls of the feet or at a fast walking pace. Then we are off.

I have been training myself for months to run up hills where possible by using approprately small steps rather than try a fast walk so I settle into a steady rythm with nice short steps. The uphill stretch starts on tarmac for a hundred yards or so until the houses drop away then we turn left over a stream and we're onto a track. This raises fairly gently for another hundred yards till we reach the first of many hairpin bends. Keeping to the outside to use the favourable gradients I keep my pace constant. Karl-Ludwig has decided to adopt the fast walking tactic and is keeping abreast of me. It's weird running alongside a walker at the same pace.

The path meets and crosses the railway track before turning to run alongside and above it. The railway disappears into a tunnel just as we turn another hairpin and head away into a series of six short hairpin switchbacks. I keep my tempo, using the full width of the bends. The walkers coming down the hill must think we are mad. Maybe they are right but it feels good to be in a groove running uphill. After the sixth hairpin we meet the railway again this time we go underneath it. Denise and Peter are on my heels and eventually pass me. Four more hairpins and there's a house. Is this Wengen already? No such luck. The hairpins keep coming. Four more then hope at last as the gradient eases and the path enters a flatter wooded stretch. We are up into the fields below Wengen. Another gentle rise then a downhill stretch at last.

It is here that I make one of my discoveries of the week. The Swiss runners don't use the downhills. I released the brakes and shot downhill overtaking half a dozen runners in front of me. I'm not sure if it's because they don't tend to run downhill having so much uphill to run on (and trains or cable cars to come down on) or whether they think they'll injure themselves but it was the same all week, me whizzing down the few downhill stretches leaving the Swiss runners in my wake. I put it down to the Swiss inventing mountains and the English inventing gravity. If the Jungfrau Marathon was the other way round I reckon I'd get a good placing.

Crossing the railway line we are soon onto tarmac again and a steady kilometer or so brings us into Wengen high street lined with shops and cafes. We refresh ourselves at the fountain while Dani immerses himself in it as usual. My stopwatch says we did it in 38 minutes. Not too bad after all. Later I see that my heart rate was as steady as a rock on the steep hairpins with the rate staying between 138 and 141 bpm all the way up.

Our bags are waiting for us in the baggage room where we all strip off and get changed. Any little old ladies coming in to pick up their luggage would have been in for a treat! We then wnet off to a local cafe (run by a former skiing star whose name I forget) for a drink before taking the train back to Interlaken. A grand day was had by all.

What Am I Packing?

Having now packed for a wet week they've gone and changed the weather forecast already. There are sunny intervals (and showers) for the latter half of the week now. I see Murren, which is just across the Lauterbrunnen valley from Wengen, has snow forecast down to 2800m. We will be running almost up to that height at some time during the week. So I now have to pack for a heatwave, a monsoon and a whiteout. Just in case.

The knee is a bit better today. Touch wood.

Not sure if I'll be able to blog from Switzerland but keep checking in just in case.

Auf weider blog.

Rain Man II

Just checked the weekly weather forecast for Interlaken. After a nice hot day to travel in on Monday it's wall to wall rain. Nothing new there then. I wonder what that means at 2000m? We'll either be above the clouds, in a snow storm or just cold and wet.

The forecast for Wengen (1000m (ish)) looks like the temperature will be in single figures. That'll alter my packing strategy. Lulled by the recent sunshine and our scorching visit to Italy I've packed for the heat. I'm now looking at packing my winter gear.

Didn't want a suntan anyway :o(

P.S. Knee pain is on and off now.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes.....

I've rested my ankle and it seems to be repairing nicely but out of the blue my left knee is giving me some jip. I woke up yesterday morning and my knee was very sore. It can't be due to running as I haven't done any (could it be due to not running?) since Sunday. It's a wierd sort of pain as it feels like my knee is in a vice. It can also disappear for a while then reappear suddenly. I'm lost as to what it is and what's causing it. I did have some similar pains back in the Winter and they never lasted long enough to bother getting them looked into. I'm hoping this will go away too.

I went to see the podiatrist yesterday too. He examined my feet, took some measurements of the pronation and did a parotec test. This consisted of putting some special insoles into my running shoes. These contained a load of pressure sensors and were wired up to a box strapped to my waist. I then had to run up and down the car park while it recorded the pressure on my feet. It appears that my left foot is actually worse than my right in term of pronation but I'm not putting much pressure on my right forefoot meaning that I don't get maximum takeoff on that side. Anyway, using those measurements and a scan of the contours of my foot he made a pair of orthotic insoles. These will stop my foot rolling over so much allowing my Achilles to slide over the heel more easily and allowing me to use more of my forefoot in moving forwards. I did a test run using them. The right heel is not fully healed as I can still feel it, the knee behaved itself while running and the insoles felt fine in my road shoes (Asics) but a bit tighter in my trail shoes (Salomons). I should really try them out a lot more before gong to Switzerland (on Monday) but I want to rest my heel a bit more and I'm not sure how my knee will react.


Really cheesed off and worried about this knee. Hope it doesn't spoil my week.

Frustration

Only five weeks to go and my niggling right Achilles has decided to play up. After my run on Sunday it is very sore. I'm not totally convinced it is the tendon itself as that isn't tender to touch. Could be a heel spur problem or some such thing. I'm going to Interlaken next Monday for a training week so I'm desperate to get it sorted. I've got an appointment with a podiatrist on Friday to have a set of tests (gait analysis, foot pressure etc) with a view to getting some orthotic insoles made up. This will set me back well over £300 but it has to be done. It needs doing anyway as my right foot and ankle is a mess. It massively overpronates and I reckon the arch has collapsed. Hopefully that might sort it out. In the meantime I can't run, just when I was looking to step things up. I went out on the bike on Monday evening (assuming that won't aggravate the problem) so I can keep my fitness levels ticking over but I'm pretty peed off at the moment. Any chance of getting near 4:30 on the Jungfrau has gone. I'm just hoping that I make it to the start line now.

Bummer!