Been a While

Well guys, sorry its been almost a week since my last post, I just havent seem to had the time to post.

However I have been running but not too much. Over the weekend I went out for a 30km road run in just under 2.5hrs which was fairly pleasing. I was in a fair bit of pain afterwards. I survived on just water + 1 nuun electrolyte tablet with zero calories in it. I am trying not to eat on my runs to enable my body to burn fat more efficiently. When training for The North Face 100 I would eat constantly so I wouldnt 'hit the wall' and also to get my body used to eating foods. I sooned realised I could eat just about anything and have no side effects unlike other runners and i used to eat all the time. Now im taking a slightly different approach. 1 pound of fat is enough to fuel a runner for 50miles. If I can get my body burning fat from the off then my muscles are going to thank me.

So after 30km over the weekend I was still full of energy, I hadnt hit the wall and I could have gone on had it not been for an achey body which I still attribute to recovering from my first ultra.

On sunday I went out for a gentle 8.5km and then I have done nothing until this evening. I had planned on a long run after work however it has been chucking down with rain all evening, so I donned my vibram 5 fingers and went to the gym for a run on the treadmill. I lasted just over an hour and ran 11.5km. Just 2 weeks ago I could only run for 15 mins before my knees were hurting so this was a great improvement.

Ive been neglecting my vibrams for quite some time now and im keen to start using them again. The only problem i have is the base of my foot blisters easily. Anyway, they are great shoes for keeping me running slowly which is what i need to do now and again.

Anyway, tonight at midnight its England v Slovenia and then at 4.30am its Australia v Serbia so no sleep for me. Im just hoping both England and Australia make it through to the next round.

Cheers

Running on a treadmill

Now I'm the first to admit I loathe running on a treadmill but treadmill running can have its benefits.

As an example, last night as part of my recover I decided I would jog on a treadmill as I wanted to run at a much slower speed than I would normally if I were running outside. Of course you have to put up with staring at a blank wall or if your lucky a 50inc plasma tv, however you get to run at the exact speed you wish to, which for me was 5.30min/km. I managed 30 minutes with no knee pain and then I decided I would run home which took around 10 minutes.

Treadmill running is much lower impace that running on a pavement or a road so in theory this should help aid recovery (well rest is the best option but as we all know what runner wants to ever go down that path!!). To mimic running outside the incline on the treadmill should be set to 1% which isnt all that noticeable.

Once I arrived home I got my foam roller out and applied some deep muscle massage to loosen up my ITB for good measure.

Today I plan on running round Centennial Park near my work. Its a nice decent loop with plenty of variation and trails, I just hope my ITB holds up.

As it will be dark I will be taking my trusty Petzl Tikka Plus 2 head torch. The headlamp lights the way superbly and I barely notice it on my head.

My other value peice of equipment is my Garmin Forerunner 405cx gps watch. If im outside I generally do not run anywhere without this beauty. Highly accurate with plenty of features its a great piece of kit. I love downloading my data after a long run and looking back to see how far i've run, how fast, me heart rate, how many calories ive burnt and where ive been.

The battery life is supposedly 8hrs and when I first bought this (before I had even heard of ultrarunning) I laughed and thought I would never even run close to 8hrs. How wrong I was .......

However, there are pieces of kit out there that, portable usb chargers, that enable you to charge your watch on the run but I'll talk more about that in a later post.

Happy running