Barcelona Marathon and some R & R in the Philippines

On 14th March I flew to Barcelona with the excellent support team from Barking Road Runners. The weekend went well with a PB, which should have been faster however I tailed off in the last 4 miles the weather was hot and I still need to work on endurance over 20 miles .. The 33shake worked well for breakfast instead of porridge but the chia gels need more practice - resorted to an ordinary gel from the food station at 21 miles as the OTE gel I had brought had dropped out of my FlipBelt just after the start - another lesson ..

On Monday, after some excellent celebrations Sunday night, did a 8 mile recovery run up to Castell de Montjuic with Vicky - legs felt ok, a good omen for the multistage Ultra Tour Monte Rosa. 

On Thursday 19th flew to the Philippines for some rest and recuperation, with some of my family, and a little cross training. After the 13 hour flight to Manila flew on to Bohol and some Diving and relaxation. 

Had some wonderful Dives including swimming with Whale Sharks

and turtles

as well as excellent Philippine massages on the beach

Alex playing with fire

I did manage a couple of runs, 5am was the only time that the temperature and the traffic (motorbikes and diesels) were tolerable; found a stretch of off-road though was cautious of straying from the path as the guide at the Chocolate Hills Adventure Park had told me that there were king cobras on the island (I hope that he was joking!). These guys in the Tansier Conservation Area on Panglao Island,were cute as well

After a week we flew back for a few more days in Manila where I had a 2 hour Gym Session in the Rockwell Club, several swim sessions in the pool, finishing with sharing a fairly intensive boxing and core session on Thursday in 35 degrees C ..

Back in the UK now and recovered from the flight; ran a slow parkrun Saturday and a 20 mile 'recovery' run mainly off road yesterday. Training begins in ernest now looking forward to the Endurancelife Coastal Trial Series Exmoor Marathon next Saturday - the toughest one of the series (classified 'extreme'). Final registration is due this month for the UTMR, found a great picture of the Monte Rosa in this January's Runners World

The race is now over 3 days not 4 and the final itinerary is:

STAGE ONE:Date:Thursday 20th August, 2015 Start:Cervinia, Italy Finish:Gressoney, Italy Distance:32km Ascent/Descent:+1100m / ­2000m

STAGE TWO:Date:Friday 21st August, 2015 Start:Gressoney, Italy Finish:Macugnaga, Italy Distance:38km Ascent/Descent:+2200m / ­3200m

STAGE THREE:Date:Saturday 22nd August, 2015 Start:Macugnaga, Italy Finish:Grächen, Switzerland Distance:41km Ascent/Descent:+2600m / ­2250m

Looking forward to the challenge....

Race is from the lower B to the upper A (via the other B!) the blue lines are roads not the race route ..

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Underground Ultra Training Day

On 7th March I attended a Training Session held at Wittenham Clumps, Oxfordshire arranged by Underground Ultra www.undergroundultra.co.uk . A very useful day sessions included hill training with some instruction on the use of poles- on the only hill in the area ..

A strength and conditioning session and a talk on Mental Resilience 'for those long runs and beyond' and an interesting talk by Warren Pole of 33Shakes about alternative fuelling (without using those sugar laden gels) 33shake.com

All-in-one Shakes can be used as Breakfast and post run on hard training days and Chia Energy Gels are designed to deliver and sustain strong, stable energy levels with no nasty peaks and troughs, no stomach trouble 'great taste' and to 'boost recovery'. I used these at Barcelona - more of that later..

They are expensive, contain organic 'superfoods'',  'can be tolerated for 12 hours' and encourage 'fat burning' - unlike sugar laden gels (with maltodextrin and fructose) that irritate your stomach and gut and often lead to insulin spikes.. 

The presentations were followed by a longish run in the afternoon

with a sprint finish!