Well, I went and did something silly. I signed up to run in the 2020 Spine Flare event. The Spine Race is a run along the length of the Pennine Way (268 miles) in January. The Flare is a sort of mini version, it covers less than half the distance (a mere 108 miles) and it runs in June. This means better weather (hopefully) and certainly much more daylight. Although it's a much less daunting challenge than the real Spine race, it is still pretty ambitious for an old bloke like me. The course goes from Edale in Derbyshire to just north of Hawes in Yorkshire (passing just a few miles from our front door at the half-way point). You have to complete the distance in 60 hours and I reckon that I'll have to run through most of one night to manage that.
The most I've ever covered in one go is 48 miles, so this is very new territory for me.
I'll try and be organised enough to report on my training each month. Basically, I've got two aims in preparation for the race, one is to build up my endurance so that I can cope with the distance and the second is to recce the route as much as possible so that I don't get any nasty surprises.
Let's start with the second of those two. The weather has been pretty awful this month, but there was one Saturday mid-month where the weather forecast was pretty good, so I decided to check out the section from Cowling to Gargrave via Thornton in Craven.
I ran up to Cowling and joined the Pennine Way where it climbs up to Cowling Hill before dropping down into Lothersdale.
From there it is a bit of a slog up through fields before crossing a road and joining a nice track up to Pinhaw Beacon which is an ideal place to take a selfie.
The track down from Pinhaw started well, then there was a little bit of road and then there was a LOT of mud. Actually, there was a lot of mud most of the day. I was wearing my Roclite distance shoes rather than my Mudclaws, so there were times when my motion was more akin to ice-skating than running. Eventually, I picked up the Leeds-Liverpool Canal for a mile or so. I regularly run on this towpath - only about ten miles away nearer home.
Then it was across some muddy fields and a drop down into Gargrave, where I had to wait almost an hour for my train home. It was a lovely sunny morning out and I only got lost once. I may well redo this run in the spring when the ground might be drier.
Building up distance takes time. I have a problem that generally when I put lots of miles in, I get injured. In order to forestall this, I've been seeing Iain from Iain Harris Physio Solutions in Crosshills to help solve problems before they get too serious. I was completely blown away when Iain told me that the practice would like to take me on as one of their sponsored athletes. Me!? I'm not an athlete, just an old bloke who likes to run in the hills. Of course, I accepted and I've been really helped by Iain working on my legs and giving me a series of stretches and exercises to follow. So as my mileage has crept up, I've felt a few niggles but nothing to stop me running yet. I should mention that Iain's wife, Barbara, has been giving me acupuncture on my broken finger, which has been a real help, too.
So, I'm not running huge distances yet, I'm back up to 15-20 hilly miles on a Saturday and need to add a ten miler on Sundays. The secret for ultra-distance running is not to try and run too far, but to build up regular back-to-back runs. I'm also running three days during the week as well. I've clocked up 200km for January, which is much more than I'd normally cover this time of year. The aim is to increase this substantially in February. To help this I'll be running the Silverdale Circuit with Ascend Events in the middle of the month - that's 20 something miles. The other thing that I need to do is to lose some weight - since my last ultra in November, I've piled on more than a few pounds and I need to lose them. If I get organised, I'll record my weight in the next training update and you can hold me accountable for shifting some kilos.
Apart from losing weight, my big issue is combining the stretching and exercises that I need to do in order to avoid injury, with the need to build up my mileage. My legs are getting very tired and I'll need to take a few days' rest in the not too distant future to allow time for recovery. I also need to think about doing some speed/strength work. Not that I'll be worried about speed on the Flare, but the faster I can run, the easier it will be to run slowly!
The most I've ever covered in one go is 48 miles, so this is very new territory for me.
 |
| Coming into Gargrave on the Pennine Way |
Let's start with the second of those two. The weather has been pretty awful this month, but there was one Saturday mid-month where the weather forecast was pretty good, so I decided to check out the section from Cowling to Gargrave via Thornton in Craven.
I ran up to Cowling and joined the Pennine Way where it climbs up to Cowling Hill before dropping down into Lothersdale.
 |
| Looking down to Lotharsdale |
The track down from Pinhaw started well, then there was a little bit of road and then there was a LOT of mud. Actually, there was a lot of mud most of the day. I was wearing my Roclite distance shoes rather than my Mudclaws, so there were times when my motion was more akin to ice-skating than running. Eventually, I picked up the Leeds-Liverpool Canal for a mile or so. I regularly run on this towpath - only about ten miles away nearer home.
Then it was across some muddy fields and a drop down into Gargrave, where I had to wait almost an hour for my train home. It was a lovely sunny morning out and I only got lost once. I may well redo this run in the spring when the ground might be drier.
Building up distance takes time. I have a problem that generally when I put lots of miles in, I get injured. In order to forestall this, I've been seeing Iain from Iain Harris Physio Solutions in Crosshills to help solve problems before they get too serious. I was completely blown away when Iain told me that the practice would like to take me on as one of their sponsored athletes. Me!? I'm not an athlete, just an old bloke who likes to run in the hills. Of course, I accepted and I've been really helped by Iain working on my legs and giving me a series of stretches and exercises to follow. So as my mileage has crept up, I've felt a few niggles but nothing to stop me running yet. I should mention that Iain's wife, Barbara, has been giving me acupuncture on my broken finger, which has been a real help, too.
So, I'm not running huge distances yet, I'm back up to 15-20 hilly miles on a Saturday and need to add a ten miler on Sundays. The secret for ultra-distance running is not to try and run too far, but to build up regular back-to-back runs. I'm also running three days during the week as well. I've clocked up 200km for January, which is much more than I'd normally cover this time of year. The aim is to increase this substantially in February. To help this I'll be running the Silverdale Circuit with Ascend Events in the middle of the month - that's 20 something miles. The other thing that I need to do is to lose some weight - since my last ultra in November, I've piled on more than a few pounds and I need to lose them. If I get organised, I'll record my weight in the next training update and you can hold me accountable for shifting some kilos.
Apart from losing weight, my big issue is combining the stretching and exercises that I need to do in order to avoid injury, with the need to build up my mileage. My legs are getting very tired and I'll need to take a few days' rest in the not too distant future to allow time for recovery. I also need to think about doing some speed/strength work. Not that I'll be worried about speed on the Flare, but the faster I can run, the easier it will be to run slowly!
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