April is as April does

I started off April just putting in a few short regular runs during the week and some dog walking. There were no races booked, and nothing too drastic planned as I was hoping to work up to some longer stuff before the Ox Marathon in May.
However I did manage 3 decent medium/long runs of 23, 26, and 22km respectively.
The first one fell on Easter Sunday, a good base from which to consume chocolate without guilt i thought, I had planned to have another go at a half marathon route from Bere Regis but didn't fancy doing it on my own so asked if anyone was interested in accompanying me.
A parkrun friend Andy, who I hadn't run with before said he would be happy to join me as he was hoping to do back to back longish runs that weekend, in training for the Ox Ultra (same day as the Marathon that I was doing).
I knew Andy was a faster runner than me but he said he was happy doing around 7min/km as he was hoping for an easy run and was just interested in clocking up the miles, so as this was my average ish off road pace I was just pleased for the company.
We left Daisy behind as she wasn't up to 13 miles yet, and set off for Bere Regis with Max in the car.
Starting at the Scout hut as before we traced the same route up through Briantspuddle as I had done previously but upon reaching Culpeppers dish we traced a slightly different route out through the forestry section and I was planning to cross the main road (close to Clouds Hill where Lawrence of Arabia used to live), and run a quick loop in the woods beyond, but what I thought was a gate on the map, turned out to be just fence so we spent a little while going back and forth so in the end went along the road a short while to pick up the return track again.

Now I don't know about you but when I run with someone I know is faster than me, despite what they say that they are happy to do your pace, there is always the slight pressure to do a decent pace and so I probably pushed myself faster than i should have done (average of 6:40 a km) and so kind of ran out of a lot of oomph around 18-19km. But in the end it turned out to be a pretty good run, albeit a tough one (might have the makings of a good half here), and certainly worthy of a bit of Easter chocolate!

The following weekend I was hoping to try out Kev's new Ricoh action camera at Poole parkrun, just to see what it could do, so ran round recording the run and some of the behind the scenes stuff.

I ended up with quite a bit of footage but managed to edit it down to about 8 mins, I think it really shows what Poole parkrun is all about. 

If you would like a look, the you tube video is here, but for some reason, despite being uploaded in HD, the HD option remains stubbornly un-selectable, so you wont get the full experience! 

The following day I needed to fit in a 16 mile (26km) run and decided just to do a run around Canford Heath, which surprisingly you can get quite a few miles out of. My plan was to include both dogs but as Daisy was not up to that sort of distance, Kev was going to drop us off, i would do half the run with both of them, then he would pick up Daisy at a prearranged time and I would complete the 16 miles with Max, and run home. This went surprisingly well apart from Daisy not wanting to be picked up! Difficult to explain to a small dog why she cant carry on running, Oh and not to mention a spectacular faceplant by me at around 19km, nothing really hurt but pride luckily!

The next week was spent trying to keep my HR down as for some reason it had been a little high. So this led me to decide on a relatively un-hilly long run for the end of the week, in the hope that I had just been overdoing it a little, and an easier run would help. Mind you i couldn't help wondering if the low HR training was all it was cracked up to be.
13 miles/ 23km later I actually thought that the slightly easier run for a change had helped. This was done with only Max and so later in the day we had to take Daisy for a walk as well so another 7km or so of walking was added to the weeks total. Given that I had picked the route for the earlier run I thought I would let Max choose which way we went on the heath (he does so love to choose) and he couldn't believe his luck and took us on an epic tour of the heath on a few paths we hadn't been on for a while!

Well the slight rest seemed to have done some good as the following week, although not involving particularly fast running, felt stronger than before, and I had a few good runs, ending the week with another reasonable length run and my second in the company of a faster runner, Neil, who is a member of a local 'anti' running club called 'the rebel scum', although calling it a 'club' is a against the ethos of the group and so perhaps the correct term should be 'running alliance' :-).

Neil was due to be running the Ox Marathon as well, and as his first Marathon no less along with a few other 'Scum' members! we both really needed to fit in another 16-18 miles, as 16 was as far as Neil had been up to then, but in the end, we only managed to jog just over half that (well I think Neil was just jogging and I was trying to keep up!) 

Rather nicely to round off April, comes my birthday, and with it a family party tradition dubbed 'POTY' (party of the year!) by a friend, which is a joint party for me, Kev, and my two daughters Hazel & Steph, as we all have birthdays around March/April. This has been a Fancy Dress affair for the last few years, the first years theme being Film Characters, then Music Artists, followed by Animation, and this years was Science Fiction, which actually proved to be the most difficult I thought, a thought which obviously was echoed by a lot of people as we had a full Enterprise bridge-worth of Star Trek costumes!

So next time on to May, with support for the NDVM, my best run for ages, an experiment on Long Run fuelling that got me told off, a most excellent 10 miler, nearly a new 10k PB, and the Ox Marathon report.

Shouting Larmer, Larmer, Larmer, Larmer. . .

Well I can't remember if March came in like a lion or went out like a lamb however there was certainly a 'llama' in the middle, but more of that later!

The month started with some pretty chilled running, the longest for the first couple of weeks being 13.5km right at the beginning. The nights were still closing in early but there was by then just enough smudgy daylight to enable me to start squeezing in evening runs offroad as long as I didn't mind a bit of headtorch action for the last 5 or 10 mins!
I was still trying to stick to a low heart rate as much as possible, however I did give the HR monitor a bit of a work out when we encountered a 'rogue' cow while on a short heath run.
Now as many people who know me know, I really am not happy when it comes to dealing with creatures of the bovine persuasion, they are big, heavy, and a bit simple. Regardless of people telling me they are 'harmless' I just cant get out of my head the image of a dirty great lump of beef with hooves on thundering towards you and not being able to stop!
Hence you can imagine my increase in HR when the dogs and I have to wind our way past the resident group of heath cows that are usually only visible in the distance, who have decided the best place for them to be is on a narrow path, between us and the gate no less. And the light is fading and I have stupidly forgotten to pick up my headtorch so I don't really want to retrace my steps in the dark!

I was nervous enough but then one of the cows decided to face us down. I shouted 'Shoo!' (yeah like that's gonna do anything. . .) The cow took a step towards us, then another (Heart Rate increasing rapidly). Max decided the best course of action was to take a wide detour through the heather and gorse and left me and Daisy to it.
Daisy was of course trembling and wanting me to pick her up, so together we made a pathetic nervous pair.
The cow seemed to have taken a particular dislike to one of us, and charged!. . . . . .
. . . . Well actually to be honest anyone watching would probably have seen it just take a couple of quick steps in our direction, but fear blows things up out of proportion!

In the end I managed to skirt round it by going up a bank and on the way past actually managing to slap it on the backside (brave for me!) with the hope it would make it run away from us. I didn't stop to find out and me and Daisy made a run for the gate where Max was waiting the other side looking at me like 'Stop mucking about mum, what kept you?'
Once through the gate I looked back only to find the cow had hardly moved in our direction, but was just watching us (with clearly evil intent of course!)

Yes, yes, I know, pretty pathetic isn't it but i really really really am scared of them (horses - same size animal - no problem bizarrely), consequently this run is recorded a tad over dramatically as 'when cows attack' :-)

So from Cows to Llamas, or indeed Larmers, as the 15th March brought the Larmer Tree Half Marathon. This was held in the picturesque Rushcombe Estate at Tollard Royal on the Dorset/Wiltshire border and organised by my old friends, White Star Running.
Kevin was due to be running the 'Lovestation' at this, due to the regular lady Karen being away, and so true to form had put his heart and soul into making it a good'un, from carefully making sure he had the right people to look after the runners, to carefully selecting the right underpants to go under his 'White Star' kilt! Yes the kilt was back as it had caused a quite a stir at the Giants Head, but this time he had a special corporate black one with an embroidered logo! 

The selection of distances on offer in the Larmer Tree Races were a half marathon, 20 miles, or a full marathon. The 20 miles was included because it would suit a lot of people in training for a later spring marathon.
As mentioned in the previous post, my weapon of choice was the half marathon, and I was intending to race it as best I could, just to see what i could do.

The Race HQ and Start area was located at the Larmer Tree Gardens and the lovely people there were trusting all us trail runners with their delightful pavilion and attached dining area.
One of my favourite pics of the day is of a host of expensive but muddy trail shoes arranged outside the door of the pavilion, as one after the other runners arrived at the door, took one look inside and politely but hurriedly took their shoes off before venturing in!

The course was pretty epic too, I don't know what the other 2 races were like but the half route was quite tough, with hills, farm tracks, woodland, muddy fields and small villages in equal quantity, and at one point coming within a few hundred yards of the finish which was quite evil to be so close and yet so far!

Kevin and the aforementioned Lovestation were situated within about 5-6 miles of the finish just after all 3 races converged; for the half he was at about 8 miles after a nasty hill.
I could hear runners ahead of me had got to him before I could see it. There was a lot of laughing, shrieking and general hubbub.

When I arrived I got a big hug, but of course I didn't need to see the pants as I had already had a preview! The Ladies of the Lovestation were resplendent in their bright pink hoodies. Clare, Ruth, Di and Karen were doing a great job looking after everyone, ably assisted by Jim and Steve. I didn't have a lot but the Bucks Fizz was quite nice thank you!
I think Kevin was in his element playing to the crowd and had gone critical at one stage, even showing his underwear to passing hikers. . . .

And if you are wondering what all the fuss was about, these are the offending pants, and they caused what ended up being 'photo of the race' (below) to be taken by Clare.

Flashing the runners - poor Carolyn doesn't look impressed!

Towards the end of the race there was a nasty muddy trek through a wooded section, I think the local hunt had been through the day before and churned up the paths for us, so some of the mud was ankle deep in places. All part of the trail running experience of course but so difficult to run in and extremely tiring, so I was glad to eventually see the Larmer Tree Gardens driveway again even though it was an uphill trek to the flag lined finish.

The quality of the hot food and amazing dining hall provided by the venue I'm sure were not things most runners were expecting, but nearly everyone took advantage especially as the weather was cold and windy, and a hot meal indoors was most welcome!
However, I had promised to fetch Max & Daisy from Kevin after I had finished so I ignored the hot meal, got changed, and took a short cut (about a mile and a half) across a field to the Lovestation (If i had known this was here on the way round I might have been tempted to take it!), picked up the pups, had a quick chat, and returned the way i had come, to see if Nic had arrived yet as she was sweeping the half.
I had only just got back for about 5 mins and Nic crossed the finish line. She went off to get some food and get changed, but meanwhile Mark Smith had completed the 20 miler and was wondering when his wife Karen was going to be finished helping on the Lovestation, especially when she had been up since 5am which is when Kev had collected her. I informed him of the shortcut thinking he would go on his own, but instead he insisted i accompany him as 'the walk would do me good'.
So, dragging the dogs back through the field of sheep we returned to the Lovestation, kidnapped Karen so she could go home, and returned to race HQ once more (thus completing a total of a 6 mile walk on top of racing the half, talk about a cool down!) where Nic was wondering where the hell i had got to!

Anyway, in the end I managed to complete the half in 2 hours and 28 mins, which i am very pleased about given the hills and seeing as my flat road half time is 2:16. All boding quite well for the end of June. . .





The remainder of March passed without incident (no more cows thank goodness!) with a few more low HR runs, but of course I cant finish without mentioning little Daisy's longest run up to then at the very end of March of a grand total of 13km (or 8 miles in old money), which considering she was only 6 and a half months is quite something. Clearly another running dog in the making!

next time - April brings more than showers, with 2 longer runs out of my comfort zone in the company of faster runners and a bit of film making with a little Poole parkrun video (but no races for a change!).