Guest post: Half marathon time trail

by Mollie Millington | Jun 16, 2021 | guest post, running

This week, we hear from my friend and neighbour, Matt.  He started running during lockdown with a David Goggin’s 4x4x48 challenge as his first challenge (read about the first 24 hour here and the last 24 hours here).  He has spent the last few month’s working on a half marathon PB as a competition between friends.  Everyone was to run a half marathon on the same day, but not on the same course.  Here, Matt shares what he learned during training and how the event went.

Running a half marathon PB

For 14 weeks I trained to run a PB for the half marathon. That being said, achieving a PB was not going to be too hard given that this was the first time I have properly trained for a race. I had run a couple of half marathons in the past, but only ever in long training runs (the first time I tried the distance, I paced myself to come in at just under 2 hours so that I could tick a sub-2 hour half off the list). I was excited to see what I could achieve when I committed to a goal.

On Saturday 29th May, with the help of a friend who had kindly offered to pace me, I ran a half marathon PB (TT) of 1 hour 42 mins and 18 seconds!

I missed both my A goal (1 hour 38 mins) and my B goal (1 hour 40 mins) but, all things considered, I was actually very pleased. Here are some of my reflections on the effort on the day, and on the training that came before it.

Training to a plan was great for accountability:

I have not always been a runner; I only really took it up a couple of years ago as part of an effort to lose weight. Until this training block, I had always just gone out to run 5k or 10k (or whatever distance Mollie had convinced me to tag along for) without a purpose or a goal. Some friends and I arranged our own virtual 5k TT during lockdown and I did a few intervals in preparation but didn’t follow a plan; I underperformed on that day and was extremely frustrated with myself! After that experience, I was determined to train properly for this half marathon so I signed up to a Garmin training plan that I could download to my watch.

Having the structure of being told what workout to do each day was a massive help and I made sure I didn’t miss a session. It actually made running way more fun because I knew what I had to achieve in each session and so I was never tempted to slack off when things got tough.

That being said, I followed the plan to the letter and I am not sure the latter weeks of the plan suited me perfectly. I felt that the plan switched from hard intervals, speed work and long runs to tempo/goal pace runs too early. Next time I will be in a better position to make my own decisions about the design of the plan and I will probably do a bit more mileage and have a bit less of a taper.

Easy runs to heart rate were a game changer:

For the entirety of the training block, the plan suggested my easy paced runs (including the weekend long run) should be between 5.16 – 5.54 p/km which at first, compared to my previous tactic of just going out and running at a moderate pace, felt pretty slow. As a result, I ran the easy paced runs and long runs at the start of my plan towards the top end of this pace interval. However, half way through the training, after reading more and more about running to heart rate, I decided to run these sessions to 130 bpm and forget about the pace.

This made a huge difference. Although I was able to run relatively comfortably at 5.16 p/km, when I slowed down a bit (to meet the 130 bpm goal) I recovered a lot quicker and felt less physically tired. This helped to go harder in the interval and speed work sessions; and within a few weeks, I was able to run at 5.20 p/km at 130 bpm.

Working full time and training is hard:

As I’ve already said, I stuck to my training plan religiously; but balancing training with a full time job is not straightforward. I work in the finance industry and regularly work 10-12 hours per day sat at a laptop. This means that it can be difficult to find the time to squeeze in three sessions of 40-75 minutes during the week. In the end, it took a combination of flexibility/opportunism (for example, being prepared to run at 9pm at night or squeezing in an intervals session between meetings) and a very understanding partner (who didn’t complain about having to do more than her fair share of cooking and household admin to allow me to get more running in).

Getting enough running in on top of work also impacted on my sleep. I often found that I was faced with a choice of getting enough sleep or having enough down time in the evening. Choosing to end the day with at least a couple of hours of television, or reading, meant that I regularly got a bit less than 7 hours sleep; and towards the end of the 14 week training block I really noticed I was feeling a bit fatigued.

Conditions are a huge factor in performance:

Between February and early May the weather in London was relatively cold, which meant that the vast majority of my training was undertaken in conditions between 3 – 12 degrees celsius. In these conditions, I had never had to think about the impact of heat and consequently had never tested my nutrition and hydration strategies outside of this range.

On race day the weather started at 16 degrees in the shade at 10.30am, rising to over 20 degrees by 12.30pm with close to 70% humidity. This was a lot hotter and humid than anything I had run in during the preceding 14 weeks – I had missed perfect conditions by 3 days. I considered changing the plan and setting off earlier to reduce the heat, but that would have meant throwing off my morning routine and running the risk of needing the bathroom mid-race.

Long story short, I kept to the originally planned timings and figured that I would deal with slightly hotter conditions. In hindsight, this was probably unwise. In training I had progressed to a point where I could comfortably run large intervals at race pace with a heart rate of between 150-160 bpm, however within a couple of kilometres of starting the race my heart rate had rocketed to over 160 bpm. Part of this could have been nerves, but I suspect a large part of it was the heat. And in the heat, I was never able to get my heart rate down again (my average heart rate over the race was 169 bpm).

When you think you are done, there is definitely more left to give:

After spiking my heart rate early in the race, after 9 km I felt much worse than I should have done. Until then I had been able to keep broadly to race pace (4.40 p/km) but I started to realise that I was unlikely to be able to maintain this for another 12 km. I asked my friend who was pacing me to take off 5 seconds p/km in the hope that if I was able to recover a little then I could make it up in the final few kms when I didn’t have to worry about preserving energy.

The course I had chosen was a 5.77 km loop through the Olympic park, along the canal, and around Hackney marshes. At the start of the fourth loop, I hit a wall. I had heard people talk about hitting a wall when running long distances, but I had never experienced it until then. Having run 17 km, with only 4 km to go, I suddenly felt like I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the end. My right hip was starting to hurt with every step, one of my abs was cramping, and mentally I wasn’t in a good place.

Even being so close to the finish, I started to think about the prospect of stepping off the course and conceding defeat. I’m really glad that my friend was pacing me, because one of my biggest thoughts to counter the negativity was that he had travelled across London to run for me (even carrying my water) and therefore I couldn’t let him down by stopping.

According to my Garmin/Strava, I managed to keep the pace at around 5.00 p/km for the next 2 kms; although in the moment I had lost all ability to think about anything other than the distance counting down (which seemed to take an age) and continuing to put one foot in front of the other. The second to last km was the slowest at 5 minutes 23 seconds but for all I knew it could have been 7 minutes – I was in that much pain! When it came to the final 200m I tried to pick up the pace or even sprint, but immediately my calves started to cramp up and I hobbled the last hundred metres before collapsing at the side of the path.

A combination of the heat and potentially not enough water meant that the last few km were harder than I had ever imagined, but I can safely say that I got absolutely everything out of my body. Whilst it wasn’t quite the time I was hoping for, I am pleased with the effort and I learned a lot of valuable lessons from both the training and the race itself.

It’s now time to spend a few weeks relaxing, focussing on some other sports such as cycling (without feeling guilty that it’s not on the training plan), and running just for fun; until I decide on my next challenge!

Guest post: Matt’s final 24

by Mollie Millington | Aug 18, 2020 | guest post, running

This is the last in my guest post series by my friend, Matt.  Lockdown inspired him to become a runner and he even ran an ultra for fun.  This is his account of the second half of his 4x4x48 challenge.

Run 7: Friday 26 June @ 8pm

Music: Deetron essential mix

Finally the heat had subsided a bit and I had some cloud cover to run in. I made the decision that I needed to slow down, so I set off with the aim of running at 6.00 per km. Yet again my pacing was awful and I kept seeing on my watch that I was running at 5.35 per km or even quicker. I felt good though and it took several kilometres for my quad to start tightening up again.

When I got home I made some proper food – salmon, potatoes and peas. I’d been existing mainly on hydration drinks, chocolate covered almonds, and protein bars for several hours at this point (apart from the rice for lunch). Maybe it wasn’t a good option, or maybe the day was just catching up with me, but I felt awful for a few hours. I’d caught the sun (despite applying suncream before every run) and my heart rate was definitely elevated.

We opened a door as the house was still very hot, and I added some ice to my water. I also tried to drink more hydration fluid in case I was low on calories or salt (it has 60g carbs in a 500ml bottle). At 11.30 it was time to start the routine again – foam roller, warm up, stretch then go.

Run 8: Saturday 27 June @ 12am

Music Deetron essential mix

Having been through such a rough patch between runs, I expected this one to be painful and set off again to target 6.00 per km. Unfortunately about 1km into the run my FitBit just switched itself off, but luckily I had decided to run the same route as run 3 and so I knew exactly where 4 miles ended.

Whilst it started off a bit tough, I actually got into the run and rolled along at somewhere around 5.45 per km pace. As I came into the final 800m I could hear the Deetron remix of Every Inch by George Fitzgerald (amazing tune) emerging in my headphones and it gave me a genuine lift. It was probably just psychological, but I actually felt quite strong running the last few hundred metres and felt like I was finishing the bad patch.

Same stretching routine when I got home, a quick shower, toast, peanut butter and jam, and off to bed hoping to get a couple of decent hours of sleep before the alarm at 3.30am.

Run 9: Saturday 27 June @ 4am

Music: Maceo Plex essential mix (2015)

The alarm was not a pleasant sound at 3.30am and again it felt like I had only had a few minutes sleep, however I think I must have slept pretty solidly from the moment my head hit the pillow. One of the most difficult parts about this challenge was having to be so purposeful about body preservation. It would be tempting to set an alarm for 3.55am and roll straight out of bed and start running, but I think I would have gotten to about run 4 with that approach before doing some long term damage. So same routine of foam roller, warm up and stretching before going out on the hour.

I was actually quite surprised at how good I felt on this run. This one more than any of the others I felt like I got into a groove and just churned it out. This came through in the stats for my pacing with every kilometres average pace within a few seconds of each other. This was the part where I felt I had to go to a different place mentally, not focussing on my body or the road ahead and just let my legs tick over. Average pace 5.35 per km.

When I got home I was looking forward to sleeping again. I drank another recovery shake and skipped the shower. It had been a lot cooler out on this run than any of the previous runs so my priority, after stretching, was to get to bed. Alarm set for 7.30am.

Run 10: Saturday 27 June @ 8am

Music: None

Mollie had offered to come running with me again and I was looking forward to having a pacer, however when I opened my front door Alex was there again in running gear with some cherries for me. So now I had two pacers!

I was getting a bit sick of running the same loops so Mollie suggested running to the Olympic Park and back which was a welcome change. We started at somewhere around 6.00 per km pace but got a bit quicker as I got into it a bit more. I was a lot less chatty than the last run with Mollie at 4am on Friday so I mainly followed her and Alex and just tried to keep the legs going.

All in all, not too bad. Average pace of 5.47 per km and the body was still holding up.

I doubted I would be able to sleep again so I just tried to eat something (granola, kiwi, nuts and seeds) and relax on the sofa.

Run 11: Saturday 27 June @ 12pm

Music: Maceo Plex essential mix (2015)

It was a bit of a struggle to get up off the sofa to start the warm up routine again. My body felt good but I wasn’t sure how much energy I would have. On balance I was probably lagging behind my nutrition plan at this point in terms of calories consumed but it was difficult to tell and I’d been snacking on chocolate covered almonds whenever I could.

There had been no need to worry because when I started running I felt pretty good. As per usual I set off too quickly and then tried to slow myself down a bit, however I also thought to myself that with only one run left after this one there comes a point where there’s not much running left to conserve energy for.

In the end I managed to keep a pretty even 5.25 per km pace. I was free styling a bit with the route towards the end of the run weaving up and down trails on Wanstead flats. Luckily I’ve spent many hours running these routes so it was relatively easy to ensure I ended somewhere not too far from the house.

I’d been meaning to watch the Dragon Back Race documentary, a 315km race across the spine of Wales with 15500m of ascent and the equivalent descent, for several weeks and this felt like as good a time as any. Inspiration for the final run!

Run 12: Saturday 27 June @ 4pm

Music: Maceo Plex essential mix (2018)

So the big question was how fast could I run the final 6.4km?! Having been so conscious of conserving energy for the best part of two days, as this was the last run I could completely empty the tank. In preparation, I made and drank a final high carb drink to make sure I had enough energy for a last push.

Just before I went out I wondered what music to choose, but since the last run went well I thought I’d keep it the same so I chose another Maceo Plex essential mix to propel me along.

I went pretty hard straight from the start and at 2km I was comfortably under 5.00 per km pace. In spite of the carb drink, energy levels were lagging a bit so it felt pretty unsustainable. When I’m trying to run fast I usually like to try to keep something in reserve and run the last bit hard but no such luxury in this situation.

The next 20 minutes can only be described as really painful! I tried to up the pace a few times but had no gear to go to so it was just a case of burying myself to keep the same pace going. Luckily I timed it reasonably well and only started to deteriorate in the last couple of hundred metres.

As I turned into my road, Mollie and Jess were outside the house and Mollie had a cowbell to welcome me home. It was such a great feeling to finish. 4x4x48 signed off with a sub 5.00 per km average split for Run 12!

Conclusion

When I agreed to try this challenge I did not know whether I would be able to finish it or not. I have run a lot over the last couple of years but mainly short distances (i.e. less than 10k) and whilst the challenge only requires you to run 6.4 km at a time, the total distance covered is pretty huge in 48 hours.

There were definitely some hard times. I think anyone that does the challenge will go through at least one bad patch, will suffer some stomach issues (eating and digesting enough calories every 4 hours is hard) and some muscle soreness. The weather was also a huge factor as it was so hot and humid in London during the challenge.

At the end of the day, however, the challenge is hard, but doable, and I think that anyone that runs 20k+ per week and isn’t too injury prone has a good chance to finish it. You just have to really WANT to finish it!

Final stats: 77.58 kilometres run in a total time of 7 hours 4 minutes and 7 seconds at an average pace of 5.28 per km.

Here is a breakdown of Matt’s runs from the challenge:

Guest post: Matt’s first 24 hours

by Mollie Millington | Aug 11, 2020 | guest post, running

Today we are back with Matt’s account of the first 24 hours of his 48 hour challenge.  You can read about his training for this 4x4x48 challenge here.  Come back next Tuesday to read how it all ended.

Run 1: Thursday 25 June @ 8pm

Music: None

First of 12 runs – it was 28 degrees at 8pm but other than it being too hot I felt pretty good. I knew that the key to finishing all 48 miles would be looking after my body so I spent 10 mins on the foam roller before warming up with the skipping rope and stretching before setting off.

Mollie, who had offered to run the first 4am run with me, came to say hi with Maple just before I left and I was joined on the first run by my friend Alex who was keen to be involved but just didn’t think that he could set aside the time to complete the whole challenge with a toddler and pregnant wife at home.

We kept it at a fairly relaxed 5.15 per km pace and chose a loop that had a lot of shade to try to stay out of the sun as much as possible. First run went smoothly but a long way to go.

Pasta with sausage, pesto and spinach and half a carb based hydration drink for dinner then relaxing on the sofa with Jess to wait for midnight and run number 2.

Run 2: Friday 26 June @ 12am

Music: Hot Since 82 essential mix

Same warm up routine but trying not to wake the neighbours with the skipping. As the only run slot that is fully in the dark, I had picked a loop that sticks to main roads but there are not many runners out at this time for good reason. The streets of Leytonstone are an interesting place to be at midnight and I felt very out of place with my head torch and compression leggings. Probably the reason that this was a fairly quick loop.

The actual running felt OK for most of the loop but I started to feel my right hamstring towards the end. 5.07 per km is probably too quick but I wasn’t complaining to be off the streets quickly, especially facing the prospect of a maximum of 2.5 hours sleep before the next one.

A decent stretch, a protein bar and as much water as I could force down in the 10 minutes it took to quickly ice my hamstring; then a very quick shower before bed by 1.10am.

Run 3: Friday 26 June @ 4am

Music: None

So this was where I learned how hard this challenge was going to be. It was very difficult to sleep straight away after returning from a run, especially when it was still 20 degrees outside, super humid and all I could think about was the fact that every second I was awake was time not spent sleeping. When the alarm went off at 3.30am I felt like I had managed only a few minutes of sleep.

Luckily, as I emerged from my house after the same warm up routine, Mollie was standing outside looking much fresher than I felt. Having company, and someone to pace me, was very welcome.

We ran down Forest Gate high street, up to Manor Park and back along the top of Wanstead flats. We kept a slower pace of 5.47 per km, which was good because it felt comfortable and exactly what I needed after the lack of sleep.

My hamstring felt better but I still iced it when I got back. I made some toast with the new Marmite Peanut Butter Crunchy (delicious) but was conscious not to eat too much as I wouldn’t be able to digest it properly before the next run. Back to bed to try to sleep again for a couple of hours.

Run 4: Friday 26 June @ 8am

Music: Hot Since 82 essential mix (continued)

Again, a combination of the running, the heat and the need to be asleep meant that I lay awake for quite a while before drifting off. I have no idea how much sleep I actually got, but it was little enough that my FitBit didn’t pick it up.

Toughest run yet, but then again you’d expect them to get progressively harder. Main issue was that it was so humid. It had rained between run 3 and run 4 and the ground was wet, so I avoided the trails through Wanstead Flats and mainly ran around the outside of the flats. I started to feel my quads tightening up a bit about halfway through this loop. I had hoped this wouldn’t happen until a bit later in the challenge but I knew I hadn’t really done enough long training runs to really avoid it.

After I finished my run I walked the 500m from where I’d finished back to the house and on the way passed my partner, Jess, going out for a morning walk around the flats before work. This perked me up a bit after a tough slog. Porridge with banana, honey and walnuts and time to relax on the sofa.

Run 5: Friday 26 June @ 12pm

Music: Arctic Lake

I managed to relax for an hour or so but didn’t want to stiffen up, so I wandered very slowly down to the bakery (250m away) to get coffee and some ice pops. The heat was still rising….this run was going to be really hot.

I drank some high carb hydration fluid before going out and set off at a steady pace. I was aiming for 5.45 per km but I couldn’t stop myself running at more like 5.20 per km! It feels counterintuitive to run slowly when all you are thinking about is the run being over. Same loop as Run 1 as it offers the most shade.

When I got back I made some rice with chicken and soy sauce and a water bottle with salt dissolved in it. I was very conscious of the amount of fluid I was losing on the runs so tried to replenish as best as possible.

I’d managed to rope my sister into coming on the next run, so she came round about 3pm and we sat in the garden. I sat in the shade and tried to move as little as possible but it wasn’t long before it was time to start warming up again. 4 hours comes around quickly!

Run 6: Friday 26 June @ 4pm

Music: None

I told my sister that we needed to be sensible and asked her to pace us at somewhere between 5.45 and 6.00 per km. My FitBit decided to glitch and showed a pace of 4.40 per km for the first 2 km which was clearly wrong, but luckily my sister’s apple watch was keeping more accurate time and distance. We ran the same route again to get some shade so by now I could tell you the exact finish point anyway.

She did a pretty good job of pacing and we averaged 5.42 per km. It was still incredibly hot though and my left quad started to tighten up a lot as we ran. We survived though and when we got back we decided to break out the ice pops I’d bought earlier as we sat in the shade in my garden.

Curious about how Matt stayed fueled during this challenge?  Here is his eating strategy:

Guest post: Lockdown running challenge

by Mollie Millington | Aug 4, 2020 | guest post, running

Lockdown has inspired many people to start running.  With the gyms closed, no team sports allowed, and lots of sunshine, many people took to their feet.  Running is one of the most accessible and affordable sports out there.  All you needs is a pair of shoes (not even these in some cultures) and to walk out your door.

One of the members of my local gym, Matt, used to spin with me but during lockdown, he started lifting more weights at home and invested in a Peloton bike (but that is another blog post).  He also started running.  Even before lockdown, Matt had started watching YouTube videos about ultras and learned the names of all the big runners (see below).  I kept joking with him that he was going to run an ultra soon, and he always denied it was going to happen.

And then it did.

Over the next three weeks, read about Matt’s first race experience- a 4x4x48 challenge.  He voluntarily ran four miles every four hours for 48 hours, totally 48 miles (he didn’t even want a medal for it).  In this series, Matt explains how he trained, and what happened on Day 1 and Day 2.

Prep work- 6 weeks out

For a couple of years, me and my friend Ben have been growing more inspired by endurance athletes. I am in awe of what some people can achieve; whether it’s Courtney Dauwalter winning the Moab 240 (238 mile race through the Moab desert), beating all of the men, or Jim Walmsley breaking the Western States 100 course record two years in a row or Zach Bitter running 100m in 11 hrs 19m (that’s an average pace of 6.48 per mile /4.14 per km).

Another who falls into that category is David Goggins; an ex-Navy seal, Delta Force, US ranger and ultra runner who has a reputation for being a savage. I have listened to several podcasts in which he talks about his approach to callusing his mind and pushing through pain – he is genuinely so inspiring. When the world entered lockdown due to Covid-19, he set everyone a challenge: run 4 miles, every 4 hours for 48 hours!

Ben immediately asked me if I wanted to give it a go, but on first thought I dismissed it straight away as being crazy. However, over the next two weeks I thought about it a bit more and started to convince myself that it could be doable. I was running four 5km runs per week and had been focusing more on trying to run fast but figured with 4.5 weeks training I could up the mileage a bit and give it a good go. So we took the plunge and set a date, 25 – 27 June.

Training

4.5 weeks didn’t feel that long to prepare and it was difficult to know the best way to approach it. There isn’t a lot of advice out there on how to train for such a specific challenge, so I decided to go with a combination of increased mileage (to prepare my legs for the total distance) and multiple shorter runs (to replicate the need to run every 4 hours). Broadly this was structured as 2 weeks of 10-12k runs, a week of 2 a day 6.5k runs, a triple and then just less than a week of rest.

Going from approximately 20k per week to almost 45k per week was probably too much, too quickly and as I trained for the challenge I started to feel a recurring soreness in my right hip. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was but it could have been some tendinitis. Regardless of what it was, I just hoped that when I rested for several days then it would sort itself out (which luckily it did).

I enjoyed the training and having something to train for made a really nice change to just exercising for the sake of it. Doing 2 a day 6.5k runs was not particularly difficult and even the day I ran three times wasn’t too difficult. What I learned was that it was going to be important to warm up properly and stretch to avoid injury.

Thanks again to Matt for sharing some of his story.  Check back next week for how Day 1 went.