Cuboid problem

I've been getting some pain in my left foot since a little while before the marathon, and its been getting worse.  Basically its a soreness on the outside edge of my left foot, just behind that sticky out bit, about half way along and it happens as I push off when running and, to a lesser extent when walking.

So last week I decided it was bad enough that I would have to see someone about it and booked into the RunRight podiatry clinic in Helston.  The podiatrist, Steve Bloor, came to fame last year when Tesco's staff refused to let him walk barefoot in the store (see here).

Anyway, I was quickly diagnosed with a stuck Cuboid.  Some manipulation and things seemed to improve almost immediately.  Steve carried out some gait analysis and basically gave me a full MOT from the waist down.  Being interested in barefoot running it was great to chat with someone who knows their stuff and could give credence to some of the ideals I am starting to adhere to.

I was especially pleased to have someone look at my gait and tell me I'm doing it right.  Basically I'm running mid foot now and have found, after a fairly long transition from heel striking, that it had all come together; but its always good to have someone else give the thumbs up.

So that afternoon, feeling liberated from my annoying pain (though, if I'm honest, a little tender from the manipulation) I thought I'd go for a run.  I dropped Bronwen off at Brownies in Hayle and headed out for a run I am very familiar with - across the dunes to Gwithian and back, a total of 8 miles, which gets me back just in time to pick up Bron at the end of Brownies.  For the first 4 miles I felt great; after that, not so much.  Rapidly feeling the returning pain increase I opted for running back along the beach rather than the dunes. By the time I got back I was really sore.

D'oh.  Should have rested up for a day I think.  Saturday came and went and there was no way I was running.  No improvement on Sunday either.  By Tuesday morning I was back to where I had started on Friday.  I called Steve and got booked in for a second visit.  He advised me I might benefit from an orthotic, which was really something I had hoped to avoid as it felt like a retrograde step; having just spent a year working down to as little shoe as possible the idea of orthotics just seemed wrong.  Still, if Steve, being a man who spends most of every day barefoot or in very minimal shoes, thinks its the way to go then I guess I have to give it a try.  Its not a permanent solution though, just something to help me recover.

I also got a spiky ball and instruction on how to exercise my foot and build up the strength to prevent this kind of thing recurring.  Since Tuesday I've run a couple of times and I'm still getting a bit of soreness so am staying below 6 miles but I think things are slowly improving.  Its frustrating though, I should be back up to some pretty high mileage weeks by now and I'm not very good at taking it easy.  

Lessons learned from my first marathon

Its nearly two weeks since I ran the Duchy Marathon so I've had a bit of time to mull over how it all went.  The truth is it wasn't as bad as it could have been but it certainly could have gone better.  

Here's a few things I learned along the way:

1. Eating everything in sight for three days before your race is your reward for all the hard work you have put in. You are duty bound to make the most of it.

2. If you think you might have time for another quick trip to the toilet then you probably have.

3. When the race starts near a local supermarket there is at least one more public toilet available than you think.  This can be handy when considering point 2.

4. Switch your Garmin on before you think you need to.

5. When people say "start slow, finish strong" you should probably listen.

6. When people you overtook in the early part of the race come past you near the end, refer to point 5.

7. There is almost always a way of maintaining forward motion when you start to get a cramp.

8. Sometimes when you get a cramp you really can't keep running.

9. Bending over to stretch out a cramp after several hours of running can have strange effects on your sense of balance.

10. Just because you spent the last hour dreaming of the free pasty on offer at the finish line doesn't mean you will be able to eat it when you get there.

11. Beer goes down much easier than Cornish Pasties after running a marathon.

12. Have a goal time and stick to it.  Have a couple of backup goals you'd be happy with though, just in case.

13. Even though its just a little bit of chafing, bath water will make you feel like you just spilt acid on your genitals.  You have been warned.

The Duchy Marathon

Looking like a prize dork at the start

This weekend I entered my first marathon.

The Duchy Marathon, organized by Cornwall Athletic Club, is in its 37th year.  There have been a few different courses over the years but the current one starts and finishes at the Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth. First heading to Pool the route follows a two lap circuit taking in Illogan, joining the coast road just West of Portreath and heading along North Cliffs before returning to Pool along scenic country lanes.  A final stretch skirts round Redruth and finishes back at the hotel.

The forecast was for a cold, overcast but dry day and that is what we got.  Saturday was very still but an easterly breeze had picked up overnight; oh well, can't have everything.

The Penventon is a fairly luxurious place to start a marathon and we arrived in good time to pick up our numbers.  A few bedrooms had been assigned as changing rooms and both these and the toilets were soon sporting large queues.

As the minutes ticked on we gathered in the car park, ready for the start.  I stupidly forgot to set my Garmin to locate and was still waiting for satellite reception when the gun went off and we all piled out onto the road.

With easterlies blowing the first few miles were fairly sheltered and the run along North Cliffs was very pleasant, easy really.  As soon as we turned back however, we got a sharp blast in the face for a mile or so until the country lanes gave us some shelter further inland.  There is a big hill at mile 10 (and 22) which was not entirely welcome but soon fell behind us.  

On lap two everything was going well until about 18 miles in when I got a sudden cramp in my right thigh.  I managed to stretch it out and got going again but from there on in my pace began to slow.  I crossed the line in 4 hours 13 minutes.  Not too bad for a first timer; I was happy with that.  

Chocolate, bananas and pasties were all provided at the finish, as well as a very attractive medal.  I'd been looking forward to the pasty for miles, but when it came to it I couldn't face it.  The pint of Tribute in the hotel bar seemed to slip down OK though.

A special word has to go to the Marshalls and Army (cadets?) helpers.  Throughout the race they were friendly, helpful and encouraging, despite the biting winds which must have left them frozen to the bone. 

You won't see crowds of supporters lining the streets at the Duchy and most of the entrants are club runners so don't be too surprised if the average times are somewhat faster than is usual for a big city marathon.  That said, if you are looking to set a fast time then this is also probably not the flattest and certainly not the most sheltered course you could choose from.  But it is a well organised event in a beautiful location and well worth a look.  I'll certainly be back.

Carb loading adventures

This weekend I have mostly been eating carbs.

I've tried to load up on carbs for two to three days leading up to long races previously and it definitely works.  Having read this excellent article from Run your BQ though, I suspected I wasn't eating quite enough. 

Essentially, in order to maximise glycogen stores, you should aim to eat 7-10 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of bodyweight each day.  For me that is something between 540 and 780 grams of carbs; a massive amount of food!

Generally speaking, having carte blanche to eat everything in sight for a few days with no sense of remorse is about as good as it gets. Its a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

It can be a bloody pain in the arse though trying to sum up everything you are eating and its tempting to refuse to eat anything that doesn't have a clearly printed label on it somewhere. Thankfully our friend the internet helps fill in the blanks and I now know that an apple contains about 22 grams of carbohydrate whereas an egg has less than 1 (try carb-counter.net as your starter for 10).

Clearly man cannot live on apples alone since I'd need to eat 20 a day to hit my goal!

Bread, pasta, rice & potatoes is mainly where its at. However even pasta is only 75% carbohydrate so unless you want to eat the best part of a kilogram of spagetti then some good old dirty sweet food, and drink, is going to be required.  In fact drink is very important; its almost impossible to consume this many carbs without drinking a fair bit of it.  

Here comes another lesson learned: the free Cadbury's hot chocolate at work is much harder to consume in quantity than Sprite.  In fact the hot chocolate made me feel pretty sick, but I drank a litre of sprite over the course of the day and hardly noticed myself doing it.  A litre of sprite contains 100 grams of sugar! DON'T FEED THIS SHIT TO YOUR KIDS.  I seriously think these kind of drinks might be worse than crack.  

Anyway here's what yesterday's menu consisted of. All in all this adds up to a whopping 541 grams:
                                                         

Beetroot juice 250ml	22
Large bowl Muesli	90
Toast and honey – 2 slices	25
2 apples	44
1 banana	24
2 satsumas	18
1 litre sprite	100
scambled eggs and 2 slices toast	25
boost	34
ma bakers banana flapjack	54
1/2 baked potato with cheese and butter	15
Vegetables (toms, brocoli, cabbage)	15
Spinach & Ricotta stuffed pasta with pesto	52
cadbury mini roll	15
1 glass red wine	8

Endurance Life Coastal Trail Series - South Devon

The South Devon leg of the Endurance Life Coastal Trail Series is, according to their website, where it all began.  It is for me too, since last year this was the first time I had entered a race.  I ran the 10k, actually 7.4 miles, and it was hard; but not too hard apparently since I felt compelled to enter increasingly longer races throughout the year.  Of course "race" is a misnomer since I never have any illusions about winning, but its good to have something to aim for.

Anyway this year I was running the 1/2 marathon.

After many weeks of heavy rain the news came that the car parking would be limited at Beesands and we were forced to park at Torcross, about a mile away.  This, combined with some poor route-finding on the way, meant we were running late.  Luckily everyone else was in the same boat and the start was delayed to accommodate us.

As with Dorset in December, there was no mass start and we filed across the line in twos and threes, dibbing our timer chips as we set off.  Stupidly I shot out like a startled pigeon and, unable to learn from lessons past, I was paying for my early pace by the end of the second mile.

The early part of the course was actually not too bad; a couple of long climbs separated by an inconvenient dash across a pebble beach and a fast open descent past the lighthouse at Start Point. After this the path winds up and down along the coast for a mile or so until our detour - landslides had necessitated a course change. Turning inland we ran deceptively easily along the side of a valley until being presented with a monster of a hill.  From here it got really muddy, I fell once rounding a corner on the side of the hill and watched another runner impressively go head over heels and continue almost without breaking stride!

Fields soon gave way to some fairly technical rock hopping as we returned to the coast path.  After another mile or so we turned inland again, climbed steeply and arrived at a checkpoint, and the turnaround.

By now we were about eight miles in and I had recovered from my earlier enthusiasm and felt into my stride.  The next few miles we partly retraced our steps before hitting the road for a little while.  As we turned back onto the trail I realised I recognised where we were from last year's 10k; this allowed me to increase my pace a little, confident I wasn't going to blow it before the end. As it was I still had some left for a little sprint finish which goes to show I wasn't trying hard enough!

Another well organised event from Endurance Life in the bag, there was little more to do than head to the pub for a quick pint and get on our way. On the way back to the car we followed the lead of some other runners and spent a few minutes up to our waists in the seas soaking our aching feet and washing the Devon mud from our legs.  

As we changed at the car, several marathon runners were still plodding past in various states of distress; maybe next year?

Alpkit Gamma headtorch review

Long runs take up a lot of time.  With a young family it can be difficult to fit them in without some early starts.  During the winter that means getting out before the sun comes up.  This makes a headtorch essential.  I use the Alpkit Gamma.  At £15 it is one of the cheapest offerings available and, for a number of reasons, I think it makes a very good choice for a runner.

I’ve known about Alpkit for a while, I have one of their bouldering mats and a few other bits of kit.  I suspect for many though that Alpkit may well have slipped under the radar.  Their product range consists of camping, climbing and biking kit and is designed and produced by people with a love of the mountains and a desire to produce no nonsense gear that will stand up to the rigours of anything from an extreme expedition to a summer camping trip with the kids.  What really stands out though is that, for all its great quality, the cost is usually well below what you would expect elsewhere.  This appears to be achieved by a largely internet based sales and distribution model and short production runs which can sometimes mean a wait for some products to come into stock. Those in the know get on the mailing list and order early to avoid disappointment!

So on to the torch.  The Gamma has a single large LED and three smaller ones at the front, plus a red LED strip mounted to the rear on the battery pack.  The main LED is 1W and its output is stated as 88 Lumens.  This is more than adequate for lighting up the road or trail ahead.   In addition the front light can be angled which is useful for a variety of terrain.  I tend to point the light well ahead on the road and just in front of my feet when running off road.

The three small LEDs are white, red and green, respectively.  The white one is perfect for reading your book outside the tent.  The red is intended to allow night vision to be retained while giving some illumination and the green apparently aids map reading (green shows up the red contours whereas red makes them disappear).

A single button on the front controls all the functions for these lights; pressing and holding the button switches between the large and small LEDs, pressing repeatedly switches function.  For the large LED you get a choice of full power, low power and flashing; with the small LEDs you can select each colour in turn, plus there is a red flashing option.  The same button switches the torch off. 

At the back of the torch is the battery compartment, which takes two AAA batteries.  This leads me to my only real gripe with the Gamma.  Alpkit do not advise using anything other than Alkaline batteries.  This is apparently due to lithium batteries operating at a higher temperature which can damage the circuitry.


The torch is rated as water resistant and I’ve been out in some pretty awful weather and never had a problem with it on that count.
Finally, on the battery compartment is a red LED, which is operated by a button in the same way as the front unit; one click for a steady light, another for a flashing one. I tend to set this to flashing if I’m on the road just to let people know I’m there.  

That's it really.  A good bit of kit at an excellent price and equally at home camping, walking the dog or running trails in the early hours.

Trail report: Coast to coast on the mineral tramway

We wanted to complete a long run at a steady, consistent pace this weekend as part of the build up to the Duchy Marathon, so chose to leave the coast path and instead take the Mineral Tramway from Devoran to Portreath and back. 

This route, popular with cyclists, follows the old mining tramways used to transport copper ore from the rich seams around Redruth to the ports at Portreath on the north coast and Devoran on the south.  From here the ore was shipped to Swansea for smelting with the returning vessels bringing coal back into the county.

Overall the ascent is about 400 feet, but spread over 5 miles or so it’s not too noticeable.  Although most of the route is off road, nowhere is it in any way technical, mostly being on well maintained level paths.

It’s surprising to realise that the county can be crossed so easily and without much apparent change in elevation.  The first few miles follow the path of the Carnon River and pass numerous mining remains.  Scorrier is the highest point of the route, after which the trail descends gradually through farmland and wooded valleys before finally arriving back at sea level at Portreath.

If you have a car at each end then a one way trip is a pleasant 11 miles or you can do the whole thing there and back; of course on the way back all those little changes in elevation become more noticeable as fatigue increases, but at least the last few miles will be downhill.  It’s also worth noting that this is a popular route (did I mention cyclists?), in summer it’s likely to be pretty congested.