I have the pleasure of working with Simon, a chap who has moved on from simply running marathons, in fact, it would seem that he is only content if the running races he now enters have the word ‘ultra’ in front of the word ‘run’ or ‘marathon’.
Simon has been a life-long runner who carefully considers every aspect of his training and fitness; he is the thinking man’s endurance athlete. When we speak about his sport, his knowledge clearly runs deep; those that run with him have an awesome resource to tap into. I have trained with Simon on several occasions, the last time we were on bikes; he beat me hands down at the finish. I blogged about this particular ride, there is a link at the bottom of this post.
Question 1
Can you outline your running career to date; is there a particular achievement that stands out?
‘You’ll wish you had never asked – I could bore for England at this stuff!
I used to like cross-country at school, because I would finish in the first half-dozen and I was crap at every other sport – I once got sent off in rugby for kicking the ball away every time it came near me. I was never naturally fast, but I used to go out running a couple of miles once a week with my Dad from the age of about 13 (he was like the Dad off The Fast Show, would outsprint me every single time) and I think I understood and liked the fact, even then, that this was a sport you could get better at by working at it. When I left school I did The People’s Marathon in Birmingham in 1981 (I was 19) off bugger all training in 4.05, that was the year of the first London, and then I was off, training all the miles I could. Within a year I’d done a 1.22 Half and then did the 82 London in 3.08. Again, this was all on volume, I was starting to get faster through running strength endurance and that’s the way I’ve always done it, I could never sprint. One of the beauties of running is that there are many ways to train successfully, you just have to find the way that suits you – it’s what the US marathoners of the 80’s used to call Experiment of One stuff – I am still a big believer in that, if you have been training for a couple of years or more and take the time to sit back and think about what kind of runner or cyclist you are (it applies to most endurance sports), then you will see what sort of training brings you gains and what invites injury, and you will be far better off working up your own schedule than blindly following something you’ve read in a magazine, or doing the same training as the guys at the track. If you can’t say why you are doing that session today, have another look at things – don’t do the same things that didn’t work for you before just because everyone else is doing them. Never be afraid to run against the herd, ha ha!
Anyway, at my quickest in 84/5 I did these times, and no, I don’t need to look any of them up – any regular runner who tells you they can’t remember their PBs is lying! – 10k 34.05, 10 miles 55.05, Half 1.15 several times, Marathon 2.44.50. One thing I remember vividly, in the 10 mile race, in Verwood, a group of five of us went through the first mile together in the lead strung across the road and we all looked at our watches as we hit the 1 mile marker in 5 minutes 5 seconds – everyone swore at the same time – winner did 52 and bits, I came fourth, we had all started a tad too fast! Nowadays, I can only dream of running that fast, but at the time, you didn’t think it was anything special, and I was often disappointed, having set very hard targets – that was the philosophy of the time in the sport, you just ate work in training and aimed high. It works too, you can get fast, particularly if you’re young, on hard work and lots of it, but watch out for stress fractures, they were everywhere back then, I had one in my left shin in ’83. But it is the appeal of the sport in a nutshell, work equals reward, it’s a fair equation, you don’t need flair, knack, hand-eye co-ordination or any of that stuff, talent is secondary to application in long distance running – 5 minute and bits mile pace is fast, sure, but it is a trainable speed for any able-bodied bloke in his twenties who doesn’t have a Gregg’s loyalty card, you just need to be able to buckle down and apply yourself – and keep plugging away, that’s the main thing, the improvement takes time. (One thing that makes me laugh, which you always see on the cover of running mags, is straplines like ‘the secret to your fastest marathon’, discover ‘the secret to a 10k pb’, etc., – the secret is there is no secret, work harder – get faster, it’s that simple, but the catch is simple doesn’t mean easy. Every long term runner or cyclist knows much of the satisfaction from a good performance derives from knowing the amount of effort you put into the training to achieve it – there’s no shortcut to any place worth going!).
The pace may slow as you get older, I am eyeballs out at 7 minute mile pace for a Half these days, but there is still a joy to be found in knowing you have trained hard and you can put yourself under pressure come raceday and be confident of being able to respond.’
Earlier this year, he took part in a double marathon, his first attempt at an ultra event. Before the race, we spent time talking through training and pacing strategies; I wasn’t adding any sage knowledge, I was just interested in the approach, especially the mental side of things. This was a distance beyond anything he had previously run but he managed it with aplomb finishing 2nd! And without too much damage.
Question 2
Simon, considering this was your first ‘ultra’, what were your considerations before entering the event and starting a training programme?
‘The Double Marathon in Kent was my second ultra, I’d done the Compton 40 in April. I’d ummed and ahhed and then entered Compton on the day, having done a lap of the two lap course a couple of weeks before to have a look – it’s hilly as, so that was a good move, to understand the severity of it beforehand. I was massively undertrained, so I set off literally at the back and jogged round the first lap, then came through a few second lap, slightly faster than the first, to end 29th of 119 in 6.48. I was pleased, mainly because I hadn’t ground to a halt. And I was encouraged by a very kind bloke who came 30th, 4 minutes behind me, and had followed me through from about 25 miles when I caught him – we then both passed about 15 more – he said after he was sure he would get me, that he always finished strongly, and he had done lots of ultras, so if it was my first one I must be suited to it and should do more, particularly as I was ‘an old git’, like him. That was a good dart. As Celeste Holm said, ‘We live by encouragement, and die without it – slowly, sadly, angrily.’ Little kindnesses like that abound in the ultra scene.
So anyway, I entered the Kent event in an optimistic frame of mind. I was much better trained and had looked up the time done by the 2013 winner, 8.36 for 52.4 miles – I wasn’t the only one to do this, it turned out! Very slightly under 10 minute miles, I wondered if I could do that, I was doing a lot of my long runs around that pace.
I had entered this event as a stepping stone to the Ridgeway 6 weeks later, which was 86 miles, so I picked it as an intermediate distance between the two. I’d had some knee pain after Compton for a couple of weeks, so was hoping that would be ok during the race – it had bugged me intermittently on long training recces for the Ridgeway. It hadn’t hit me at this stage that the common denominator between Compton and the Ridgeway recces, which was waking up my old knee injury, was steep downhill sections. Kent was flat. Come on down.
My longest training runs were about 4 and a half hours, I had a hilly 26 mile Ridgeway run which I did in around that time once a fortnight or so, it was out and back, and I’d run it faster coming back than going out. Weeks I didn’t do that big run, I would run to and from work 2 consecutive days at the start of the week, about 14 miles each way, so stacking 56 miles into two days, the rest of the work week I would jog 3 miles a day, the important bit was those two days, and particularly the second day, getting myself used to running when I was tired. My average weekly mileage around this time was about 75. None of my training at this time was fast, it was all slow stuff – that’s another thing of mine, specificity – if you look at the average pace in these races, it is slow, but they keep it up for hours, and after a few hours what started off as dead slow is suddenly steady and later on will become flying – train for how you’re going to race – I was trying to programme my body with a set pace of around 10 minute miles that it would ‘default’ to and realise, yes, this is the pace we run long. I eased down for 2 weeks before Kent, 3 miles a day for a week and a half, then nothing the last few days – this worked a dream for me.’
Question 3
What were the key points to your pacing strategy given you have never run this far before?
‘I read a lot of stuff online about going off fast and factoring in slowing down later, but I thought I’d be better suited to try and do it even pace. I like to try and let them go and come through them later in ultras, just do my own thing, it suits me that way, and I have done marathons in the past where I’ve tried to hold on to an under-pressure pace, then unravelled and it’s no fun, must be even less so in an ultra. So yeah, it was 8 laps of 6.55 miles, so I was aiming to be hitting around 65 minutes for each of the first couple of laps, ignore everyone else, then have a look.
What happened was this. Started off fine, there were 38 in it, the first half dozen took off like it was a half marathon, I was plodding round, way down but not bothered, first lap about bang on schedule, but major dump stop needed at the portaloo at the end of lap one – we’re talking 7 minutes, ha ha ha. So I felt better after, but was down on the plan. I did what I wasn’t going to do and started chasing the time back a bit, 2nd lap was closer to 9’s to get back on track. Then the die was cast really, so just carried on at a slightly slower pace, 3rd lap started passing a few, got to halfway, marathon, in 4.12, feeling ok, course was like a figure of eight mixture of road and off-road, so I could see the guy in the lead, miles clear, tanking along, unstoppable, but I wasn’t sure where I was overall. On the penultimate lap, still going ok, I caught a guy I hadn’t seen before, turned out he was in 2nd place. On the final lap, I crumbled a bit and paid for the pace variation earlier, but still closed out with a 4.21 marathon for 8.33 and 2nd, winner did a highly impressive 7.56. Not quite even pace for me, but it could have been, I was pleased.
Speaking to the guy who came 3rd afterwards, who I caught on the 7th lap, he went through halfway 5 minutes clear in 3.45, was aiming for 7.30, having looked up last year’s times – 2nd marathon took him 5.11. He mentioned he had done some 24 hour track races and his best was 120 miles. A small seed was planted!’
With the double marathon in the bag, his next event was a race along the length of the Ridgeway national trail, a mere matter of 86 miles. The numbers in terms of distance and time were getting serious now; there was also the question of uneven, sometimes seriously rutted, surfaces to contend with. Check out some of the links at the end of this post for some further information.
Question 4
Was there a marked change in your approach to training given the greater distance involved in the Ridgeway race?
‘No, just more of the same, but I did increase the overall weekly mileage to nearly 100 miles at the heaviest point. I had recce’d all the stages of the Ridgeway, particularly the bits I would be running in the dark with a headtorch. I still ended up getting lost for 15 minutes on the section I had run the most! Things look different in the dark, particularly when you’re knackered and not thinking straight – it’s all learning!’
Question 5
How do you mentally prepare for being on a course, practically alone, for 19+ hours? What are your coping strategies when things get tough?
‘Well, a few things! First off, I think you have to quite like being out on your own to be suited to ultras, I’m fine with it as long as I don’t get lost! That’s why the recces are important, they give you confidence, if you know where the tricky turns are. I am rubbish at navigating, so on a point-to-point course I like to get all my route mistakes out of the way in training – nearly managed it!
Secondly, what you’re trying to do is anticipate everything you can that could come up on the day. So I had run all of the course, bits of it in blistering heat, bits in torrential rain, and that was very useful, to know the difference for me – for instance, I am more liable to get blisters in hot weather than rain on that terrain after 3 or 4 hours – that’s the kind of stuff you don’t know unless you get out and rehearse it. Once you know it, it’s on your side and you stack the odds slightly in your favour for goal one, finishing the thing. In extreme distance events, you don’t want to be stood on the start line wishing you’d done this or that, you want to be thinking you’ve prepared as well as you can, so little things like that count big-time, mentally.
Thirdly, and linked to the last one, you’re rehearsing things like taking salt tablets, food and drink, whilst running long, discovering what various things do to your digestion, what the backpack feels like after 2 hours, how much heavier it feels after 4 hours, deciding how heavy you want it for 19 hours based on that etc., finding out where you chafe in hot weather or rain after a long time on your feet, and so on. Again, this helps, so at gun time you’re confident in your kit, one less thing to worry about.
Lastly, and most importantly for race purposes, once you’ve done all the prep above and the actual physical training, is training yourself mentally for how to respond to things during the event. Some people call it visualisation – I call it rehearsing how you’re going to think. I’d read a few things online about how important a positive, sanguine disposition is during an ultra, and that it was key not to let minor setbacks irritate or annoy you (because you’ll encounter loads of them) and this is the biggie for anyone who is thinking of doing one. It’s massive. You have mental peaks and troughs in these races and you have to train your mind to accept these, not get carried away when you feel good, not panic when you feel bad, but know the down times will pass, and keep on with the RFM – relentless forward motion. So, in long runs, I am constantly thinking the way I would in an event, going through an internal checklist of how I feel head to toe, noting anything that doesn’t feel great and then rechecking it later, I do a thing where I think I’m running with a silent footfall, I do a spine to navel thought process which fires a posture check (the fancy name for these is proprioceptive cues!), I do a head up and loose/shoulders down and relaxed thing etc.. Then in the second half of long runs I’m almost always telling myself (not out loud!) that I’m in a race, I’m finishing strongly and this is my territory, this is what I’ve trained for, I will often imagine I’m catching people, maybe I have got the longtime leader in sight, that kind of thing. What you’re actually doing with all this sort of stuff, which I love, is imprinting how to react mentally on raceday and reinforcing your own confidence in your ability to meet your goals. Oh, and it’s good fun too, it makes you feel great! It’s like a grown-up version of singing into a toothbrush in front of the bathroom mirror when you were a kid – what, just me again?!
I was optimistic before the Ridgeway race, had trained well and felt I knew the course. I was fairly confident of taking time off people on the back half of the course and I did to a point, but as it turned out I underestimated the impact the numerous steep descents in the first half would have on my knee and how that would stop me in my tracks a bit later. I ended up walking large sections from 60 to 80 miles, where I had thought I would be running the majority of it, but my knee was gone from about 6 hours in, so although it wasn’t a bad performance, I was disappointed – I had aimed to do a faster time. I did find out once and for all that hilly ultras don’t suit me though! I learned a few things for future events.’
I was able to provide a small amount of support when I arranged to be at the 54 mile check point, I blogged about this and have included the link below. It was 10:30pm, very dark and very cold, as I went home to a warm bed, Simon still had 32 miles to run, it beggars belief. I needn’t have worried, he finished 15th but suffered a lot of knee pain afterwards. The race was on to recover for the next ultra event.
So, 86 miles is a long way, right, well no, actually it isn’t. Bring on the Really Big Race now! The Sri Chinmoy Self Transcendence 24 Hour Track race at Tooting Bec. The rules are simple, run as far as you can in 24 hours, biggest distance wins. This race takes place on a 400m track, runners change direction every 4 hours and simply keep going.
The end game was 122 miles in 24 hours finishing 5th in an international field. Again, much knee pain to be had but a massive sense of achievement to mitigate it. It’s an unbelievable distance, riding that on a bike is not easy let alone running the whole way. Simon has put together an excellent blog describing the race, a brilliant resource for those considering this kind of race.
Question 6
What do you find more satisfying, working to a plan to get through an event or getting a good placing?
‘For me, unless you’re an elite (and I’m definitely not, I’m essentially an average runner suited to extreme events) the way to go is to have a plan to go with an approximate pace, or to run for so long, walk for so long, and stick with that – if that ends up getting you a placing you’re happy with, great. I like to have an idea of how I’m going to start off pace-wise, and how I’d like to maintain that ideally, but I don’t like to have hard targets in terms of finish times/distances (or certainly not to broadcast them!), because lots of things can happen in ultras and the best-laid plans can go out the window early, then if your shit-or-bust target isn’t doable, it’s a hell of a long way home to think about your failure! So I will probably have a Plan A, B and C! Bottom line for me is finishing – if I can finish an ultra on a very bad day, I can still salvage something from the experience. (Having said that, I can see the perspective of some ultrarunners who would rather drop from an event which is going badly, and save themselves for another day. Wouldn’t work for me, but I can see the logic for some. People are different!)’
Question 7
What is your main goal for 2015 given the successes of this year?
‘Looking at this year overall, I had two decent performances, Kent 52.4 and Tooting 24 hour – both were flat, and I can see far greater potential for me to improve at the longer event.
Bearing that in mind, my main aim for next year is to go back to Tooting in September and try to run further – I have a few ideas about how to do that and I’m very excited about finding an event, 24 hour racing, I could get quite good at in my fifties. What a corker.
Along the way, I’m going to pick up the Thames Path 100 at the beginning of May, which is nice and flat, and I might try out my run/walk Tooting plan there and get an idea of how feasible it is and how fit I am at that stage. Depending how I come out of the TP100, I may do Endure 24 6 weeks after.
I’ve just started the winter training a few weeks ago, ticking over at about 60 miles a week at the moment – the plan is to get to the end of January with 70 miles a week being a penalty kick, then start to build. Game on!’
If you are interested to find out more, these blogs may be of interest, especially Simon’s descriptions of the races, particularly good for those wishing to enter these sort of events!
Related posts/blogs:
My blog describing a bit of bike training with Simon http://www.phil-cox.net/time-off-work-this-week/
For more of Simon’s comments and further information about the Ridgeway race, please click https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/simonsmithrunner/posts/258124227730237?pnref=story
My blog about the Ridgeway race http://www.phil-cox.net/the-ridgeway-challenge-august-bank-holiday-2014/
Simon’s blog describing his 24 hour track race at Tooting Beck http://51runner.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/power-to-people.html
Further reading…..
If you liked this blog please take a moment to check out my book describing the solo Land’s End to John O’Groats ride in 2012, all profit from sales to www.criduchat.org.uk
Please click the cover image for the Kindle version or click here to order a paperback copy. Thank you!
