6th September: The Change-Up

In the UK we may not have the same scale of scenery and the heights of the Alps to put on our own UTMB, nor do we have the established routes of North America to hold our own Leadville, Western States, Vermont or Wasatch ‘Grand Slam’. What we do have are our own equally challenging races in the remoter and more beautiful parts of the British Isles.

One of these races is the Lakeland 100 which has built a reputation as one of the tougher events on the British trail-running calendar. Similar to the UTMB, where you can run parts of the course as separate ‘junior’ races, the Lakeland 100 has a sister race where you take-on the second half of the course: the aptly named Lakeland 50. Tickets went on sale for the 2016 edition of the 100 & 50 races at 9am on September 1st, with 400 places up for grabs in the 100 and 650 in the 50.

When 8:59 ticked-over to 9am, the British ultra-running community descended into paroxysms of mouse double-clicking and refresh button bashing as they attempted to gain entry in to one of the most sought-after events on the calendar, an event that when the entries opened last year it sold-out in a mere 19 minutes!

I have to confess, I was one of those sitting by my computer screen come the appointed hour… And somehow managed to squeeze-in as one of the lucky few who bagged their place inside the SIX MINUTES that it took to sell-out this year!

Dear god, if that’s not a sign as to how sought-after an entry to these two races are, then I don’t know what is. The 100 mile course is certainly a tough one with the organisers advising of a 50-60% failure rate and of those drop-outs, 80-90% of them are before they have even reached the halfway point!.. It appears its as tough a race to enter as it is to finish, yet this certainly has not deterred the number of people wanting to take-on the challenge.

The Lakeland 100 Route (Start/ Finish in Coniston).

The 50 is used by the organisers as a stepping stone to qualify entry into the 100, whereby you need to have finished the race inside of 16 hours to earn the right to submit an entry to the running of the 100. This must now be my minimal target for the race as there is no guarantee that I’ll be lucky enough again to gain an entry to go for a sub 16 hour time if I fail this time.

The Lakeland 50 route that I'll be running.

Now I’m entered I really need to be in the right shape to deserve my place on that start-line next July, in what is safe to say will be my toughest challenge yet!. I found the 30 mile Peak Skyrace to be the hardest event I have completed so far, even though I have gone further, however this was a good wake-up as the route is akin to that of the 50, at half the cumulative ascent and just over half the distance. I finished this in just over the 8 hours having faded quite badly in the last section, so I know I need to be in a condition to go double the distance at the same rate and will need to change-up my training accordingly!.. I need to make that start-line come July in the best possible condition to face the challenge, which will mean the best shape I have ever been in my life; the life of a 39 year old fat-bloke!

Aside from my continual running of trail marathons, which will be training for the 50 in themselves, I will need to take on more hills during my normal training routes which will require a rethink.

Where I live, the immediate area is pretty flat, and my normal training run for years has been a 10k from home to the canal, along the tow-path then back to the village - with the route 90% on trail… The problem with this route is it is flat, pancake flat, so I need to remove myself from my comfort zone and in to something that involves hills.

Fortunately there is one small (especially by the standards of what I have run) hill just outside the village, so from now on I will be running up this on every run that I go on… And better still the ascent is a Strava segment so I can easily monitor my progress on this.

Once up the hill all the way back to the village is undulation, so your continually changing from up and down over the last few miles. This route, with the flat canal section at the start to act as a warm-up works out at 10.5 miles as opposed to the 7 I was running before, so this will make me run further than I previously was by 50% each run, with the hard part of the course starting with that climb at mile 7. By doing this I will have a cumulative ascent of 350ft over the 10 miles as opposed to the 50 over 7 that I am used to. Ok, the route will now be 25% road, but beggars can’t be choosers, especially when this is the only hill around the village… It also means that rather than the mere 75ft of ascent per run, it will be upped to 350ft.

I think I will also need to be paying more visits to Hawley Woods and Caesar’s Camp for hill work in those more challenging locations over the coming months, although its a bit of a pain in the arse having to drive somewhere just to run. At least my start-point at Hawley Woods is next to a sports centre so I could cycle the 10 miles there, run the route and cycle the 10 miles back afterwards.

All of these are really just thoughts at present, but I realise there’s a definite NEED to be upping my training mileage and the quality of those miles if I am to stand a realistic chance of hitting that 16 hour target next July.

Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.