Race Report and other stuff......

The race report, for any that haven't seen it and were wondering what TOAH was on about......

Race Report Day 1: 29.3 miles along the flat Grantham canal. Plan was to run at 10 min/mile pace, eat & drink well, keep Mr H company and finish. Mr H was ill with a virus, so I was down to 3 targets. By checkpoint 3, at 15mile, I had foolishly forgotten to eat & drink well, but was happy to arrive in 2hrs 25m. 2 down 2 to go......, additionally, having surpassed my longest training run of the year by the halfway stage, my legs decided they didn't want to function. So, miles 15-21 took a little under 2hrs wich put paid to another of my targets, which left me with 'to finish'. After another hour and some, I crossed the finish line in Grantham and thought, hey Meatloaf... 1 out of 4 ain't bad. The remainder of the day was spent walking around (much like the last 10 miles of the Ultra), eating & drinking (totally unlike any of the Ultra) and watching Alice in Wonderland in 3D.

Race Report Day 2: Woke up at 0630, stretched walked about a bit, felt soreness in right achilles, decided that whilst I'd be able to start the 2nd 29.3 miles, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish it, so decided to withdraw. 1 Ultra is blaggable, a 2nd in 2 days probably is as well, but I've bigger races to prepare for, the risk was too great. Went back to bed.

So there we have it.

So... yes, nutrition, very important. Had a quick look at my Garmin which recorded the 1st day of the race (but not the 2nd, obviously! (see above for reason)), and apparently, I used over 3000 calories during the run. Now, the generally agreed calorific intake for a male is 2500 calories per day, and that's before taking into account the exercise. Using the frequently used, and highly accurate guess-o-meter: pasta meal Friday night 600cal, porridge 400cal, 1lt SiS PSP22, 2 energy gels, 4 mini mars bars and a bottle of coke probably doesn't equate to the 3000cal deficit. In fact it might be hard pressed to get close to the 2500cals needed to sit on a couch!

Lesson learnt (again) or maybe not.. it's been suggested that, since I'm rubbish at remembering to fuel correctly, and since I get distracted easi-oh look a rabbit; bring forth the holy hand grenade of Antioch. And the Lord did grin and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats and large chu - I shall be adopting a Pavlov's dog style of nutrition training; my ever faithful stopwatch will now beep every 20 minutes which should be the cue for me to take on some nutrition. As some Bare Naked Ladies once sang so eloquently, ring a bell and I'll salivate. Woof!

So, Rhyader beckons, and TOAH will be available to keep me on the straight and narrow (unless it's a corner), just like an arrow....

Till next time, pop pickers

Do you have a Flag?

Atomic Hamster

Antibiotics or Death?

I'll take the Antibiotics please.....

As the 1st training weekend for Atomic Hamster beckons, it is with regret to inform our fellow followers that one of us may not be fit to compete. It's always tough to take the decision to withdraw from a race; there's the time and energy committed to the training, the fear of 'letting your team-mate down' and that nagging doubt that perhaps you're not really that ill and that maybe you should HTFU. But when all things are considered (sleepness nights, blocked sinus, fatigue etc) then the obvious choice is not to compete. There will be more races, more training weekends and the ultimate goal of an 8 day A-race in September.

So, one of the 2-man tag team will be wandering aimlessly along the canal in Lincolnshire, admiring the rolling landscape and the speed of the other competitors, and wondering if there's a better way to spend the 1st weekend in March. The other team member will be taking pills and aiming for a full recovery in time for the Rhyader 20 in a couple of weeks.

Race report to follow.........

They gave me a name, I was called Grrrrrr

Atomic Hamster

Transalpine Run 2010, the start.......

Blog, day 1.

My co-runner, Mr Crash Hamster, and I have entered the 2010 Goretex Transalpine Run. We're still trying to come up with a valid reason as to why we've entered it; suffice it to say the best so far is 'because we can'. Our sporting (sic) background is as follows:

ATOM: 3x Ironman, 7x Marathon, 1x Ultra, and some smaller races as well.

Crash Hamster: 4x Ironman, 9x Marathon, 3x Ultra, and some smaller races as well.

We are members of the Pirate Ship of Fools and, when not out 'training', can be found in the forums of Runnersworld.

No doubt between now and race day, we'll pop by and update the Blog with stuff; however that's not guaranteed, and this initial post is in no way a contractual agreement that we'll provide useful, insightful or relevant posts in future.

Thanks for looking

Atomic Hamster