Thames Trot 4 February 2012

10 February 2012 // Tag :

Mid January and February is madness at work 16th and 23 January week I worked 70 hours per week. The week before the race about 40. Weekend training in those weeks was reduced as I was tired. I kept up my conditioning work and managed to get bout 6-8 hour of training done per week.
On race day I felt 70% fit mentally and about 90% physically.
On the journey to the start I heard in the radio weather warnings for the afternoon. At the start my objectives were clear, finish in daylight and finish before the snow storms.

The start was at 8.30 in Iffley. It was cold -10 degree (this is very cold for the UK). After a short stretch of road we reached the Thames path. The route follows the Thames path. Running along the river and a slight breeze added to the cold. I wore two light long sleeve layers and my R-Light top, ¾ R-dry and above the Collant trail Raider. I felt comfortably warm all the time, neither got cold not overheated.
After about 5km I tried to drink something but the Nutraperf was frozen in the tube. I put the tube inside my top and managed to thaw the fluid.
The trail was not too icy and I made good progress until checkpoint 1(Culham) which is just after Abbington at km 15.5.

The field began to string out between check point 1-2. I noted that I needed to focus to keep my pace. The body felt ok just the head was tired. I stopped at checkpoint 2 (Benson) as I felt I had to eat. Unfortunately there are no regulations in the UK what needs to be provided on food stations and all what there was, was water, fruit cake and jelly babies. I had some of my own food with me. A hot drink would have been nice, but there wasn’t any until the finish.

I started to feel much better having had something to eat. Shortly after the checkpoint was a diversion, which added about 2km to the distance. I studied this in Google earth and found my way easy. In this race there is no ‘balissage’. Two years ago when I did the race the first time I got lost several times. This year I was very well prepared, having intensively studied my maps. The diversion was along roads and I was glad when I was back on the path. There are some lovely stretches along the river Thames and I enjoyed the views.
I was pleased when I reached 42km in 3hr 53. The third checkpoint was at km 46 (Streatley). The legs still felt good and I carried on at a reasonable pace to checkpoint 4((mapledurham) at 59km.

Some significant part of the next 13km were on tarmac as the route winds itself though a build-up area away from the river and then through Reading, then back on a path. I noted that I am not as focused as usual and had to look at my Garmin every km to ensure I kept my pace up. The field was so strung out that I was often running by myself and this made it hard. Normally I am very happy to run by myself, but today I could have done with a bit of company. This race was more a mental challenge then a physical as at CP5 (Sonning) at 72km my legs still felt ok and did not hurt.




The final 10km to the finish were a push. Just before the finish it started to snow. I finished in the daylight. I managed my two objectives I set in the morning. I finished in 7hr 49min 41sec. 6 in the ladies and 1st in my age group.

I was pleased with the result I considered myself 70% mentally fit due to the recent work load and 90% physically fit, managing a sub 8 hour 80km (82 with diversion) is not a bad result. The mental fitness can be sorted with a week of 9-10 hour sleep per night. If I would have physical problems that would mean weeks or months of training. My average speed is increasing. The training regime is working.

I got 7 weeks to the Ecotrail Paris. The workload will reduce in the next two weeks and I will be back to 12 hour training week. I should improve on my Ecotrail result from last year. I hope I will meet some of the team Raidlight members in Paris.