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Great running in April

by Nick Smith 29th April 2009

This month has been one of my best ever for running I'm completely psyched for the Nine Edges endurance race in September, and I've been really ramping up my weekly mileage in preparation for it.

In February I only ran 15 km, in March this was up to 88 km and April I ran 136 km (!) This is about 30 km/week (19 miles/week), almost entirely off-road, and I'm going to try and maintain that for the next couple of months before I dare increase it any further.

April saw two firsts for me - my first ever trail race, The Trunce just north of Sheffield, which I did with my friend Amanda. I was a bit shell-shocked by how fast everyone ran, and there was a lot of new stuff to try - from river crossings to mad steep descents through the forest. I burnt out only a few minutes from the end of the race, which was disappointing, but hopefully I'll be fitter next time, and judge my pace a bit more sensibly. Oh, and I'm happy to report that my Garmin Forerunner survived running through a river and kept on working fine!

The other big deal for me was my first ever 2 hour run. I've done plenty of 1 hour runs, but only two or three 90 minute runs, and the step up to 2 hours felt like quite a challenge. With my expert running partner Alicia, we ran the most beautiful trail over moorland, from Agden reservoir across to Dovestone Tor, soloed a quick route in our running shoes, then ran back At 13 miles it was by far the furthest I've ever run, and we went a LOT faster than I was expecting. No ITB or other problems, just very very tired

I've been asking on the UKClimbing.com discussion forums about what to eat or drink on longer runs, and got some good suggestions. My current favourites are orange-flavoured Sports Beans. Mmmm
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