On New Year's Eve I spent the day repeatedly running a five-mile loop (roughly the Seaton Half Marathon route). I ran most of the way, walking only the three main climbs (a total of about half a mile and 200' ascent per lap) and resting for about five minutes per lap, either refuelling at the car or fundraising in one of the pubs on the circuit. My moving time was 7h27 out of a total elapsed time of 8h23.
Having twice covered 40 miles in six hours I felt that 50 miles in eight hours would be achievable. In the event I only managed about 48 miles in the target time and took another twenty minutes to cover the remaining couple ... but at least I finished!
My splits for the moving time (running and walking) for each lap are given below, together with the estimated running pace, assuming that my walking pace was 3mph.
Lap Running
Time Pace
1 46:21 08:05
2 43:01 07:20
3 42:34 07:14
4 44:06 07:35
5 42:14 07:10
6 41:44 07:03
7 43:44 07:30
8 43:11 07:22
9 46:22 08:05
10 53:34 08:23
Two interesting patterns are evident: I generally got faster over the first six laps before slowing over the last four and the three laps when I was accompanied (1,4 and 7) were anomalously slow. The other runners are all slower than me but, with the possible exception of the first, are capable of greater speed over five miles so I assume that my pace was slowed by the nattering! I certainly don't begrudge any loss of time, though, as they made the endeavour more enjoyable. Why I should have accelerated over the first half dozen laps is something of a mystery. I wasn't terribly comfortable with the initial pace as it felt very slow (my usual long run pace would be more like seven-minute miling) so perhaps it was my body trying to pull me back into its accustomed pace. But by that time it was rather knackered and began to slow again!
Breakfast before the run was a bowl of Rice Krispies and a litre of water. During the day I drank nearly six litres (defizzed coke, water, orange juice and sweet, black tea) and ate two cereal bars, twenty jelly babies and a few banana chips, mainly between laps. For a couple of days afterwards my quads suffered from the two short, sharp descents and my knees from it being a road run, and I was generally tired. But I am looking for a good result in the Luppitt Lollop (a tough 15-mile multi-terrain race) at the end of the month as a result of this training!
Thanks must obviously go to those who supported me, either in the pubs or on the hoof, but most importantly to the Dungbeetle who, although he couldn't join me due to his succumbing to the Millennium Bug, still crawled off his deathbed to cheer me on and rattle his Pringles tube in the pubs to collect £85 for charity!