Ras yr Aran - 2015

Third race in the North Wales Fellrunning Championship, and the competition is hotting up quite a lot. This is the first race that is not a Short this year, and so we go onto the Medium length.
Ras yr Aran is a lovely race up what looks like quite a forgiving hill - a bit of a ramp, you might say, from the southern end of Llyn Tegid. It then follows the ridge line to the trig point, which has a lovely bit of scrambly type stuff on the "summit cone" as it were, before reversing the whole lot back to the start. An out an back with fabulous views (if you get the year with the sun, as we did this year), about 900+metres of ascent and descent over about 10 miles of mud, bog, grass and generic fell terrain.
Sounds like good fun.

Al, pinning up

Glossopdale were better represented this time around, with 4 of us making the journey to Wales. The 1pm starting time meant that we had to be a bit careful about when we ate prior to the run. Lunch too early, and the run would really take it out of us, but lunch too late, and risk a bit of a bad stomach episode during the race.
We got there pretty early (ok, ridiculously early, despite stopping off for a leisurely coffee on the way), and Al, Zoe and I went out to recce the end of the course - which turned out to be a good idea. Although it was well marked out, there were a number of stiles (and a double stile) which had to be negotiated in the closing stages of the race, so it was good to see where they were.
Al and I also jogged a bit further up the hill. The sun was out, but there was a decent wind blowing, so we

Zoe reccying the double stile

weren't quite sure if it was a base layer day, but by the time we started up the ascent, the wind died down, the temperature rose, and it was pretty certain that today was going to be a vest only day.

We registered in the Eagle Inn, a lovely establishment, if you ever end up in that bit of the world, and hung around waiting for the race to start. Lindsay from GDH had also got to the race, coming down from a hen do last night, so it was a pretty good effort on her part.
A good crowd of us had gathered at the start, and the usual briefing was given, ensuring that everyone knew not to head east from the top- its a long drop.
There was an echo of Pipedream with a slight false start, which slightly screwed up my recording of the race, a minor issue, but has a good learning point in that I should just start the watch before the start and let it run, rather than attempt to start it as the gun goes.

The start goes along quite a fast road and path, and the guys at the head of the race went off like a box of springs. I kept up for a short time, but Felipe- who came a narrow second in Pipedream was heading off up the hill at quite a pace, so I continued on the same pace that I was going, and see what happened. The key to this race, was probably to keep a speed that I was pretty sure that I could keep up for the vast majority of the climb.
As we headed up the first part of the ramp Dave from Merionydd was just on my shoulder, and a couple of Amblesiders were just behind him. The sun shone down, and I wondered a bit about getting sunburnt in Wales in March. Just about there I realised that my watch hadn't actually restarted at the beginning of the race, so I flicked it on, and locked it. At least I was now recording....
Selections were taking place all around as we went over the crest of the first top, and down to a slight bog before the next ascent. Thinking about it, a descent now means that right near the end of the downhill at the end, there was going to be quite a bit of a climb. Good to keep in mind, but right now, back to the up.

Up to the skyline. Then carry on. 

Continual, grinding. Dave went past me, his marathon training is obviously paying off, at least for the long hard pulls up hill... the short sharp reps that I have been doing are not quite what was needed today, and my legs and lungs were really telling me - the last couple of weeks of exam prep and moving prep, coupled with a reduced training volume seem to have taken its toll on me.

Dave continued on at a superb pace, and caught up with a couple of guys ahead of us. To keep a pace up like that... well done.
By now, the guys that run up hill were pulling away from the guys that were walking, but I was attempting to keep running, and there were more and more times when I just wanted to walk. Jez from Buckley was right on my shoulder, but behind us there was no-one. We could see people in front of us, but as the sun beat down, the wind started to increase, and the going underfoot became more rocky, we became very much a pair of runners in our own world.

Although there was bog on the ground, we passed a number of small snow patches, which had to be run across. (even if they weren't directly in our way, I think I still would have run across to them...) 

The world spread out across to our left and right, and the run became a walk, and then a run again. The gradient got worse, got better, and all the while, we went up and along. At one point I remember going around a hump in the ground, as Jez went over the top. Which was fastest? Neither. We got to the other side at exactly the same time, exchanged a couple of words, and continued.
At some point I realised that I was going to need some kind of sustainance, or else the rest of the ascent, and the rest of the descent was going to be really gnarly... It took a while to get the gel down, but it was a welcome gulp of sugar and water on what was turning out to be quite a warm day.

At the bottom of the rocky, scrambly summit bit, the guy winning the race - no longer Felipe, came over the stile just as we went up. We scrambled, we ran, we walked, and more guys came past us - Dave fighting hard for 3rd place.... (I really need to get my uphill sorted!). Across rock, and past a couple of walkers, and we came upon the summit - the trig point.
Jez got there first, touched and started down, and I swiftly followed.

Downhill has always been a bit of a strength, but the way down the rock was slippy and treacherous, so we pretty much level pegged off the top, passing the runners that were on their way to the summit. It was quite good to see that they weren't too close behind. As long as I could keep the pace up on the way down - not something that I managed on the way up, but maybe I can keep it on the way back down. For about a mile across the tops, we ran together, still. One ahead, then the other. We were catching on the guy in front, and all of a sudden, it was 2 guys in front, and one of them was wearing a waterproof, and moving very slowly. Felipe had perhaps gone too hard on the way up, and was paying for it on the way down.

Now THAT is a beautiful view to descent into 

As a 4 we crossed bog and turf, and came to a slight downhill section, where all of a sudden Felipe sprang away - which surprised the guys behind me. But after about 500m he pulled up, and slowed down a lot. Considering the terrain, I just ploughed on down and onto a rocky horrible bit. I fleetingly saw a fabulous line off to the left, and hoped that the guys directly behind me were just following me blindly rather than making intelligent decisions about the way down... and that I was a better runner on horrible rocky terrain.

3 minutes and a bloody leg later, it seemed that the others had not spotted the nice line to our left, and that I

Bloody leg

was indeed a slightly better descender than those behind me. I was all on my own, running down a fabulous hill, with glorious visibility with not a soul in sight.
I just ran, and ran and ran. The guys in front were a long long time gone, and the ones behind, no idea. As for the route - yes it was an out and back, but there were places where I really didn't recognise where we had come up. Nothing for it but to run on down the hill, following the best line I could see in front of me at the time.
The descent went on for a long time, and I was being careful not to over stretch myself. The worst thing to do here would be to get a stitch from excessive over striding, and there were certainly no places to be gained, only places to be lost.
Down to the final few kilometres that we had recced earlier,

Double stile

 and still, just spectators to see. I jumped across the double stile, down the hill, and round the crazy double back, and the final few hundred metres on the road. I eased down to the line, it must be the first race in quite a while that I haven't had to turn on a full on sprint at the end. I don't know that I even could have done, but there you go.
Once again. 6th.

I am nothing if not consistent at the moment. 
Dave had come in pretty much at a dead heat in 3rd, a fantastic job. Al was top 20, Zoe was second Lady home, and Linds was 3rd V40 home.

2nd Lady!

All in all, a decent day out, with fantastic weather, and a great atmosphere.

Training for Fell running

"You just can't train for them hills".
Said one of our running club, after a bit of a disappointing race in Wales.

To be honest, I must beg to differ. That is what training is all about. Find something that is hard. Practice it til it becomes easier. What I am interested in is what different people do in order to get better. There isn't really a formula for success which if you apply it to anyone, it will make them into a champion, but if you look at enough people and the way in which they train, a pattern might emerge, and you may get a better idea of what might be involved in becoming a better fell runner.

Yes, some people may find training a bit of a "cheat" way of getting faster- or at least, focussed training, but perhaps the best thing to remember is perhaps what Billy Bland said.
"Its not the will to win - but the will to prepare to win".

So with that in mind, I've delved into a couple of books, done a bit of research into running, and mountain running as well, and this is what I've come up with so far.

Starting with a blatent rip off of anything I could find in "Feet in the Clouds".

Kenny Stuart, 5’5’’, 8st - on a good day

Kenny - photo from Woodentops

A gardener by trade. He trained theoretically under a Cerutty/Lydiard system, comprising of a large endurance base, but also included fartlek, reps and intervals. When he was at the top of the game, he was averaging 70 miles a week “on the road, in the dark” - not something that a lot of fellrunners around my neck of the woods would either enjoy, admit to, or indeed, do. He rarely reached more than 90 miles a week and had a huge rivalry with John Wild, perhaps spurring him on to greater things.

Post fell running, he was going above 100miles a week and began feeling flat and stale and ended up tired all the time- eventually stopping running altogether, 

Billy Bland 10st 7

A sheep farmer. At first he was hitting 40-50 miles a week, but progressed to 70-100 miles a week. On the fell. No-one else ran that kind of training distance on the fells. He apparently had no specific target, just a "run til you drop" attitude. He realised that the better he got, the more he could train. That being said, Billy
never really imposed as much on short races than he did on long. Even Joss said of him -“no-one trained as much as billy”. 

His training was typified by hard miles on difficult ground and he had no truck with coaching or reps.

Joss

A sheep farmer. Typical evening run 12 miles. Wasdale, highfoot, yewbarrow and pillar. 

I'm sure there is more info out there on Joss's training, but I just haven't found it yet. 

Killian Jornet

Pro athlete for Salomon. His training philosophy is pretty much - just run. If you are going to count something, don’t count miles, count metres of ascent. (he is very much focussed on high mountain running though - and apparently an average week foe him is 10,000m ascent). When training for a race, stay
focussed on the distance/height gain for it, and practice specifically for that.

Gordon Pirie

Ok - so not a fell runner, but a running great who worked ridiculously hard for his wins. The basic premise was to workout the distance you wanted to run, and how fast you wanted to run it. Split it into 400s and run each 400 as close to the pace as you could. You then reduce the rest intervals until you can combine them and you're running consecutive 400s as fast as you need. Gordon did legendary rep sessions- as in 50-100 reps of 200m at a time.  

Arther Lydiard

Legendary coach of New Zealand runners- I'm certainly not going to be able to write down everything that has been written about him, but the basic idea is do massive mileage - base endurance of 110miles per week, and then use periodisation in order to peak for certain races at certain points of the year.

 

Maffetone- the man credited with helping Ironman Mark Allen win a load of World titles at in his mid-to-late thirties advocates increasing Aerobic capacity ONLY - no speed work or threshold work at all until a couple of months before a race- so running at about 65% HR and never, (I mean NEVER) going above.

Noakes- The man that brought us The Lore of Running - In his 4th edition, he still advocates a base of Aerobic training at no more than 75% max HR, followed by a 6 week sharpening hill sprint program before competition. According to him, any mileage done between 75%-85% is just junk. 

It's too intense for easy training, and not hard enough for hard training, and will just end up in burn out. 

He also advocates strength training to improve muscle recruitment - but not muscle size.

The problem - or perhaps the great thing - about fellrunning is that we all come in different shapes and sizes. Not only that, but if you really want to, you can pretty much race every weekend of the year, not worrying about training as such, but just blasting around race courses as hard as you can. However, I think at the top end of the sport at the moment, there is a bit more thought going into training and racing.

From what I know- rumour/chats and general hearsay, this may (or indeed may not) be what the top guys are up to at the moment.
Sheep farming. (you know who I mean).
Cyclo-cross racing in the winter months (Jebby and Si Harding)
Track sessions (there is a reason why Andi Jones was so good at the Snowdon races- he can run incredibly fast on a track, and although he can't descend, hell he can climb better than most of us).
Large amounts of Road cycling - (Will Neill, Tom Brunt, and probably a load of others)
Orienteering- otherwise known as fast map reading, interval training and falling over practice - Oli Johnstone, Murray Strain, Nic Barber (yes, nic, I'm including you in this as you're still faster than me).

I'm sure there are more, and when I think of them, or someone else tells me, I'll add it on.
Yes, I might be a little obsessed with training, but when you are blessed with a complete lack of running talent, such as I was, you've got to take what you can get.
As far as I can see at the moment, I need to buy a sheep farm in Borrowdale, and get a CX bike.

Salomon Fellraiser- 150km Review

Fellraisers. Yes, they've been used.

I've been wanting to try these on for quite some time. I used to race in a pair of Salomon XA pros a very long time ago, and despite their small amount of physical grip, they seemed to grip to anything and everything.
Inov8s somewhat took over as my preferred race shoe in the intervening time and have become a tried and trusted shoe and sole unit for me.

However, when Salomon created the Fellcross a couple of years ago, my interest was piqued (despite it looking like a football boot), but £140 was a bit on the steep side for me to pay for a pair of shoes. (Perhaps more on that in a later post).

Fellcross... sorry... stock picture

Since then, the Fellcross have gone through 3 versions, and the little brother, the slightly less expensive Fellraiser came out.

Exciting times, a Salomon shoe dedicated to the fells, and at a price point that is similar to (some) inov8s? Seems like a goer.
Still, I had to wait until I had broken the majority of my other shoes before being able to justify buying a new pair of shoes, so finally, I have myself a pair of Fellraisers.

When I took them out of the box, they looked smart enough - as you would expect. A quick look at the grip revealed a decent deep tread with quite an aggressive pattern. Something that resembles a cross between the

Well. It LOOKS grippy

x-talons and Sportiva Crosslites - but certainly not as deep as Mudclaws. To be totally honest, I should have taken a picture there and then, but was far too excited and just put them on and went for a run.

A note on sizing- especially if you are somewhere around size 7. There is always the conundrum if 7, 7.5 or even 8 might fit best. Shoe sizes are so ridiculously subjective, I've started looking at the Japanese sizes now - which come up in centimetres, so at least you have some idea of what might be going on. (though Salomon do have a sizing guide on their website, with sizes corresponding to the length of your foot... Apparently I am about 25.5cms which correlates to a european 41.3 in salomon sizes... whatever.

The fit is as I remember the XA pros to be. Comfortable and nicely enclosing. They don't feel like an inov8 - they feel almost a bit more plush. A clubmate mentioned that after running and racing for a number of days, back to back in inov8s, it was really nice to put on some fellraisers, simply because if felt like running in a pair of shoes made for comfort, with a toebox that doesn't feel restrictive... which is what it seems like.

On running in them, yep, nice. No problems. I went straight out for an 8 miler on the hill, and had no issues
with blisters whatsoever.
However, since wearing them, my language has got a lot worse. (note... there is a post script on this....)
The speedlacing system, which I have got on with very well on various Salomon shoes is a complete pig on the Fellraisers. Yes they do up well. No they don't come undone. However, the loose end of the lace, which is meant to tuck under a flap in the tongue of the shoe just doesn't stay there. I've tried all manner of tricks, and cheats, but it just won't stay. On a recent run the lace didn't stay tucked for more than 5 steps each time I stopped and remedied it, and to be honest, I was close to just throwing the shoes in a river. I don't know if it is an issue with Fellraisers in general, or with my particular size, or what, but as I say, this is the first time I've come across it as an issue.

Contragrip. Please Salomon, make something good for wet rock!

Grip- the bit that everyone wants to know about. Before buying them, I was told by another clubmate that they are good in mud, but treacherous on anything like wet tarmac. I took it with a pinch of salt, and thought that he was being a little overdramatic.

First run out, they seemed pretty good at going down a damp road, and once I got onto the mud and peat of the moors, they were fine. As good as I would have expected a roclite to be. I was a little ginger when descending, they just don't give the confidence of an x-talon or a mudclaw - and was quite glad of holding back as I had my first experience of them on wet rock.
Treacherous is pretty much an understatement. Think rollerskates on ice. In fact, think high heels on ice. When recceing a route (in the sun) but over some wet rocks, there was not a bit of grip that could be discerned from the soles of my shoes. The only thing that I could be absolutely sure of was that wherever I put my foot, it would end up slipping. Running on wet rock? No way. It's bad enough walking on wet rock.

Not only that, but bizarrely, on my first run I was coming back along the side of a hill, when I slipped and took a proper fall. "odd", I thought - must have hit a rock. And then proceeded to do the same thing within 20 seconds. No rocks in sight.
Just moss.
So Fellraisers aren't really able to cope with moss either. - Which, quite frankly, is mental when you think about it.
I think that considering the terrain that these shoes work on - and the terrain that they don't, they should perhaps be a heads up for a name change. I haven't used these in the Lakes yet, and with the amount of stone and rock, (which is inevitably wet) that they have up there, I don't think I am likely to.
These shoes work well on the moor, and as such, maybe they should be called Moor-raisers. It doesn't quite have the same catchy feel to it, or indeed, a link to a film, but its a bit more honest.

So overall - a nice comfy shoe, looks grippy, and copes with mud, but use it on wet rock at your peril. I know that nothing really works on wet rock, but these are worse than quite a few other shoes that I've used in the past.
As soon as someone works out a rubber compound that actually works on wet rock, that doesn't wear out in 2 weeks and also works in mud, that person may well end up very well off. 



Ok - Post script about the lacing system.
While taking the photos of the shoes for this blog I had a bit of a search around the tongue section... when you roll the lacing "holster" all the way back, there is a little hole which I hadn't noticed before. (That's what happens when you always wear a pair of shoes in the dark).

 

The top taggy bit of the speedlace fits in there nice and snug, and when you turn the top of the holster over.... hey presto... all done up with no flappy out bits. So maybe this is the way in which you're meant to do these shoes up, without the tag forever falling out. I'll have to try it out on my next run.