A Q&A with Enduro

donothoponpop

We're really lucky having some very talented runners among our members of this forum, and one of them, Enduro, has kindly agreed to answer questions about training, racing, competition, and anything else of interest to our forum.
Enduro is one of the best in the world at 24-Hour running, having finished 5th at the 2009 World 24-Hour Championships in Italy when he ran a distance of 237.206km (147.393 miles). He is current holder of the Irish 24 hour track record (235.910km), as well as having won many a huge amount of hill, trail, and adventure races.

With a growing number of readers interested in racing Ultra events, and the hill-running season about to start, no doubt there'll be keen interest in finding out any tricks of the trade and training tips. Post any Q's below, and Enduro will try and answer them together, every day or so. Thanks again for agreeing to do this Eoin!

donothoponpop

1) Can you describe your best race performance?

2) What's the optimum way (stride length, gait, arms, etc) to run up/down hill?

3) IMRA is going to be busier than ever this year. Can you give any info to those who are contemplating moving from the flat to the hills?

4) Which makes you feel more alive, the freedom of hill running, or the transcendence of Ultra?

Krusty_Clown

Any estimates of what your typical weekly/annual mileage might be?

You also compete in a lot of adventure races. Do you think that these contribute to you endurance running performance?

If you could run any endurance race in the world, what would it be?

Any road racing in your past, and what kind of PBs?

Thanks!

Enduro

donothoponpop wrote: »

1) Can you describe your best race performance?

2) What's the optimum way (stride length, gait, arms, etc) to run up/down hill?

3) IMRA is going to be busier than ever this year. Can you give any info to those who are contemplating moving from the flat to the hills?

4) Which makes you feel more alive, the freedom of hill running, or the transcendence of Ultra?

(1)
My best race performance, from my own perspective, was my 5th place finish at the 2009 World 24 hour championships. Lot's of Q&A about that was covered here on boards.



(2) I never really think about running form.. I just run! I think there are lots of "paralysis by analysis" traps, and this has potential to be one. The things I would tend to emphasise more is "consistant effort", which in practical terms leads to shortening stride length when running uphill, sometimes to the point where walking would be as fast. Running downhill is very much a mental effort. You've got to mentally commit to going as fast as gravity (and your legs) will take you. Once any fear or doubt creeps in speed falls away.

(3) Make sure to read the beginners section of the IMRA website. Read the event details fully about the race you intend to do. Don't put too much commitment into the first race. There are lots of things you'll learn as you do more races, and you'll get better as you go. I considered my entire first season of hillracing to be a "recce" for the following year. Most importantly of all, IMRA races are very friendly and great social occasions. Make sure to go along to the prizegiving pub afterwards. Don't be afraid to engage anyone and everyone in conversations about anything and everything!

(4) The sneaky answer to that one is both together. It's the true answer as well. As part of my normal training week I'd do one run of about 3.5 hours in the Dublin mountains, and it's always great for both reasons. The Wicklow Round was probably my ultimate combination of the two together.

The freedom of hillrunning is the easier to attain. Anyone can get it by just going for a run in the hills (And everyone should try it!). Even on the most miserable winter nights I still hugely appreciate the fact that I can run from my house up into the mountains and have nothing but the occasional deer for company most of the time. It makes putting in the long training hours required for endurace racing a lot easier to do.

The transendemce of ultra-running, and expedition length adventure racing, is a much more personal thing, I think, and harder to explain to someone who hasn't experienced it. There's a huge satisfaction to pushing your mind and body well beyond what is considered normal, and discover how far you can go, both literally and metaphorically.

ecoli

Training for races such as 24hr ones asides from your long runs what do you feel are important components to your training (tempos or other quality work)

Could you give an example of the type of sessions you would do for quality work if any?

Enduro

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Any estimates of what your typical weekly/annual mileage might be?

You also compete in a lot of adventure races. Do you think that these contribute to you endurance running performance?

If you could run any endurance race in the world, what would it be?

Any road racing in your past, and what kind of PBs?

Thanks!

Milage wouldn't be a particularly meaningful measure for me for several reasons. The first is that I do nearly all of my running training in the hills, where height gain/loss and terraine have big impact on the degree of difficulty of the training effort that milage simply doesn't measure. Secondly I don't just run, but also bike and kayak, which I think both feed back positively into my running abilities.

For running training I measure my runs in time and effort. So my LSR is 3.5 hours at comfortable pace. My "standard" run would be 2 - 2.5 hours run at moderate pace. And pace is done purely on feel.

Adventure racing has had a hugely benificial impact on my ultra running abilities. Mountain biking has probably had the biggest single impact on my uphill running speed, and also sharpens up my abilty to "read lines" when running downhill. I think that the combination of cycling with running greatly reduces the chances of getting over-training running injuries. Adding kayaking's great core workout to that iproves matters further. In about 12 years of running I've only had to go to physios twice with running injuries (we'll ignore the 4 trips to A&E with mountain biking bone breaking crashes )

Cycling is also great for endurance training simply because it isn't stretching things too far in training to go for a 7 or 8 hour cycle, but anything beyond a 3-4 hour run is getting into doing more harm than good territory.

The final major thing that adventure racing brings for ultra running specifically is mental toughness. When you've done a 9 day adventure race in the wilderness in harsh climatic conditions, a 24 hour run around a city block seems very easy and straightforword. Even something as big as the UTMB looks relatively easy (Big emphasis on relative there!!!).

The most obvious specific running race that I'd like to do that I haven't done yet is the Ultra Tour de Mont Blanc. Its a classic of the off-road ultras. I've spent a lot of time over the years in the Chamonix area, between mountaineering, snowboarding and ski touring, but I've yet to race there. The Comrades is another ultra that I'd like to get to some day, again because its a classic.

But generally events and distances are my bigger targets. So for next year I'll be targetting the world 24hours, where ever it is, along with one or two big international adventure races.


My first races were mountain marathons (such as the Mourne Mountain Marathon), which were more large orienteering events than running races. But after that my first purely running race was the Dublin Marathon in 1998. I really had no idea what my running ability was, but after a particularly good last long run went out with an ambitous target and finished in 2:57. I've done 5 road marathons in total (PB 2:41 in 2002 in Dublin, but best time was 2:52 in Snowdon in 2001). I did a series of Ballycotton tens, with a PB of 55:30. I once ran the raheny 5 mile in 27:30 (I think), but that was after running a hill race earlier in the day I did one half marathon, up in Omagh during the foot and mouth era, when it was about the only race on in the whole Island. So the finish of 1:17 there would be my PB for that one.

Most of my road racing these days is classic distance ultras. My road PBs are 7:45 for 100km and 237km for 24 hours. I actually can't remember what my 100 mile PB is!

Enduro

ecoli wrote: »

Training for races such as 24hr ones asides from your long runs what do you feel are important components to your training (tempos or other quality work)

Could you give an example of the type of sessions you would do for quality work if any?

24 hour races are really a different world from "normal" races. Yiannos Kouros, who is the greatest ultrarunner ever, goes so far as to say that 100km races shouldn't be classified as ultra races. I think his reasoning is essentially that 100kms can still be won by pure speed (in an ultra context), whereas 24 hours and up are all about endurance. Whatever about rewriting the definition of what an ultra is, I can certainly agree with his point that 24 hour races (and beyond) are in a different class where leg speed is far less important.

So in general, for 24 hour races, speed work is generally considered unimportant. Huge amounts of high milage endurance training would be the more popular approach.

24 hour racers tend to be mavericks, who often train outside the club systems, do their own thing, and have their own ideas on how to construct a training programme for themselves (if they even bother to). So you'll get a very large variation on what people consider to be parropriate or best for 24 hour training.

Personally, I think the key is the big milage background, so LSRs are probably the key quality component to a training plan, from a 24 hour racing POV.

In my own case, because I do most of my training in the hills, I will get a lot of "natural" hill repeats in a simple consequence of the terraine, and will sometimes deliberately put additional effort into the uphill sections to emphasise that. Sometimes on shorter runs I'll use the descents on the return journey as a Fartlek session.

Personally, again, I do think that speedwork does have benifits, even for 24hour races. I haven't managed to fit too much of it in in the last year, but it would tend to be very simple sessions, like 8x800m, with 100m recovery. I'll do a 3.5 hour run no problem, but these speed sessions are torture, so they must be doing some good!!

Long and indirect answer there!

rainbow kirby

What would be your advice to people who are new to ultra running?

Worst weather conditions you've ever run in?

Any funny racing stories?

Best and worst race experiences?

TFBubendorfer

1) You say that you don't do training runs over 4 hours but you seem to be doing a lot of 3.5 hour runs. How often do you do these long runs? Every week? And how many 2 - 2.5 hours runs would you fit into the same week?

2) If you're preparing for a road ultra, would you still do all your long runs on the mountains? Would you do anything specific to prepare for the hammering your legs get on the road?

3) How do you avoid overtraining and injuries? (Bike crashes don't count, as you said )

4) Do you do any specific training for a 24 hours event? Would you divide training into phases (like base training/speed training/peak training or similar) or is it one big build-up?

clubcard

what age would you reccomend starting ultra running at?
what age do you think most top runners hit their peak ay lets say 100k races?

bazman

Hey Enduro - good to see a Q&A thread for you

1. Why haven't you ever targeted the IMRA Irish Championship races?

2. How do you manage to maintain sucess at short IMRA leinster league races against people who target 10k racing?

3. How many hours do you typically spend training per week & what's the running portion?

4. Have you ever fallen asleep at work or other unusual place due to exhaustion?

5. What age were you when you started running?

6. Do you ever get overuse training injuries? If not, do you know why?

7. Can you tell us about some of your worst sporting accidents?

8. What you you make of Tony Mangan's world run? You would be ever tempted to do something similar?

9. Do you take any time off (without any training)?

10. Is bordom as issue with ultra training & racing? If so, how do you combat it?

Slogger Jogger

Great thread.

1. Favourite imra race?

2. Your most memorable imra performance?

3. Whats your post race recovery for a) a weekend ultra or b) an IMRA Leinster League race. Knowing you the latter probably isn't taking anything out of you, whereas the rest of us are shagged!

An observation.. No mention made yet of the Wicklow way run you did when you set the record. I was there at the end in Clonegal and couldn't believe how fresh you were at the finish. A great race report afterwards too.

Enduro

Hi All,

I was hoping to get around to answering the question this evening, but I've been busy getting the IMRA website transferred over onto its new server (Much snappier now!). Some great questions there. Answers to come tomorrow.

ElectraX

Hi Enduro,

Very interesting thread!Thanks for taking the time to answer these...

1)What foods do you find work best for you pre endurance events, either adventure races or before your long mountain training sessions?

2)What's your view on barefoot running?Do you think it's a fad or do you think it genuinely can increase performance and eliminate alot of common running injuries?Have you ever tried anything like the Vibram five fingers?

3)What is the ratio of women to men running in ultra events such as 24 hour races?As you mentioned that ultra events are more about endurance and mental strength than speed, do women tend to be higher up in the overall rankings as compared to other distance events ie. marathon?

Enduro

rainbow kirby wrote: »

What would be your advice to people who are new to ultra running?

Worst weather conditions you've ever run in?

Any funny racing stories?

Best and worst race experiences?

(1) That's a big question. I'll probably forget half of what I want to say and revist this one a lot.

First of all, don't worry if you think you might not be able for it. I don't think anyone could rationally come to the conclusion that "yeah, I can run for 24 hours, no worries" beforhand. It really is just a matter of giving it a go. Don't be afraid of any distance. All distances are arbritary, none more so than the marathon, so running longer than a marathon isn't something that only super fit can do.

Don't sweat the details. Don't obsess about nutrition, or training plans, or anything really. Don't even think about training through illnesses. In the end its your own will power that will get you to the finish line, the rest is details.

Keep moving forward. Be a relentless machine. If you can't run then walk. Just keep going foward. But don't let that stop you taking liquids/food on board. Slow to a walk and fully consume your food and drink.

Pace yourself in the race. Going out too hard will probably result in a DNF. You can always do a sprint finish if you go out too slow (But I'll bet a large amount of money that that won't happen). Run your own race.

Mix up your training. Add a lot of cycling. IMHO its particularly benificial for ultras, as they will find your weakest muscles, which for pure runners are usually the ones that cycling will strengthen up. It's also good for the head to have more variety in training.


(2) The worst weather I've run in would probably be in a few of the IMRA races. The winter league usually manages to turn up a few extreme weather classics. The 3 rock race two or three years back was talked about for months afterwards for the incredible wind speeds at the top which reduced even the leaders to walking speeds on the flat, and then propelled us forward faster than our legs could move on the descent... combined with a healthy dose of driving rain. There's been a few good snow covered races two... balinastoe winter from about 5 or 6 years ago being very memorable. I think I stepped into a 4 foot snow drift in that one.

The Art O'Neil run was pretty extreme two years ago as well, with subzero temperatures, ice everywhere, and bobody near me for miles around. One of those rare days when I thought to myself that, actually, this really is pretty gnarly.

But the worst weather I've raced in would be in adventure races. The heat in the canyons of the Utah desert in Primal Quest 2006 was ubelievaly intense.. like being baked in an oven. We just had to find shadow and sleep through the hotest hours. Abu Dhabi in the last two years ago was also incredibly hot, but without any available shelter, as we were trecking through the empty quater. In the last leg I was really wondering would the team make it, or would we need to hit the emergency button on the trackers. 40-50 degrees in middday dessert sun with no water remaining was pretty extreme.

At the other end of the extreme scale I've encounter some fairly wild storms in Scotland, even in summer. In the first Wilderness Arc race as we headed into the Mountains at the end of the first day it started to rain heavily (with a strong wind as well), with the temperature naturally dropping as we entered the night. I toldmy teammates that it was likely that the 3 American teams (who wouldn't be so used to the overwhelming wetness of Socttish/Irish wilderness) probably wouldn't be still racing by the morning. After the wetest night I've ever had I was proved correct in my prediction, but more surprisingly only about 9 out of 30+ teams were left racing, which included the two Irish teams. That was an incredible rate of attrition for the first night of a 5 day race.

(3) That depends on your sense of humour Adventure racing tends to turn up a lot of funny stories, especially when people start hallucinating from sleep deprivation. With teams of 4 racing together 24/7 non stop for up to 9 days, you also get to have a lot of brilliant conversations, but all the best ones go under the "what goes on tour stays on tour" rules! But all are best told in person, rather than typed out on the internet. So I'll cop out on that one!

(4) Best experiences.... so so many it would be hard to pick them out. Most of the big adventure races are chock full of amazing experiences.As well as the obvious things like going to fantastic locations, which are often rarely visited and quite innaccessable, I also get a great kick out of things like riding really technical trails on mountain bike sections, or navigating successfully through difficult terraine (competing with some of the very best navigators in the world). I personally get a huge kick out of out-thinking other people/teams, especially if they're stronger/faster, and beating them through tactical nous. It happens a lot in running, and especially in ultra running. The Bergamo 24 hour race would be one very obvious example of that that springs to mind.

Worst experiences for me would probably not finishing a race, for any reason. I really hate that. Luckily it doesn't happen too often. With both Ultras and ARs experience counts for a huge amount... probably the most valuable tool in the armory for an endurance racer, so it's always worth finishing a race, no matter how bad the situation is (unless it makes medical sense to quit), to add to your own body of knowledge. The taking part really does count. Quiting expedition advenure races is particularly bad, as it takes months and months of training, and a large expense to make it to the start line.

Enduro

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

1) You say that you don't do training runs over 4 hours but you seem to be doing a lot of 3.5 hour runs. How often do you do these long runs? Every week? And how many 2 - 2.5 hours runs would you fit into the same week?

2) If you're preparing for a road ultra, would you still do all your long runs on the mountains? Would you do anything specific to prepare for the hammering your legs get on the road?

3) How do you avoid overtraining and injuries? (Bike crashes don't count, as you said )

4) Do you do any specific training for a 24 hours event? Would you divide training into phases (like base training/speed training/peak training or similar) or is it one big build-up?

(1) I'd aim to do one LSR per week, and all going well a big bike ride as well on another day. For the 2 -2.5 hour runs, normally it would be 3 or 4 per week. One of those days might be in comination with a bike ride on a weekend day.

At the moment it's simplicity itself... I'm not training, as I'm at the tail end of healing a broken collarbone.

(2) No, I don't switch over to all-road runs. Even when I didn't live near the hills I always tried to do as much as possible of my training on grass. Injury prevention is the biggest factor at play there. For ultra races on road I usually try to wear a very fresh pair of both shoes and socks, that both have as much as possible of their out-of-the-shop cushioning. I rotate between 2 pairs of cushioned shoes during training, and keep one further pair back purely for racing. Every 6 months 3 new pairs are swapped in. The expense of this is much cheaper than physio/doctor visits, IMHO!

A background of all-day hillwalking in my previous life has probably helped with toughening up my legs/feet for ultras.

I reckon that hills cause more "pounding" issues than pure distance, on hard surfaces or otherwise. For hilly ultras, you have to be particularly careful not to over-speed on descents, especially early in the race, as the pounding that results can make ir impossible to run downhill in the later stages. I don't think I ever "pound" along in any ultra, except possibly near the end (I tore through the last 10km of the Mourne Way Ultra this year, inncluding a downhill road section, becuase it was close enough to the finish that I knew I could).

(3) If in doubt, leave it out. I listen pretty carefully to warnigns from my body, and endevour to back off if I feel an injury developing, or an illness coming on.

As I said earlier, I do think that the volume of cycling I do, resulting in much more balanced training of the leg muscles, hugely contributes to keepin injuries away. When I was training for my first marathon I developed runners knee, but haven't had a trace of it since I started cycling in earnest.

Running on off-road terraine also helps. This might be counter intuitive to some people, but its hugely benificial IMHO. It's a lot less repeditive compared to running on a flat surface, and all the "stabalising" muscles in your legs are getting strenghtened. I don't have any scientific papers to back that up... its my own conclusion from years of training and observing both myslef and other athletes (Again... as I said before, experience (combined with observation) is one of the ultimate tools for endurance racing, and this applies to training too).

(4) 24 hour races do get focus in my training. I do a lot of race by just turning up on the day and taking part, such as the IMRA runs, or the one day adventure races, without any focus on them in training, or even specifically altering my training beforehand. I just count them as Tempo style race practice. Hoever a 24 hour race will get focus for a few months beforehand. How I approach it varies every time. I have yet to come accross any programme/coach that convinces me that they have a better plan/programme than something I could construct myself. And my own opinion is that 24 hour races are sufficiently different that more conventional training cycles won't necessarily suit them.

Broadly speaking, I do use the winter months for base training. And I have experimented with adding in speed training closer to the race. I also do a relatively long (as long as 2 weeks) taper down to the race itself.

Every year I say to myself that I must knuckle down and follow a conventional trainig programme and see how it works... and every year something gets in the way. Maybe this year...:D

Enduro

clubcard wrote: »

what age would you reccomend starting ultra running at?
what age do you think most top runners hit their peak ay lets say 100k races?

(1) I wouldn't make any recommendations. There is certainly no upper limit. Tony Mangan, a legend of Irish ultra running, Set world records in 48 hour running after he turned 50. I use that fact to keep myself motivated. Indeed I witnessed Tony breaking his own Irish 24 hour record at age 50+ in the world championships with an awesome run. Tony started running ultras quite late in life.

I've also witness the world over 75 24hour record being broken. And he looked relatively fresh at the prizegiving (unlike the race winner who got carted off to hospital shortly afterwards!)

Ulra running tends to attract older runners, and your endurance does get better with age, in general. I was 35 when I did my first 24 hour run, and I was the youngest guy in the race that day.

By the way, I didn't really start running until I was about 30. I have no backgound whatsover in any sports from my youth, including athletics (bar pitch and putt :eek:)

Now obviously it wouldn't be a good idea for any junior runners to run ultras, but I've no idea if/what a lower limit should be.

(2) For 100km... it more of a speed event than 24hour+ races. I would guess somewhere between 30 - 45. But that's no more than a guess (and a pretty broad one at that). My intuition would be it would be similar enough to your peak marathon age, possibly with a fe w years added.

Enduro

Bazman, Slogger, ElectraX, I'll get to your questions tomorrow, time permitting. And good questions they are too!

monthehoops

Enduro. You just mentioned that you were 30 when you started running. I've been playing GAA with years but never ran anything over 10 miles outside of Gael Force West. How did you start running and how did you go from not running at all to running for 24 hours? Had you a plan in your head or was it a case of 'run farther than I did yesterday'?

nerraw1111

Great Q and A. Answered most of my questions.

You've said 'experience (combined with observation) is one of the ultimate tools for endurance racing.'

1) In light of this, what is the most important lesson you've learned while accumulating this experience?

2) Did you intentionally set out to run multi-day adventure races when starting out or it did just progress to these events over time?

3) Can you single out a particular stand out moment where you thought to yourself, 'I can't believe I'm doing this.'

Antigrav

Bazman was just hitting you with rapid fire questions because he got such a grilling

Something that hasn't been asked yet:

Q. What kind of nutrition do you prefer, synthetic or natural?

Q. Do you have favourite food/drink for before, during and after events?

I'm a firm believer in more natural forms of carbohydrate and isotonic/mineral input. Oaty pankakes are a must for me before an LSR

I'd be interested in your experience, realising the Adventure races are a bit more specialised.

Enduro

bazman wrote: »

Hey Enduro - good to see a Q&A thread for you

1. Why haven't you ever targeted the IMRA Irish Championship races?

2. How do you manage to maintain sucess at short IMRA leinster league races against people who target 10k racing?

3. How many hours do you typically spend training per week & what's the running portion?

4. Have you ever fallen asleep at work or other unusual place due to exhaustion?

5. What age were you when you started running?

6. Do you ever get overuse training injuries? If not, do you know why?

7. Can you tell us about some of your worst sporting accidents?

8. What you you make of Tony Mangan's world run? You would be ever tempted to do something similar?

9. Do you take any time off (without any training)?

10. Is bordom as issue with ultra training & racing? If so, how do you combat it?

(1) I've raced them in the past. In the past few years there has simply been too many races clashing with each, and the championship races have lost out. The reality I much prefer the championship races to the League races. Each of the races in the Irish champs is a classic. I'd love to finish one or two of the championships this year, but it all depends on what clashes we end up with

(2) God knows. I'm surprised myself how competive I've managed to stay, even setting a few PBs last year (It's holding my own speed that surprises me... race position is more a matter of who turns up on any given day). It's nice to have the "insurance" of the M40 category though. The fact that I do so much training in the hills, both on foot and on bike, must obviously be keeping me ticking me along for, what are for me, shorter races.

(3) Typically 12hours+ of running, 8 hours+ of cycling in various forms (not counting commuting), and 1.5 hours kayaking, as a rough estimate.

(4) Interesting question, of which I'll answer the second part . It's amazing how many ways you can fall asleep! In my first big adventure race I fell asleep cycling. I've done it once or twice since. It's a real hazard of adventure racing. As you know, we've both managed to do the trick of falling asleep kayaking (at the same time IIRC), and I managed a nice little nap whilst on a white water swimming board floating down the green river in Utah. In last years Primal Quest I finally managed the trick of falling asleep whilst walking. I was walking right behind my teammates, blinked, and woke up to see them about 60 metres ahead. I had managed to stay upright. Was definitely asleep standing up for a few seconds there! In the same race the entire team woke up whilst we were paddling down a rive in "rubber duckies" (blow up kayaks)... no idea how long we'd all been asleep drifting along. They're all combinations of exhaustion and sleep deprivation.

Plenty of exmaples of falling asleep in various normal life situations after long races... mid sentance, mid-mouse move, mid varous other things

(5) I count my running start as my first marathon. I started training for it just a little short of 30.

(6) rarely. In 12 or so years I've had runners knee right at the start, a torn calf muscle about 5 years ago, and achiles tendonitis last year. Not much for continuous high milage running and racing. I reckon the big factors are mixing in multiple sports, and doing as much as possible of my running off road.

(7) They're all minor really. The worst running accident I had was on the "wocka wockas" near 3 rock, where I tripped on a rock in a moment of lapsed concentration and hit the deck. I manged to break a finger in the fall and it was pointing into an adjacent finger. So I snapped it back into position and carried on. It hurt a bit once the run was over, but it eventually healed up fine.

Cycling is where the real carnage happens. But again, in the end even the worst of it is only relatively minor. The most stupid was taking part in a long distance mountain bike orienteering event in the peak district. We (teams of 2), were cycling along an old railway that had been coverted into a cycle track. A real express route through the countryside. Being a railway, the slopes and curves were both very gentle, so we hammering along at full speed. I was studying the map on my map board (clamped onto the handlebars) intensly, trying to work out if it was worth the gamble of getting two more controls in the time allowed... it was marginal. And then BANG... I found myself flying through the air wondering "What TF was that", hit the ground after what seemed like ages in the air and skidded to a stop. This was followed by the instant panic as I realised my back was probably bouncing along after me at speed... it was, but missed me and ended up in bushes next to me. I looked back to see that there was a small bollard right in the middle of the track that I'd managed to hit bang on at full speed.

I dusted myself down... thought that my shoulder was a bit sore (no surprise after a big crash), but that I'd probably just given myself a nice bruise. The the next thought was "feck.. the bike!!", and went over to it, expecting to find the front wheel has disintigrated. In fact I couldn't see anything wrong with it at all, which was so surprising it was shocking, in a good way.

After that, all thoughts of subsequent controls were forgotten and we headed back to base. I couldn't cycle the technical climbs because of my shoulder, but everything elese was do-able. There was no doctor at the race base (where we were all overnighting before day 2), but the first aid lads reckoned I hadn't dislocated anything. After lyiing down in my tent for half an hour, getting the occasional jolt of pain, and hearing a click, I finally accepted Paul, my teammates, offer of a ride to A&E. It turned out to be a broken collarbone.

The next day I looked at the bike again and finally found what had taken the impact... there was a 10 degree bend in the fork where it fork tube goes into the headset. oops!

I count myself as lucky to walk away from that one, literally. A few inches either side of that bollard and it would have been one of my legs slamming into it rather than the front wheel.

(8) Tony is a legend.. simple as! I can't think of any Irish person who has undertaken a sporting endevour with anywhere near the degree of difficulty and gnarliness of his run. It's an awesome undertaking. We're all in the halpenny place in comparison. He's bound to run into all sorts of problems along the way, but Tony is by far the most single minded runner I've ever met, and that will hopefully see him through to completion. Running really is his life, and this is his ultimate dream.

I'm not quite as single minded as Tony is, so I don't really have the desire to take on something of that scale. My ambitions lie elsewhere.

(9) Currently in week 7 of doing sod all, and its killing me! Particularly as I love snow. I'd normally take a month of around this time of the year, so my (second, after the above) broken collarbone was well timed. After a long summer of racing I normally feel my speed dropping away, all-round tiredness taking hold, and just generally need a break.

(10) Not with racing. Not at all. It's something I have trouble convincing people of. I would have assumed that 24 hour racing on short circuits, especially a running track, would be mind numbing. But I found the reality to be exactly the opposite. If you enjoy racing, and especially the mental aspects of racing, then ultrarunning is Nirvana! I find the whole tactical and racing aspect of 24 hour running to be particularly engaging.

Enduro

Slogger Jogger wrote: »

Great thread.

1. Favourite imra race?

2. Your most memorable imra performance?

3. Whats your post race recovery for a) a weekend ultra or b) an IMRA Leinster League race. Knowing you the latter probably isn't taking anything out of you, whereas the rest of us are shagged!

An observation.. No mention made yet of the Wicklow way run you did when you set the record. I was there at the end in Clonegal and couldn't believe how fresh you were at the finish. A great race report afterwards too.

(1) Of the current races it would have to be the Wicklow Ultra, for very obvious reasons! Although my favourite IMRA event would be the Wicklow Round. It's not a race though. In general I prefer the more open mountain style races with as little track/fireroad as possible. The race I'd most like to do this year would be the circuit of Avonbeg, as I missed it last year due to a clash with another race. There are so many good ones though, so many candidates. Croagh Patrick is the most technically challenging, Galtymore has the most hardest climbs and decents, the decent of scarr is just joyous (both on foot and bike), the old Balinastoe route was a real mini-adventure. Sometimes the weather can turn an otherwise straightforward race into something fantastic, whether it be a snowy adventure, or a blissful sun-run.

(2) That's a tough question. Breaking the record on the old Wicklow ultra course is a standout memory for me. It was the first of my big running ambitioons achieved, and remains one of my best ever races, from my own POV. A perfect run. Unfortunately, from answereing your question viewpoint, it wasn't organised by IMRA at that time.

Next up would be the Wicklow round. It's a great challenge that requires a lot to complete. I picked a good day to run it on, and had a lovely day in the hills, with a support crew who were almost too good. There is a fantastic feeling to running solo over so much distance in the mountains, doing your own navigation and pacing. That particular day was unusual in that I wasn't out on my feet at the finish either.

Of the more normal IMRA runs... again many to choose from. Each race normally has something. And its not always winning either. My highlight from last year was the race-long 3 way battle in the howth race between Barry Minnock, Brian Furey and myself (There is no way I'd have been involved with those 2 later in the season). The lead swapped on multiple occasions, but Brian looked to have wrapped it up as we came off the last descent. Unfortunately for him, he took the turn to do another lap rather than head for the finish. Barry was a little behind him and called him back. I got in front of him just as he was about to make it back to the turn point. The (long long long) sprint to the finish was the most intense I've been involved in in a long time. None of us could speak for a minute or two after finishing (Barry won, followed by myself in second).

(3) you're correct in your assumption about IMRA races... they don't really disrupt me enough to worry about recovery. For ultra, my recovery would usually be to take a few days off and then ramp back up to training pretty quickly.

In the last few years I've been very surprised at how much better my recovery has been after big races. When I first started I would have said that it would take me a month to work a big race out of my system. But in the last few years I've managed to compete in IMRA races (and sometimes win) within a few days of both Ultras and Adventure races. That's really surprised me, as its something I thought would naturally disimprove with age.


I definitely count the Wicklow Way run as one of my best ever, in all sorts of ways. When I first realised I was a good ultra runner I set myself 3 big targets (well, more ambitions than targets). They were to break the record for the Wickow ultra, to break the record for the Wicklow Way, and to break an Irish classic distance ultra record. I managed to do the first after about 3 or 4 years, but there was a long gap before I finally managed to give a go at the WW record. In the end it turned out to be the start of my best ever run of form. I broke the 24 hour record one month later, requiring me to come up with a new set of ambitions! Thanks again for coming out to the end, and especially for taking a few pictures.

Enduro

ElectraX wrote: »

Hi Enduro,

Very interesting thread!Thanks for taking the time to answer these...

1)What foods do you find work best for you pre endurance events, either adventure races or before your long mountain training sessions?

2)What's your view on barefoot running?Do you think it's a fad or do you think it genuinely can increase performance and eliminate alot of common running injuries?Have you ever tried anything like the Vibram five fingers?

3)What is the ratio of women to men running in ultra events such as 24 hour races?As you mentioned that ultra events are more about endurance and mental strength than speed, do women tend to be higher up in the overall rankings as compared to other distance events ie. marathon?

(1) Normal food. As close to natural as possible. Generally in quantities that most people with consider infeasable for someone of my size I don't use any special supplements or nutrition products. It's another area where people have a tendancy to drive themselves to distraction, and raise its importance to a level where they're more likely to undermine themselves mentally than gain any real benifits. Simple common sense is all thats really required.

(2) I think its very interesting. Similar to the food answer, I'd agree that barefoot running is the ultimate natural running technique, and so it highly likely to be the best one, and thus have a much lower likelyhood of causing injury. So I suppose I would tend to agree with the theory. I haven't tried it myself. I've got an in-built fear of stepping on something sharp and pointy and taking myself out of action for a few weeks. I'd be on for giving it a go on guaranteed good ground, preferably something natural like grass or dry bogland. I've never tried one of the "Barefoot running shoes", which seem like a inherently contradictory idea.

(3) Good question. I don't have any answers based on real research and statistics. My gut feeling would be that the nature of endurance races makes the power and strenght advantages of males less important than in shorter races. Similarly, the fact that so much of it is about mental endurance would lead me to think that women are equally as likely to finish as men (and often enough finishing is in itself an excellent result). I've been at 24 hour world champs where the best female finisher would have finished 5th overall without splitting the categories. I'm not sure that you could say the same for many other athletics events (Of course that could just be freakish result, as opposed to a result that's likely to occur more conistantly, but I really don't know)

Ireland is lucky to have one or two world class ultra runners. Helena Crossan has a bronze medal from last year's 100km European championships, which is a better result than any Irish male has achieved to date. That's a tremendous achievement, especially considering the tiny pool of runners we're selecting from. Aisling Coppinger seems to improve her PB every race at 100km, and could be even better at 24 hours. It would be great to get more internationally competitive female ultrarunners on the Irish team, as we could become team medal contenders.