Preparing for Lakeland 100

Tonight I set off for a run after work. My calves were a bit sore after Monday’s Fartlek session. I cycled to work and from work yesterday which helped a bit but as I set off I wasn’t sure how fast I would be able to run.

I decided to start easy and see how I felt. I didn’t look at my watch so was quite happy when I downloaded my mile splits once I was home. I ran the first two miles in 7:59 and 7:44.

Then the next four miles were 7:13, 6:58, 7:05 and 7:18 so pretty consistent and a decent effort. My heart rate strap is still not working very well so it looks like I will have to replace it.

2014 is not quite over yet but my thoughts are very much on my big target for next year, namely, Lakeland 100 in July. I’m not going to really start my ultra specific training until the beginning of February but I’ve already started to prepare mentally for the race.

Videos of the route

When Dave & I prepared for the race in 2012 we made videos of each leg. They have proved very helpful to lots of people and I still get messages thanking us for doing them. So I’m going to watching them again regularly over the next few months so when I get back on the route it will hopefully feel very familiar. The videos are on Youtube and there is a link on the top menu Lakeland 100 videos.

All time personal bests

I started compiling all the races for the West Highland Way Race a few years ago and find it really interesting to see where I stand in the list of those who have completed that race. For anyone interested I’m 106th !!

Since then I have done it for the Highland Fling and the Hardmoors races. You can find them by clicking on the Triple Crown tab on the menu of this blog.

So I decided to compile a list of personal bests for Lakeland 100. The first race was in 2008 so there have been 7 races. According to my records my time of 34:33:59 puts me in 279th place out of 537 people who have completed the race at least once.

This is a good motivational tool for me as I would like to get higher up the list!! If I could finish under 30hrs I’d move up to 120th !!

Entry list for 2015

I took the list of those who have entered for 2015 and merged it with my all-time list and produced a spread sheet with past races which shows who has completed the race before.

According to this sheet I reckon 105 have completed the race at least once meaning 306 have not finished the race before. I’m not sure how many of those 344 have started before but not finished.