Wednesday, November 19, 2014

In the cause of Science

In late October I was perusing the Ultrarunning Community group on facebook and I came across a request for participants in a nutritional trial. The pre-requisites were that you were current running and had experience of running an ultra. You needed to be able to run for up to 16 hours.
Probably against my better judgement I made further enquiries thinking I would be too old and decrepit to be of any use but I'm afraid I was lassoed into the grips of the trial.
At the time of expressing my interest I was also not working full-time so did have a little more time on my hands.
By the time of the trial I had of course gone back into full-time work plus my extras, and travelling to Salford's Media City every day.  I had been selected for one of three groups - the nutrition for my group would be a combination of High Five drink from powder, gels and energy bars with a target of consuming between 40g and 60g per hour. We had all been delivered stocks to test out in advance so the Sunday of the preceding weekend, I took a combination with me on an 18 mile there and back run from Wilderswood to Darwen Tower via Winter Hill, Belmont and Catherine Edge.
Thus after work on Friday and a quick tea, finishing my packing including mattress, sleeping bag and a load of kit, I set off at about 8.30 to drive up to Stair near Keswick.
Arriving at about 10.30, I got very little sleep on the floor of the village hall before arising at 4.15 to make some porridge and await our induction at 5a.m.
After explanations regarding the testing process and then our first set of tests (blood samples, weighing and recording various state of health/feeling, the dozen participants were ready to embark on our first lap at about 5.50a.m.. On agreeing to take part, I was not the oldest participant, however, by the day,  that honour had passed on to me.
Off we went in the dark with fully charged head torches, taking care in the dark. Before long our head torches were glowing up the slope of Causey Pike. I've never previously ascended Causey Pike and it was fine for me although near the top it was getting quite challenging. The final bit, however, took a great deal of care in the dark and on wet rock as it was no longer running but scrambling with a rather precipitous drop. There were four of us in a group at the back and once we started descend on the other side I drifted to the back. Route finding was no problem as the route was very well marked.
The second half of the route was reasonably flat but much of the track was muddy on a strong camber so it was often easier to run on the rough ground. It was all very wet underfoot. The route was clockwise on the map with a run out and back to Stair.

My garmin had been on charge all day but still decided to pack in after an hour so I only have an estimate of my time at the moment of about 2hrs 55 - somewhere I have a print from the dibber but I'll get the full data when all the data has been analysed.
After my testing and a brew I was away on my second run, which was much quicker at 2hrs 27 (from my stopwatch, leaving my garmin to recharge. the day was brightening up and walkers were getting out on the hills.
On the third lap I decided it would be my last. I had plenty of stamina but decided it was far too great a risk to scramble up onto Causey Pike and risk serious injury. Having recharged my garmin, I completed in 2hrs 34 including some relatively fast pace towards the end.
Overall including breaks, My trial lasted for nearly 9 hours with over 8 hours of running and my 3 laps totalling 22 miles with 5,700ft of ascent will give useful data. I realised that I don't like gels, especially the feel of the foil : I only used one on my first lap and stuck to the drink and energy bars for the rest of the time. I was glad to have some other food at the finish.
It was very worthwhile. The drive back was tiring and would have been even more so had I completed the 16 hours - probably would have stayed over. I see that I had a represntative in the area of the UTUP last Stauday morning.

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