Training, Planning and Running the DW Race

I think it’s fair to say that this Saturday training with my dad was the hardest I have done to date. Bearing in mind that I had run up the Wrekin on Thursday night I wasn’t exactly over the moon when I was told that we would be doing more hill work.

There is a flight of steps in the town park which are about 150 metres long. The steps themselves are spaced a little over a metre apart and each rise is a half buried railway sleeper. From the top of the steps there is a nice bow shaped, gentle slope down which takes you back to the bottom of the steps.

After half a mile run in we got to the steps. We then upped the speed and powered up the steps. They are spaced just close enough to be able to take each step in a bound but to be able to do so, you need to keep the momentum up so for the entire flight of steps I was at a near sprint.

I took the heart rate monitor this weekend and long before I hit half way up it started to urgently beep that my heart was about to explode (It still thinks that I am 70 years old so whenever my heart rate hits 170bpm or higher it panics) getting to the top on the first run my heart rate hit 220bpm.

We had a nice slow jog back down to the bottom, only for me to be told that we were going to do this five more times.

Second run up was hard, heart rate nearly as high legs starting to hurt.
Third run was a crippler, chest felt restricted, breathing was hard. Heart rate monitor was taken off to take the load of my chest. Legs agony. Jog down reduced to walking pace.
Fourth run I was hurting. I could no longer bound up the stairs one at a time and had to reduce my stride length.
Fifth run. Legs burning, chest hurting, short stride length needed a few minutes at the top to recover. The shin splint pain cam back and was forced to hobble for a bit.
Sixth was where I broke myself. I was reminded of the mile long portage in the DW race and I was spurred on for one last push. Full sprint, massive stride length, screaming agony. I got to the top absolutely fucked. It felt as though someone had replaced my lungs for molten lava, but that was nothing compared to the pain in my lower legs. The half mile run out was a horrible half jog half hobble.

I then rested for the rest of the weekend and my shins still hurt today, I might take the bike out for some cardio tonight but I’m going to not run for a couple of days.