As promised, here are our "lessons learned" from the Transalpine Run.
Sorry it’s taken a little longer than expected – we've decided to stop delaying
our move out of London so have been busy getting our flat ready to go on the
market. Fingers and toes are now crossed
that it all goes smoothly! We are
definitely looking forward to being closer to the hills.
To make it as useful as possible to others, I think this entry is best
presented as a list. But if there's something you'd like me to go into in more
detail in a future post then just shout.
What we did well – training
In general we felt we did pretty much what we could given the
constraints of time / cash / annual leave etc.
And that really helped us psychologically going into the race as we both
agreed we’d “done our best”.
In terms of running training...
Training at Box Hill on steps and steep hills was invaluable – endless
reps up and down these weren’t the most exciting training but throughout the
race we agreed that we’d have really struggled without this. It was so relevant to the sorts of uphills we
encountered.
We ran most of our long runs together and also raced a couple of ultras
together. This meant we knew each
other’s pace, moods, strengths, weaknesses.
Knowing how to read each other and how to work effectively together
really helped us to work well as a team.
It was also fun to be able to spend so much time together during our
training – that’s not been the case previously when we’ve been training at
different paces / for different events.
In terms of gym training...
Calf raises / strengthening meant we didn't have Achilles problems in
race where many did due to the v long steep uphills.
And general gym training and conditioning was definitely key. I’d spent loads of time focusing on my core
and I really felt that paid off.
In terms of kit...
We’d run many many miles in our race day kit and so we had both found a
top / shorts / socks / bag / shoes / etc combo that we knew worked.
In terms of nutrition...
We’d both refined our feeding and drinking strategy over the year and
so went into the Transalpine knowing we had a strategy that worked. So we didn’t have to spend the first few days
of the race working this out. This was a
real advantage of having done some practice races as that’s definitely where I
highlighted some mistakes in my fuelling strategy.
What we did well – race
In terms of psychology...
We had committed to so many people at home that we were doing
this. Lots of people had sponsored us
and were following us on Facebook and Twitter throughout the event. This would have made it incredibly difficult
to pull out and was really motivating.
It never occurred to either of us we wouldn't complete the event – we only
realised this afterwards. But I am
certain that the fact that doubt never entered our minds and we had always
talked about getting to the finish was self-affirming.
In terms of our race strategy...
We followed the principle of one foot in front of the other / keep
moving forward. We kept telling
ourselves that we just had to keep “doing what we do”. Ironman training was really helpful here – we both
know our sustainable pace and this meant we were able to find that at the
beginning of the day / a hill and just keep going. Not stopping (especially on the uphills) was
important – we were able to make good time by just cracking on.
We kept telling ourselves it was all about the process. We had a process we followed each day and
then we tweaked it where necessary. This
extended to the feed stations – we had a process we followed and we spent as
little time there as possible.
Brett’s watch was really useful as it showed us altitude on the climbs and
timing on km markers. This helped us
with calculating our progress.
In terms of team work...
We felt we worked really well as a team. We had talked at length about our objectives
beforehand so we knew these were aligned, we constantly evaluated what was
going on throughout the race especially in the evenings, we stayed together the
whole race (lots of teams split up), we readjusted our plan together when my
knee problems started, we shared duties at feed stations to make sure stopped
for as little time as possible (e.g. Brett re-filled my water bottles if I
needed to go to the loo) and Brett even carried my bag for me when I was
struggling on one hill.
We communicated with each other constantly – while we were on the
course and then in the evenings, reviewing how things had gone during the day
and making any changes to our plan for the following day.
In terms of nutrition...
We had a nutrition strategy that worked as we had tested it in training
– whilst we used the feed stations we’d also brought a lot of food out with us
so we weren’t reliant on these.
Neither of us had any stomach problems and I managed the whole race
without having an energy gel – the two are probably related! We ate “proper” food throughout the event and
had lots of fruit and veg including at feed stations.
In terms of recovery...
I was a bit shocked when I jotted down the following list. Suffice to say we did a huge amount every day
to make sure we were as recovered as possible when we got to the start pen the
following morning:
- Eat a lot as soon as we’d finished the stage
- Have an “ice bath” where possible by jumping into a fountain
- Walk to our hotel to keep things moving
- Get compression gear (leggings and calf guards) on as soon as we’d
showered
- Have a glass of Cherry Active
- And then a glass of Super Greens
- And then a glass of Spirulina
- Put ice on knees and other sore bits
- Walk back to the pasta party
- Maybe have a massage while there
- Eat as much as possible
- Leave the pasta party as soon as we’ve finished eating – don’t hang
around and get tired
- Walk back to the hotel
- Stretch
- Do some mobilisation exercises (hip circles, ankle rotations and the
like)
- Self massage using the ITB roller and tennis ball
- Have arnica pillules about 4 times per day
- Take multivitamins
- Drink lots and lots of isotonic in the evenings
- Take salt tablets
- Take mag phos tablets
- If we were staying somewhere with a microwave – put a wheat bag (aka
huggy) in the microwave and strap this to quads / glutes / other tight bits
- And finally – get to bed as early as possible (usually around 8.30)
In terms of preparation...
We came out to Austria a week before the race so we were rested and
acclimatised.
In terms of kit...
I was really pleased I took two pairs of shoes with me – I swapped
after day 3 into my Inov8 Roclites which were perfect for the high mountain terrain.
And some things that have only become apparent a month after
finishing...
Protecting my knee and slowing down on days 6 and 7 (rather than taking
pain killers and pushing on) means it’s healed remarkably quickly. I was able
to start running again within 2 weeks.
I learnt from my previous experience of multi-day cycling events and was
quite stubborn about not entering any more races until after I’d finished the Transalpine.
I’m really pleased I did this as it
means I’m under no pressure now. At the
moment I'm just enjoying short easy stuff without any structure. My body still gets tired after 40 mins or so
and there's still a twinge in my knee when I stretch. So it’s good I'm not putting myself under any
pressure to get out and train.
What we'd do differently
More gym work – especially focusing on leg strength and plyometrics. We should have started doing this during the
winter (November ish) so that we had built up a good base level of strength by
the time we started doing longer runs / step reps out in the hills. This would be my absolute biggest thing I
would change – and is definitely something I will do next year regardless of
what my target race is. We’ve both done
lots of endurance racing over the years so the base fitness is there – it’s the
strength (and then speed work) which will make the difference now.
Linked in with this, we’ve agreed that in future we will do much more
focused training sessions. Other than my
midweek hills reps / fartlek sessions we tended to just run and try to get in
lots of back-to-back base mileage. Don’t
get me wrong – this was definitely a huge benefit and we both started the race
in much better physical condition than we’d been in 12 months previously. But in future we would have more structure to
our weekend training sessions. For example,
“this weekend we're focusing on downhill technique by doing reps on hill x” or “this
weekend we’re going to do back-to-back long runs”.
Downhill technique on technical descents was a massive limiter for us –
and for either of us to improve over long hilly races we have to improve on
this.
As I mentioned, we did well in terms of general endurance and strength
on the uphills. But we’d definitely
benefit from more long days in hills.
And coupled with this – from building more walking into our training –
fast purposeful walking that is.
The vast majority of people were using walking poles. We don’t regret not using these but could
appreciate that the people who had good technique and could use them
effectively really benefitted. So we
could improve by practising with these in training and learning good technique.
Brett cut out dairy, caffeine and refined sugars in April after really
struggling with fatigue and sinus problems.
This made a huge difference, especially cutting out milk. He would have benefitted a lot from cutting
this out earlier on as he lost about 2 months of training through being unwell.
He won’t like me for saying this but...
Brett’s shoes really struggled in the mud on the first couple of days and
his backup pair were also not suited to mud.
So he ended up buying a new pair of shoes mid-race – not ideal. We just hadn’t anticipated muddy terrain in
the high mountains.
I used Greeper laces on my trail shoes – they are also not great on
muddy trails as they tend to loosen up of their own accord. So I’d advise leaving them for road racing
and using normal laces on the trails.
So in conclusion
I just want to reiterate again that we were really pleased with the
training we did and how we worked together during the event. It was a huge challenge and we are both
incredibly pleased to have made it to the finish line. But there are definitely some tweaks we would
make if we were to take on something similar again. And hopefully what we’ve put in here can help
some other people in their training too.
