Two months on from the Bob... Immediately post-round, things felt great, as they often do. I knew that I needed to wait for the DOMS to subside to see if there was any damage to my body, and I suspected that I would have at least one or two niggles, having noticed some knee pain during the round.
The knee pain presented as expected when I first tried to run, a week later – the type of outside knee pain that’s consistent with a tight ITB and glute. That made sense, as I could feel a lot of tightness through the upper chain on that side too. When I’ve experienced this type of pain before, it’s been relatively simple to rehab – stretch, foam roll, massage – get the tightness out and then wait for the inflammation to subside. This proved to be the same pattern; within around a month I had cleared the pain in my knee and was running with no issues there.
I still have a fair few other niggles, mainly in my lower back and hip - I think these have been caused by the high load of the Bob training and day itself combined with some long hours at my laptop. It's taking longer to shift these, but I can still run. In fact, I'm now pretty much back to my pre-Bob volume, but without much intensity yet. I'm also still mentally very much recovering from an intense spring; I have found that I haven't yet got the appetite back for hard, structured sessions. A consequence of all of this is that I've made the decision not to compete at the Lakeland 100 (which I entered before I planned to do the Bob!). Although I'm running well, I'm not ready for the load of another huge event, and the recovery period which will follow - I want to enjoy a summer of easy running!
Aside from the physical impacts, I’ve had time to reflect on the round itself – what went well (which was a lot!) and a few things I want to develop, or might do differently next time round.
My main take home learning in terms of things that went well is that my 24 hour endurance was up to the task. I was physically and mentally strong for 90% of the round, which is the outcome of years of building up base fitness and undertaking long duration events, as well as the specific hill training that happened in the build up to the round. I made a decision in training not to do the ‘double leg’ days that many contenders do. I felt they’d take too much out of me, and require too much recovery – and felt they weren’t necessary. This turned out to be spot on; I already had the required endurance. My self-management over the duration was largely good – I kept on top of pacing and fuelling, and when I didn’t feel able to manage those for myself any more, I let my pacers know how I needed them to support me. Although as time went by my coordination suffered and my descent became slower, I was climbing strongly on the final ascents of the round. I also suffered no foot issues at all, and did four out of five legs in the same pair of socks – I attribute this to long hours spent on soggy fells!
I did pretty well on problem solving – I dealt with a painful stomach during leg 2 and a painful knee on leg 3, and was able to continue. Leg 4 was when fuelling became tough – my ‘sweet’ taste receptors had had enough, and everything sugary started to taste bitter. I realised quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to rely on myself to keep fuelling on schedule, and asked the pacers to cajole, persuade and bully me into eating at regular intervals.
My mental game was good. At the start of the training block I regularly became overwhelmed by the scale of the task. Coach Kim had to mop up a number of crises of confidence, usually after I’d been out to run a leg and discovered it ‘wasn’t fast enough’. As training progressed, I gradually became more comfortable with the idea of the 24 hour time pressure as a challenge, not a threat. I accepted the possibility of failure, and with it the idea that failing the round didn’t make me, Jenny, a failure. Indeed, the world’s best athletes fail regularly, because they are trying to achieve such lofty goals. I adopted the training mantra ‘I’m not scared to fail, I’m excited to try’, and this mental shift helped hugely. On the round itself, the mental strength was needed in leg 4. By Steeple, it had become apparent that 24 hours was gone. Coach Kim was there to tell me that sub-25 remained possible, if I could get back close to schedule pace. I took up the challenge, and am proud that I was able to pivot to chasing a new goal, when the one I’d worked so hard for in training had gone.
Finally, in the positive list – I loved it! Leg 1 and 2 in particular were completely magical, but even later when I was suffering, the whole experience was incredible.
For all that I’m pleased and proud with how I ran my round, I have learning points for the future. First and foremost is that I need to keep working on my technical skill and fast descents. My quads suffered more than I’d hoped, and earlier – which means I’m not spending enough time challenging them in descent. That tallies with my experience in training – I’m aware that I often run at an easy jog downhill rather than pushing myself to run hard. I also need to spend (even!) more time on the tricky terrain around Bowfell and the Scafells – technical running has always developed slowly for me, but I need to accept that I will progress at my own pace, and keep training those skills. The combo of trashed quads and technical skill really hindered my progress in leg 4 – my coordination suffered, and I was only able to achieve a fast march on terrain that I can normally run.
The other big learning point was around fuelling. For all that this generally was excellent, I stopped eating at two crucial points – the Seat Sandal and Scafell descents. I think that in both cases I was concentrating on descending, and had decided to sort things out when I got to the changeover. In the end, I ran through both changeovers, and in any case, fuelling at that point would have been too late for the next climb. I was slow up Steel Fell and Yewbarrow, I think because I was underfuelled. I also needed more savoury food and less dry stuff. I had quite a lot of dry food, but wasn’t able to eat this even on the first climb. Ideas for the future include babybel cheese and pork pies!
Finally, I should have booked more time off work! I knew I would be fatigued afterwards, but I wasn’t expecting this to last for most of a week, and had planned the round before a particularly busy work week. It made recovery unpleasant and challenging – next time I will schedule more down time afterwards to give my full attention to recovery.
A couple of positive practical points that I’d recommend to anyone considering their own round – take advantage of the opportunity to change shoes at Newlands. Before the round, I’d been undecided about whether having a pair of road shoes for the final 4 or so road miles would be worth the time for the change. Immediately I put the shoes on, I shot off down the road as if I had rockets on my feet! It was worth it several times over. Next time, even if I’m very tight for time, I will stop for the shoe change again.
Secondly, psychology was crucial. I spent time with my sports psychologist before the big day, and he helped me identify my ‘why’, and pick some mantras to use during the round. My ‘why’ turned out to be deceptively simple – because I wanted to! When things got tough, I reminded myself that I love to be on the hill, that I chose to be there, and that having my support team there with me was an awesome privilege. In the end, it was the idea of the team that got me through. One of my mantras was ‘do it for the team’. Towards the end of leg 4, I had a major mental crux point. Between Kirk Fell and Great Gable, there’s the opportunity to cut the leg short and descend straight to Honister. At that point, I really wanted to choose that option! I was tired, hungry, and knew that 24 hours was gone. It was only by thinking about all the people who had come out to help me, and who were waiting at Honister to help me, that I continued. Since there was nothing wrong with me except being tired and hungry, how could I bail out? I also thought about how it would feel to get in the car and be driven back to Keswick – and the thought of that feeling made it clear that I wanted to go on.
Finally, I want to expand a bit on the role of the team. I am an incredibly independent person, but the Bob truly takes a village. If I can do something by myself, I will, and the idea of relying on others to help or support me is quite uncomfortable. At the start of my Bob preparation, I was determined to be as independent as possible. Specifically, I wanted to carry my own kit, fuel and water, rather than let the pacers do this. Thankfully my sports psychologist (he’s really very good!) talked me out of this. He pointed out that insisting on being independent would be to handicap myself, making it more likely that I would not succeed. Given that the team have come to support in order to enable my success, it doesn’t make any sense to do things that don’t give the team the best chance of success. So I leaned into this – it turns out that people really want to help. The entire team were awesome, but a key component was my leg 1 pacer. A very experienced, strong runner with multiple BG assists under his belt, he essentially taught me what a pacer can do – running at my side to let me take on fluid, handing me food unwrapped, taking my poles so I could eat, running ahead to open gates, and half a dozen other tiny tasks that all contributed to the overall goal of keeping me moving as fast as possible. This set the tone for the rest of the round, in that I’d seen the effect of superb pacing, and didn’t feel uncomfortable asking for these things later on. Although I think the team might have raised an eyebrow when I was asking to be fed three M’n’Ms at a time!
Ultimately as the contender you need to allow people to help you, which involves being vulnerable. It even feels like my individual relationships with my crew and pacers changed – I feel our relationships are stronger because I accepted their help in a situation where I had to be vulnerable.
In sum, it's pretty simple! I had the best ever day out in the hills, with a bunch of amazing people, and I can't wait to have another go to put my learning into practice and get that sub-24 return to the Moot Hall.
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