1st Mountain Event!

Hello you Fell Runners!

A bit of background. I'm into mountaineering mainly but just generally love being out in the hills & mountains doing anything. I need to boost my fitness for a couple of things I've got planned and figured an easier mountain marathon would be a good place to start.

I've entered the Oggie 8 which is a charity event for Ogwen Mountain Rescue in August. It's 24k with 2,500m ascent and I'm hoping for <8hrs if I can.

I've not trained 'regularly' since 2008, though I always dabble every now and then. I guess the climbing and walking in the hills goes some way to keep me fit.

I've worked out a training regime for the 8 weeks leading up to the event and wanted to see what people thought.

I've done the 1st week and apart from my legs and knees being a bit stiff there doesn't seem to be any ill effects!

Day 1 - Long MTB ride starting at 25km
Day 2 - Trail run at a 'pushing' it pace
Day 3 - Swim, starting at 20min
Day 4 - Long trail "jog/walk", starting at 10km

The aim of the program is to increase the times/distances by 5 to 10% each week and its more than likely that they won't necessarily be in the same order to due work commitments. There will be a rest day after no more than 2 consecutive days.

I also cycle to work at least 3 times a week which is an 18k round trip, mostly on a canal tow-path taking 25 to 30 minutes each way, and I climb 1 day with hopefully a couple of mountain days a month. In fact the long MTB ride and the Swim are both combined with this commute, plus one on a rest day.

Any comments of how I could tweak this would be gratefully received.

Hi Pepperpot - welcome to the Forum

I'm sure you'll get a stack of responses but I'll kick off with one of the regular replies to this type of enquiry.

The LDWA organise a brilliant calendar of events across the UK throughout the year. Many of the runners on the Forum turn out on these events and the feedback is universally good (the food is always a highlight). You can run/jog/walk or any combination of the three and there's been a very laid-back, sociable atmosphere at every one that I've ever turned out for.
Get onto the LDWA website and look for events that fit with where you're based (Incidentally it will really help people to offer the advice you're after if you fill in the location bit of your profile so that we know if there's any local action for you). You can then use these as milestones to build up a training plan that's got the right level of challenge to get you to the MM and your ultimate goal.

I'm with Tinyman (like the new avatar;)) the best thing for the longdistance stuff is time on your feet, the one thing that does seem to be missing from your training regime is hill work. It looks like there is the best part of 8,000ft of climbing so if you can get some long steep hill reps in this will help.

Tip for the race day is go easy up the first hill, don't get dragged in to the "race" too early or lots will stream pass you on the last hill.

after a few races you'll learn what pace to start at