The retirement of Milo the mouse

5 months a go I posted a little blog about a knitted mouse. (for those who need a catch up click here)

That same little knitted mouse has been with me for pretty much every run I have done since that post.

We have covered about 300 miles together, through mud, rain, sun and even paint! 

As someone much smarter than me once said "pictures are worth a thousand words" so below in no particular order is a small selection of what we have been up to...

Milo getting some love before the Color Run

Milo hiking in Wales

Milo a little dirty after the color run!

Looking after the gear before the NDW50

The upgrade so he wouldn't get lost 

Happy flag for a happy Milo

Visiting Piglet!

Visiting Winnie the pooh

Bringing home the bacon on my first Ultra marathon NDW50

Milo rocking my 2nd Ultra marathon, Race to the Stones 100k

As you can see its been a crazy few months! The original plan was to send Milo off to join the line with the rest of the mice to help break the record. Unfortunately as you can appreciate after 2 Ultra marathons, the Color Run and well, 300 miles of being outside Milo is looking a little worse for wear and shouldn't really be given to any cat for fear that he may ride it off into the sunset! Instead Milo is being retired and a letter being sent with the funds raised, a bunch of other mice and a link to here with his story.

A huge thank you to everyone who has been following #milomiles and #mileofmice along the way on Twitter.

Its been fun little buddy, now put those little feet up!

Last wave from Milo before retirement

Cardiosaurus and Milo out!

Updates from Cardiosaurus Labs

Hi guys and girls, just a quick catch up!

As you already know I have been beavering away in the lab on my new creation. While doing this I have ended up getting a bit hooked on creating monsters and got sidetracked! While not strictly to do with running, I thought this little fella was worthy of some attention.

I shall do a full blog on this soon but for now, I present to you the work in progress, Espi the Espadrille!

I shall finish this little beast off then report back soon!

Catch you soon guys and girls

Cardiosaurus

"EGOR! FETCH ME MY CREATIVE TROUSERS!"

Hey folks sorry I have been a little quiet of late, I`ve been working on a monster down in the Cardiosaurus lab. MOOO HA HA HA HAAAAAA!!!

"The Beast" is coming....

I have been scavenging parts for my monster for a little while now and it seems to be coming along well.

I have skin and lashings, buckles and elastic. Cutting things, gluing others, all it needs now is a soul! MOOO HA HA HAAAAA!

(OK so that should be sole but I`m trying to be a bit scary here!)

Soon! Soon "The Beast" shall arise!! You shall see it in the woods, you shall see it in the pale glow of the street lights! Its coming!!!! 

Run you fools!! (see what I did there eh? eh?! You know because I`m a runner so there is a good chance its running related, you are probably also a runner so I mixed the two things implying impending doom and also....*ha hum* sorry you get the idea)

Till next time.......MOOOOO HAHAAAAAA HAAAA HAAA *cough cough* sorry.

Cardiosaurus

New experiments and the elaborate sales pitch

Hey guys just thought I would do a quick post as its been a couple of weeks.

My recovery from Race to the Stones went really well and I was back out running after about 3 days.

Recently I have started adding some barefoot training to my running in the hope to run a barefoot 5k soon.
Doing a little bit of barefoot also has the advantage of highlighting minor flaws in my form. I have discovered that I need to work on reducing friction on my right foot.

After having a chat with Adrian (one of the guys I met at Race to the Stones) who runs barefoot a lot, I think I have worked out that while I am pulling up with my left foot, I think I may be slightly pushing off with my right.
The idea is to try and only pull up instead of pushing off with each foot. Now in sandals I thought I was doing this already, barefoot helped to show me that I very nearly had it down but not quite. By taking the sandals off I could instantly feel what I needed to work on and why I tended to get blisters in that area.
Hopefully with a bit more time training barefoot it should have a big knock on effect with my sandal running.

Thanks for the tips Adrian! :) It would have taken me ages to work that out just on my own!
If you would like to chat with Adrian yourself you can find him on Twitter @MovNatRunr

Also to add to my training experimentation I have started Spinning. No, not around and around, hmm, could be a lot of fun and maybe balance training? Spinning as in "hell bike!" For those of you who would like to melt into a puddle in about 15 minutes, try spinning! Tough on the quads and will make you melt....I loved it! I have only had 2 lessons so far but I shall be going back for more this week.

In other news!

Mummysaurus dragged me to a sports shop.....ok wait that's a lie, I never need dragging!
She had been telling me in a very round about way, that as much as she believes in my training that she would like to go for a gait analysis, just to have a second opinion. Wonderful! I love learning and secretly was curious as to whether I was doing things right by her anyway!!
We arrived at the store armed with a bag full of light shoes and heavy opinions. Well maybe the heavy opinions were just with me?
After chatting for a bit it was time for the treadmill and video. The guy was really helpful and it pleasantly surprised me that he was telling her the truth about her running and not just trying to sell her shoes.
He took a few videos and then got her to stop and have a chat.
It turns out that not only was I right in my observations of her running style, the guy agreed that her form is pretty good and.....wait for it!! She is a natural barefoot runner!!!!!! WIN!!
He even said that the orthotics the doctor had given her were unnecessary for her running and that she should just keep doing what she is doing!! I love this guy! :D
Then just for bonus points, almost to prove the point that it was evidence and not an elaborate sales pitch, he proceeded to NOT show us any shoes as they didn't even stock the ones she was looking for! ha ha ha brilliant!
So Mummysaurus left with a confidence boost and a very big smile while I left with some Skins compression shorts and some sports lube......how the hell did that happen? Maybe it was an elaborate sales pitch after all?

Race for Life

Mummysaurus along with my Sister and Auntie all took part in the Race for life on Sunday and all did so well! My Sister Spood (long story) smashed her 5k PB by just over 6 minutes!! :o Amazing effort! Just have to convince her that if she was to train (yeah I know, makes you sick eh?!) she could really be fast!
My Auntie put in a wonderful effort at walking the 5k, well I say 5k. It was a good mile or so from the car park to the start line!! Her little legs were tired before they even started, making the effort she put in even more impressive. Mummysaurus and her 4 legged friend Alfie walked along with her, Alfie with his little wet coat on helping to keep him cool in the sun.
I could see Mummysaurus just itching to run, patience Grasshopper! :)
I`m sure there will be a write up coming soon if you guys want to keep an eye out then click the link below....

mummysaurus59.blogspot.co.uk

Right I think that will do for now.
Catch you guys again soon, keep smiling!

Cardiosaurus

Race to the Stones....well kind of!

So there was me thinking the training was in the bag. I had spent a long time as you all know running in all weathers. Well I say "all weathers" what I actually mean is typical English slightly overcast weather.
What I hadn't banked on was for the temperature to suddenly spike into the early 30`s!! BALLS!

Don`t get me wrong, I LOVE the sun, just not so keen on the idea of running 62 miles in 30 degree heat having never done it before! oh well, on with the show!

My beautiful, wonderful, adorable, (too far??) Fiancee drove me the 2 hours to the start line in time for an 8:15am kick off (see why I said all the lovey dovey stuff now?) we got there around 7:30am so I made my way to sign in then made a beeline for the loo before the last minute rush.

Spotted Luke Ashton AKA "UltraLuke" just before the start which was really nice as I had been chatting to him for a while on Twitter and also following his blog.

Meeting Ultra Luke (left) for the first time

Well worth a check! (click here for a link to his blog) Bit of a chat and a few photos later, we were lining up for the pre-race briefing then we were off!
Within about 30 seconds he was gone and I later found out he came 13th! Well done dude! :)

My plan was to run in my sandals without socks for as long as I could before adding them as per my North Downs Way 50 where I added them after 31 miles.

6 miles in and I was sitting on the ground adding lube and socks to my already warm feet!!! This was not part of the plan! Now pretty worried that my feet just were not up for the task this time I tried to put it out of my mind and just keep moving.
The sun was relentless. So much so that after around 7 miles I was reduced to a walk and that's pretty much how it stayed for many many miles to come.

Chatting away with people along the way just reaffirms my love for the Ultra distance. The type of people, the stories, the whole kit and caboodle! The way we can push each other along through, heat, pain and exhaustion is something to treasure. Nowhere else have I ever found this level of community.
Its these people that made the day what it was.

Aid stations can seem further away in this heat, like some beautiful carrot on a stick constantly just out of reach. On and on and on for what felt like forever until finally I could see a flag......then a sign!!
Aid station 2 "Is that it?! WHAT THE HELL?!!?" It was going to be a loooong day.

It had taken far longer than expected to reach even the 2nd aid station and I was starting to doubt myself.
Back at the start line I knew it was going to be hot but thought I would just take it easy and based on my first ultra I should have this thing done in around 15-16 hours. Piece of cake! I was wrong....very wrong.

My "piece of cake" became, "just keep moving!" which became, "just get to the next aid station"!
My goals become shorter in the heat. I am no longer thinking of the whole thing, its too much to think about!

Time moved on and on and on and on, the sun didn't.
I was very aware that I had to keep on top of my food and water or this could quickly become a very bad day, however the sun again had other ideas.

Aid stations came and went, each one I cherished the small reprieve from the heat. I tried to eat and drink and not get too comfy in the shade.

Aid station 5 was a tough one for me. 48k in and it had already taken just over 9 hours! Mentally it was a big strain to think that I had to do another 52k, worse still was realising that it could take another 10 hours in this heat!
I had to focus on what I could control right now, think small. "How am I feeling?" Bit achy I guess but that's to be expected. "Hungry, thirsty?" Not really and I don't really want a drink. WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
My mental dashboard blinking away frantically trying to override my foggy mind.

For those yet to have the pleasure, let me give you a little heads up...
Simply put, going off of your food and water is a bad sign and not just for the obvious reason that you have nothing to fuel you anymore. Its also a sign of dehydration and electrolyte imbalance. Basically if you don't do something about it as soon as you can its going to be all downhill from here on in!
Now the tough part about this feeling is how subtle it can be. It creeps up on you in stages.

So how do you know what to look for?
Here are a few signs that I have found myself, some minor, some major...

Upon reaching an aid station you find nothing looks tasty. Not such a big deal, not everyone likes aid station food.....Warning 1.
You reach into your bag for your favourite snack, unwrap it, take a bite..."I don't want this anymore"....Warning 2
You have been carrying that banana for 3 miles looking at it in the same way most school kids look at Brussel sprouts.....Warning 3
You realise you have stopped sweating. This may feel great but its not a good sign...Warning 4
Not sure when you last took a mouthful of water? Keep your mind on the game!.....Warning 5
Realising the previous point you take a mouthful of water and don't want to swallow it!....Major warning!!!

You could probably get away with most of these for a while but you can only pass it off as "it will sort itself out" for so long before you find yourself in a pretty bad way, maybe not even realising why!

I had to force feed myself both food and water knowing that it was the only way that I was going to get through the rest of this, the lesser of two evils and all that!

I spent about half an hour at Aid station 5. Forcing some pasta down, drinking and stretching. I really, really didn't want to be eating hot pasta in 30 degree heat but my desire to finish the race got the job done and got me back on my feet!

Finally leaving the aid station with a tower of a man who I had been running with since around mile 5.
Dennis had greeted me with "hey! Did you just do the North Downs in May?" yep! I said "thought so, I recognised your feet! I finished just in front of you!"
Small world eh?! As it turns out I was number 1 and he was number 2!
We had been chatting away when we bumped into 3 other guys that seemed to be going at the same pace so we all hung about together, chopping and changing depending on who was walking and who was running.

We laughed, moaned and swore our way from station to station pulling each other along.
Joking that we should be running behind Dennis so we could take shade in his shadow. That I should stay over the other side of the trail to keep the flies away from everyone else as they seemed to have a bit of a thing for me! This continued into the night until finally the flies went to bed.

The sun had finally set but the temperature wasn't really dropping. Still we figured a little longer and it will drop enough that we could put in some bigger stints of running to make up some time.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning Dennis went off a little in front while the rest of us had a walk break. "wow he is giving it some, eh?" I said to the others as the light from his head torch darted down the trail and off around the corner. We had a little jog again to see if we could catch him up. We never saw him again! Dennis sent me a Tweet later saying sorry but he suddenly felt really good and just had to go with it!

Nothing to be sorry about, it is a race after all! :D

So now we were 4. We pushed on and on over rocky roads, thick grass, chalk, flint, hills and gates until we could start hearing the birds chirping the new day in.
It`s a very strange but wonderful feeling to know that you have just run through the night.
It started to get light enough to finally take the head torches off. Good thing too as we were approaching a very rutted section that would have been really tricky in the dark!
By now we were all tired and really just wanted to see those stones! Instead we saw a Badger! Pretty cool, never seen a live one before. Unfortunately it didn't hang around long enough to ask us what the hell we were doing and darted off into the grass.

We crested a hill and Courtney said "I think that's them!" we looked down the hill and to the right and could just make the stones out in the distance!!

Lifted by the idea that we were close we pushed on as quick as our tired bodies would let us.

At the bottom of the hill we could see a lady walking up. "That`s my wife!" said a very relieved Andrew.
They had a chat while the rest of us had a little jog down the hill.

The approach to the stones felt like a life time. We could now see them in the field below! It was then that we saw a handwritten sign that read Loop around the stones ........"erm.....guys?! This isn't the finish!!!" the words fell out of my mouth like a brick.
We made our way along the road to a guy who told us to go through the gate, through the 2 stones then head to the bottom of the field and back down the road we just came down!!!

We stopped and had a few photos at the stones (as you do!) then made our way, all be it a little disappointed to the end of the field and out the gate.

We were all under the impression that as it was called Race to the Stones that we would firstly, get to see all the stones and secondly, finish at the stones!!! This rather disappointingly was not to be the case. The finish instead was back up the road, into a field, across the field and the finally we were on the home straight!

The finishing line was in the distance, a nice flat road under our feet, about 400 meters from us and that line we had been dreaming of all this time.
Courtney initiated the jog with a "come on boys!" and off we went. We were going to run the last bit, all be it slowly but we were going to run it!
200 meters to go we all formed a line and ran shoulder to shoulder, big silly grins on our faces as we crossed the line together!

Adrian, Andrew, Courtney and Me at the end of Race to the Stones

Dennis, Adrian, Courtney and Andrew. You made it the day it was for me, and I sincerely thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the journey.

Till next time folks!

Cardiosaurus

It won`t get you in trouble.....

So 24 hours to go till Race to the Stones and im getting really excited! So much so in fact that I have been checking out Trail Porn...........

OK wait! Don`t stop following me and report me just yet!

As the name (may) suggest, Trail Porn is a website full of beautiful photographs of trails from around the world, not scantily clad trees in rude poses.

There are some beautiful pictures on there to admire and inspire and it got me thinking about updating my own pictures. Also if anyone knows of any sites or has beautiful pictures of their own then please post links or mail me and I shall add a blog about them.

Right trail heads I need to get my kit together for tomorrow! :)

Take a look, honest its just running! www.trailporn.com

Peace peeps!

Cardiosaurus

The beginning of the "Mummysaurus"!

Hey guys and girls quick post about my new project!

I am attempting to create a monster! MOOOO HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAA! *cough* *cough* sorry about that......

My mum has always said that she is not a runner, too old, blah blah blah...then she mentioned that she would one day like to run the race for life 5k all the way....before she had a chance to rescue those words I jumped in and said....."CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!" :D

The challenge - To get my non running mum (henceforth to be known as Mummysaurus) to complete a full 5k running and hopefully smiling one year from now!

Last night saw the first part of her training with a 5k walk/run and some handy tips about balance and breathing. She did really well and was very surprised at how well some of my tips worked so I thought I would pass on a couple here.

When walking up hill, shorten your stride, lengthen your spine and lean slightly forward over your knees. Try not to bend from the waist as you do this. Imagine you are in the Moonwalker bar scene!

Well.....OK maybe not that far but you get the idea!

The next little tip to practice when walking is to time your breathing to your feet.
Breath IN, 2,3,4 OUT, 2,3,4 and repeat obviously, as breathing only once wont get you very far at all.

Right I think that is enough for now and I shall keep you all updated with the progress of the Mummysaurus!

Till next time running fans!

Cardiosaurus

2 weeks till Race to the Stones!

So as the title says, I have 2 weeks now till Race to the Stones!!

Time to taper and worry about how the training or lack of training went.
This is also a time to start thinking about kit.

As you all know by now I am a bit of a kit nut, I love anything that will make my journey just that little bit nicer! This ties in nicely with some Quad compression sleeves that I was sent by the folks at 2XU. Thanks guys and girls!

So what are Quad compression sleeves?

                                                                                                                                                                                           

Well in short they are sleeves that go over your Quads, kind of like a tube sock.

Adding compression to the muscles is meant to give support and stability whilst also helping to reduce muscle fatigue and damage.

I have been testing these out since finishing my first Ultra marathon back in May and so far they are pretty good!

On days when my legs are a little tired, I just pull these on and they help to take a little of the strain away in my Quads and Hamstrings.

I find them pretty comfortable, breathable and they do a pretty good job of taking the moisture away.

My only small gripe with these is they tend to bunch up a little at the top and slightly move down. Not a big deal on a short run but it can start to get a little uncomfortable on longer runs. I would be really interested in trying out the full on shorts of these for longer distances. Overall I am pretty happy with them and they are great to use after a hard run as I have found for me they speed up my recovery time. WIN!
They will be part of my kit for sure!

Talking of my kit, here is a list of stuff that will be on me for my second Ultra!
Ultimate Direction AK Race vest, Montane Atomic jacket, Montane Terra pants, Injinji socks,whistle, compass and paracord, Luna sandals, cold killer gloves, Buff, medical tape, vaseline, head torch, Elete water, pain killers, hey fever tablets, safty pins, long sleeve Hind top, Vita Coco water, 1x 650ml bottle, Chia seeds, 6x GU gels and last but not least a knitted mouse on a carabiner!

I am going to take the risk of not taking spare shoes this time as the Injinji did me proud!

Oh well! Not long to see if its the right choice or not!!!

Play nicely kids!

Cardiosaurus

Updates!

Hey guys and girls hope you are all doing well!

Just thought I would do a quick update post of things to come.
I am currently testing out some quad compression gear from 2XU and shall get to work on a review as soon as I have some decent testing done.

The Earth Runners Alpha sandal update will come soon as I have been putting some miles on them.

I should really get round to doing a review of my Ultimate Direction AK vest as well!!
AAAH! So much to catch up on! ha ha ha!

My training miles are starting to go up again as I have signed up for Race to the Stones in July!!
It looks like it is going to be a very pretty one and it will also push my distance PB up to 100km!
I'm really looking forward to this one as there is less pressure to hit cut off times and I already know I can do 50 miles. Whats another half marathon on top between friends eh? ;) ha ha ha

So that's Race to the Stones in July and I have also booked my first 24 hour self transcendence race for September! I must be nuts! 24 hours and a running track.......oh dear.....that's gonna be a tough one not to loose my marbles on! :D

With all this madness aside I feel humbled and honoured to have inspired some people around me to get into running! My sister "Spood" and her partner "Nuke Sky walker", my cousin "team Flint" and drum roll please!!...................... "Mummysaurus" looks set to join the crew!!! All of which are working hard to hit their own personal goals and in turn inspire each other to keep going! Big thumbs up to you all!

Right that's me for now as I have loads of training to catch up on!

Don`t forget to smile peeps! :D

Cardiosaurus

Getting grounded the Earth Runner way!

I got sent a beautiful pair of sandals and just had to show you guys!
                                                                     

Alpha from Earth Runners

These wonderfully crafted beasties are my new toys from Earth Runners! Have a read about these guys at the site here (click to go to Earth Runners) for a quick bio on them.

I have known about Earth Runners for a while now from people mentioning them in the sandal world and what really intrigued me was all the talk about "earthing". Now I need to do some research on this myself and I would advise you to do the same as from what I have found so far it is fascinating!
Rough idea so far is that we pick up a lot of interference from the technology around us and we should "ground" ourselves to...well kind of reset I guess and return to our natural voltage?!
Interesting idea eh?
The best way to ground yourself is to walk about outside barefoot for at least 15 minutes but as we all know this isn't always the easiest thing to do.
This is what got my attention from the designs of the guys at Earth Runners. They have incorporated copper plugs and thread into the sandal to allow the wearer to be grounded while protecting your feet at the same time! You can walk around all day continually grounding yourself.

copper thread running up the white mesh

In the picture opposite can see the white kind of mesh? Well that is where the copper thread runs. Connected to the copper plug at the bottom it runs up the front and connects to another copper piece on the top of the foot to assist with the grounding.
Pretty clever eh?!

In the picture below you can see the toe plug and then two plugs that go straight through the foot bed for a better connection. These two plugs also act as an anchor for two D ring style holes for the laces.

toe plug and two side plugs

Below you can see the last connector on this model that rests on the outside of the foot.
Just above it, the buckle.

The buckle is sturdy, holds the lace well and it is very quick to adjust. I also like the way that you can take the lace all the way out as on my Luna you couldn't do this and it sometimes made the adjustment a little tricky.

The first time I picked up the Alpha to be honest I wasn't sure about the sole choice. They felt almost too light and I was worried that the Birkenstock sole just wasn't going to cut it.

I was wrong, very wrong.

I was still slightly recovering from my first 50 mile Ultra marathon when I first got these so unfortunately as yet I haven't been able to run in them but BOY DO I WANT TO!!

I needed to go in to London but tendinitis in my foot was making my choice of footwear a little difficult as the top of my foot was hurting.

"hmm I wonder?..." I thought to myself as I buckled up my Alpha.

buckle and side foot plug

They felt great straight away and having only the one strap across my foot was perfect for my tendinitis! WIN! 

So off we went to London and already after only 5 minutes of being in them I was amazed at how secure they were and how much they actually felt like a shoe! Having the strap at the front of the ankle was really comforting but did take a little bit of time to get the right tension. I was forever making it slightly too tight, this however wasn't really a big deal as they were so quick to adjust.

The suede foot bed is so comfortable and I cant wait to see what it is like to run on. I am even more curios to see what happens when you get it wet as this is a big issue with sandals as it can cause you to slip around a lot.

I walked all around in these for 11 hours and my feet felt great! I did have to stop every now and then to adjust them but im sure that will stop once I have found the sweet spot!

I know this might sound a little hippie but I have to write it down here as I think it is a very important thing to add. The whole time I was walking around I felt calm. I understand that this in itself doesn't sound like a big deal but I have to try and explain the kind of calm that it was. Tranquillity, still, centred, are a few words that come to mind. Now this could have been because the sun was out, it could have well been just in my head or it could be down to actually being grounded. You know something? I want more!
If that's what being grounded  feels like, sign me up!
A few of you may be staring at the screen right now thinking I have lost my marbles, some may think its all rubbish. For those of you who decide to grab a pair will be very glad you did!

Head over and check them out on Kick Starter (click) and get grounded!!

I cant wait to get back to running next week to start putting some serious miles on these!

Watch for updates guys this is not the last you will see of the Earth Runners!

Peace peeps!

Cardiosaurus