This article describes the background to Roger Taylor’s entry to the race, and the specific training he employed to finish 2nd at the 2019 Mourne Way Ultra Marathon. This race in Northern Ireland goes from Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor County to Newcastle on the East and back, a total of 52 miles with 8000 ft of ascent.
Many thanks to Roger for allowing me to publish this report and extract from his training diary.
Roger’s words: “I’ve won other races and probably had better times but this race meant something to me. My father’s family have lived in and around the area of Newry in Northern Ireland. My grandfather showed me a headstone in the area from the 16th century! We were farmers and teachers from what he told me in that area for such a long time. In my twenties I started to visit Ireland more and at times hiked around the Mourne mountains with my dad and uncle. I always loved the area. I even spent some time living and working there for a short stint. Years later I heard about the Mourne Way Ultra Marathon and I had my heart set on a podium. This took 3 attempts. On my first in 2016 I was 4th overall. In 2018 I dnf’d with a bout of rhabdomyolysis, an infection of the kidneys (you find that out in not a pleasant way, feel free to Google).
Skip forward to 2019 and I wanted to go back to see if I could attain my dream of a podium at the Mournes! In April I was planning on running the London marathon. My training was going great, I PB’d at the half marathon distance (1:20hrs) in preparation for London. All my long runs were great. 6:20 – 6:30 min average pace for 20+ miles felt easy. Unfortunately a few weeks later I had a sharp pain in my left hip, which led me to completely stop running. For those who know me, I don’t stop at much so this was a shock for me. I had multiple physio visits and eventually started to “slowly” train again.
Fortunately Kim Collison https://kimcollison.co.uk was assisting me with training plans (and still is). He suggested a lot more endurance and strength exercises, most of which bored the crap out of me but paid dividends. I also at the time utilised the gym at work which had a weekly pilates class which I attended, and hated for the most part, but I saw some real improvements. I did a thing called “stretching”. Even with all that in mind I still don’t know how I bounced back mentally or physically.
The race went well. I had a minor navigation error as they changed the route from last year. And slight gut pains around 30 miles (won’t go into details but if you know me you can probably guess). In the last 9 miles I could see the guy in 3rd and had to put an effort in to break away. My finish time was 8 hours 41 minutes and my target time was 9 hours so I was really pleased with this result!”
Here’s what the final 6 weeks up to the race looked like in terms of training:
Week one:
29/4/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 10.3 miles – 07:51min pace
30/4/19 – 1:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 4.48 miles – 12:06min pace + Drills + 0:30 – Max Strength Session
1/5/19 – Rest day
2/5/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 10.2 miles – 07:51min pace + 0:45 – Endurance Exercises
3/5/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 8 miles – 09:39min pace
4/5/19 – 1:30 – Kickboxing
5/5/19 – 1:30 – Long Run – Trails (HR) – 11.5 miles – 09:19min pace
Week two:
6/5/19 – 1:10 – Endurance – Trails (Zone 2 HR) – 7.96 miles – 08:30min pace
7/5/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 10.5 miles – 07:28min pace + Drills + 0:35 – Max Strength Session
8/5/19 – Rest day
9/5/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 10.3 miles – 08:04min pace + 0:40 – Endurance Exercises
10/5/19 – Rest day
11/5/19 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 7.71 miles – 08:00min pace + 1:30 – Kickboxing
12/5/19 – 2:30:09 – Long Run – Trails (HR) – 18.9 miles – 08:40min pace
Week three:
13/5/19 – Rest day
14/5/19 – 1:15 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 2) – 10.2 miles – 07:52min pace + Drills + 0:30 – Max Strength Session
15/5/19 – 1:10 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 8.34 miles – 08:53min pace
16/5/19 – 1:00 – Moderate Effort (HR) – 7.94 miles – 08:05min pace + 0:45 – Endurance Exercises
17/5/19 – 0:40 – Recovery Run (HR) – 3.91 miles – 09:31min pace
18/5/19 – 1:31 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 11.1 miles – 08:31min pace + 1:30 – Kickboxing
19/5/19 – 2:41 – Long Run – Trails (HR) – 18.6 miles – 09:20min pace
Week four:
20/5/19 – Rest day
21/5/19 – 1:16 – Endurance – Trails (Zone 2 HR) – 10.2 miles – 07:51min pace + Drills + 0:30 – Max Strength Session
22/5/19 – 1:10 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 7.68 miles – 8:45min pace
22/5/19 – 1:10 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 8.00 miles – 08:38min pace
23/5/19 – 1:15 – Moderate Effort (HR) – 10.4 miles – 07:27min pace + 0:45 – Endurance Exercises
24/5/19 – 1:00 – Recovery Run (HR) – 5.84 miles – 10:34min pace
25/5/19 – 2:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 14.6 miles – 09:21min pace
26/5/19 – 3:30 – Long Run – Trails (HR) – 23.2 miles – 09:02min pace
Week five:
28/5/19 – 1:17 – Endurance – Trails (Zone 2 HR) – 10.6 miles – 07:16min pace + Drills + 0:30 – Max Strength Session
29/5/19 – 1:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 7.62 miles – 8:48min pace + 1:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 7.61 miles – 8:38min pace
30/5/19 – 4:40 – Moderate Effort (HR) – 14.1 miles – 07:51min pace + 0:45 – Endurance Exercises
31/5/19 – 1:20 – Recovery Run (HR) – 6.87 miles – 10:24min pace
1/6/19 – 2:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 15.7 miles – 09:06min pace + 1:30 – Kickboxing
2/6/19 – 4:00 – Long Run – Trails (HR) – 26.7 miles – 09:24min pace
Week six RACE WEEK:
3/6/19 – Rest day
4/6/19 – 1:10 – Tempo Intervals – 10.2 miles – 08:02min pace
5/6/19 – 1:00 – Base Endurance Run (HR Zone 1/2) – 7:58 miles – 08:53min pace
6/6/19 – Rest day
7/6/19 – Rest day – due to travelling to Ireland left me tired
8/6/19 – Mourne Mountain ultra (50 miles) – 52 miles – 10:15min pace (8182ft ascent)
If you would like High Performance Runner to publish an extract from your training diary for a successful result at a specific event please contact me
