Thames Trot 50 Training

I had that thought when I entered last year, then when I looked on the map realised it comes off the river. If you must do a recce then do the hilly bit from 30miles and goto the end. The first 30 is pretty straight forward.

Is that on page 9 of the map? Around Basildon CP? So go to Streatley and run from there? (Sorry, but I really don't know that part of the country at all).

That all sounds a lot more complicated than I expected. I haven't studied the map yet or ever run the parts of the path for much beyond Abingdon so a recce might be a good idea!

Lemony, its not much more complicated - I'm a hopeless navigator but if you go by the points I made earlier, the rest is plain "sailing" (Thames pun :P)

DB, Yep, top of p9 is the start of the hill, then the top of p10 is the off-river part which is worth doing at the same time. Let us know what you think when you get back

slaneuk: okay; I'll try to get there for a recce run.

lemony and LLB and anyone else local what about scheduling a recce run together like you suggest from the tricky bit to henley one weekend soon?  i reckon i can get the other half to drop us off, maybe someone else pick up?  or i can ask him to do both !!  what do you think?  i am slow though - that sort of distance i would be happy to average 10kph...  havent dared try the oxford - sandford bit lately after the mud warnings...anyone else been down there? i  will try north of oxford this weekend and see how muddy that is.  The path in oxford is flooded in two places on fiddlers island, passable as only shin deep... 

I think the only bit where I would have welcomed a recce was pangbourne (ort maybe goring) to reading. Its not that it isn't well sign posted but after 30 miles by the river confidence is a bit undermined when you leave the river and have to trust to the sign posts.

Hi Laura,

Sounds like a good idea, though the next few weekends in November are a bit too busy for me. Perhaps in early Dec?

The Oxford-Sandford (and on to Abingdon) stretch is where I ran last Sunday. Very muddy and the field going past Kennington (ie if you don't take the cycle path which was itself a bit flooded) was like a swamp. But it had been raining a lot!

Just realised the Winter 100 goes through that tricky bit for its second leg on the 24th Nov, ughh. Well theres a treat I had hoped to avoid !

On page 6 of the route map (http://gobeyondultra.co.uk/downloads/Thames_Trot_Map.pdf) there seem to be two different routes from CP2 to Wallingford. Which one do we use? Or is the more roadified version in case the towpath is flooded?

I think we had to do the one on the left as there was an issue of access following the river so it was a diversion of about 600m or so. It was pretty obvious the direction tho!

This year the towpath was closed due to work going on at the lock so the path was diverted along the road (map on the left). That work should be complete by now (no diversion listed on the nationaltrail website) so in Feb you should probably follow the map on the right.

List of diversions on the trail is here:

http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/ThamesPath/downloads.asp?PageId=98

Note there is a small diversion at Abingdon lock, but that i just to use the other lock gate. All other diversions are not on the TT route.

Many thanks for that. [Until I looked at the route map I had no idea there was even a  crossing at Abingdon Lock! I've always gone along past the park and crossed at the road bridge.]

hi Lemony and Laura, im happy to try and meet up in December (early or late) and do a recce. after yesterday on Druids ultra i dont care about any amount of mud!..how far were you thinking of going

Hi LLB,

For Dec my plan has alternate weekend long runs of 20 and 27 miles. I haven't really planned anything beyond that yet so would be happy to fit in with others' suggestions.

Emily

I second that Poacher, did  the TT last year and doing it again this year and very nearly ran the final two miles so I could say I'd run 50! It caused us problems as we'd arranged to meet people at one of the later cehck points and we got there way ahead of schedule as there were two miles less than we'd expected. Looking forward to doing it again and will be running up and down between Marlow and Henley on the TP over the next few months so if anyone passes me say hello!

The official 50 training plan gets very brutal doesn't it? I will be well off that, despite best efforts. This week should be another 50 miler week, planning a LSD 3.5 hours tomorrow am, and then a 1 hour Sunday. I know if I plan for a longer BTB run Sunday it ain't gonna happen!

What's the "official 50 training plan"? After I've got Luton marathon out of the way on Sunday I'll be following the 50-mile a week plan in Relentless Forward Progress, which usefully has a long 31-mile run in the xmas break, when I'll be off work.