Testing, testing

In 3 weeks time I will be travelling down the A9 with the cruise control on as I expect I'll have popped a few paracetamol and drinking Red Bull to get me through the journey home.  I'll have completed (hopefully!) the Great Glen Ultra, my "A race" for 2018 and possibly only race as I spend the rest of the year catching up with life after training.  As I sit here recovering from a weekends hard training I wonder what it will be like - 71 miles is a long way and plenty of time to go to some dark places.  Although it won't seem like it at the time, it will be over all to quickly.  A journey that started 9 months ago will have come to an end but then it will be the start of another adventure, to be decided.
It's the height of the race season and a lot of my friends are involved in races from 10km to to ironman to extreme ironman - yes that's right, tougher than an ironman and she will be running with me on the Great Glen Ultra!  I keep some bad company where what I do is considered normal.  Their adventures have all involved a lot of dedication and hours of training and once finished they will be focusing on a new target I'm sure.
This week meant a lot of juggling as I try to train, work and live.  At one stage it involved a 6.15am taxi to the office so I could squeeze in a run before an 8am tele meeting and not have to worry about going out for a night with my team.  Fortunately I wasn't training the next day!  In a weeks time I have a 4am run so that I can make a flight at 6.45am.
On Saturday I was taken on a mystery tour by Michael Martin and my coach Genevieve.  I'd never gone this route before and I don't think I could find my way back round without getting lost, but it was great.  An unexpected bonus was that although the majority of the run was off road there was a few miles on tarmac.  I was wearing my trail shoes but my calves didn't enjoy the tarmac with those shoes - they are too aggressive for tarmac.  Better to find out now as there are some roads on the Great Glen Ultra and this could make the difference between finishing and getting injured.  Testing your equipment is essential because when you are out on the run it's too late.  I know that you can run the GGU in road shoes but having kicked a few stone on trail runs, I don't want to take that risk - that could finish your race.  The 29km was a good way of setting up for Sunday's run.
Back to back runs are important when training for an ultra.  You need to learn to run on tired legs.  It may have been Father's Day but there was no breakfast in bed for me.  I headed out with my regular running pal Stuart and the target was 1 hour 50 mins.  At the beginning of the run we got attacked by a chihuahua - it may be small but those teeth got close to my ankle before I squirted it with my water bottle.  This is a regular occurance and much as I love dogs it's on it's last warning.  My legs were tired and my heart rate increased from yesterday's fatigue however it settled down and we had a good run.  Again following the run I rested and stuffed my face with food.  My body is craving food as I try to replace the calories burned.
Other than writing my blog, watching the footie and shopping online for new trail shoes I'll be sitting with my feet up resting like a proper athlete!  I've got another two days running before I get a rest despite this being the "taper period" before the race.  Next week will be the last big weekend of running.  Tick tock, where did the time go?