Perceived effort

Another busy week with a day in London and a day in Belfast which meant no training on those days. Effectively they were my rest days although early starts and late finishes take their toll.
Monday was a massage to make sure my back and hip flexors were behaving and everything seemed to be in order after some good work from Sam Williams.  Nice tempo run on Wednesday and a swim run session on Friday.  Due to logistics I had to swim first and having missed the last two sessions it was tough trying to stay on the toes of the swimmers.  Then I headed out to Tollcross Park for a run.  I had heard it was a hilly park but didn’t know it contained a small farm with sheep and pigs - right in the middle of Glasgow!  The things you discover when out running!  I then had an hour on my glute Mede which was agony and when I left it was sore to touch.
The big run was on Saturday and due to the distance we were joined by the Scottish running legend Rosie Bell.  It’s what I love about ultra running and that is someone of Rosie’s pedigree comes out and runs at our pace although she is capable of so much more.  It was a 37km hilly run which is tough enough, but Rosie had already run for an hour and done an exercise class of an hour!  It just shows what you can do if you put your mind to it.  We all agreed we’d been thinking about this run because it was our longest this season.  Near the end one of the runners wanted to be left behind as they were struggling but “no one gets left behind particularly when it was wet, getting colder and in the middle of nowhere.  So we had a conversation, which is never well received when you’re feeling that bad, about how our mind gives up before our body.  As we tire our mind starts to perceive that the effort is too much and that you should give up.  But the body is much stronger than the mind and you have to shut out those thoughts.  It happens to us all and it’s a horrible place to be but if you are going to be a distance/ultra runner it’s going to happen.  Where possible you need to recognise it early and get some food/energy inside you.  It was a good reminder to us all.  You need to become comfortable being uncomfortable because that’s ultra running.
When I got home it was full on food fest to replace the calories and later on a 20 minute bath with Epsom salts to aid the recovery.
This morning was an hour run, faster than yesterday, to build on the tired legs.  I chose a trail run and felt strong - no signs of fatigue from yesterday which is very encouraging.
I’ll need to remember these words about perceived effort in the coming weeks as apart from next Saturday’s 42km run, I’ll be heading to the hills soon.  There will be plenty of opportunity for my mind to doubt my body and I need to practice telling it to “jog on”!