The end of the line

As so often happens, the title of my blog and the contents come into my head when I'm going through a tough session and I'm trying to distract my mind from the pain or the monotony.  While the world is going crazy with the Covid-19 pandemic, it seems inappropriate to write about training but while this is possibly the most serious crisis within my lifetime, we need to keep life as normal as possible and not panic - try telling that to Sainsbury's that sell out toilet roll within minutes of putting it on the shelves!  It will play out over time and I hope you are all safe and follow the advice given.  Now back to training.
My foot's been playing up again so I had my calf tapped and it made a difference.  Two days off mid-week and I was ready for three hard days of training.  Friday was the warm up with a gym leg  session and a 45 minute run on feel.  On Saturday Michael & I took the 6:58 am train from Blantyre to Dalmuir, a place I'd never been before.  The weather was grey but dry as we started out.  Dalmuir was an hour by train and is at the end of the line, in more ways than one!  We followed the canal path back to Glasgow before picking up the Kelvin Way which was the same route as last week.  Our pace was perfect until we met another runner on route and both allowed ourselves to get carried away with the pace - which we knew we'd regret and did.  Running 40 km is never easy but keeping the pace is important.  I made a conscious effort to eat at regular intervals but Michael was struggling and dipped out with 11 km to go.  Those finishing K's were lonely, into a headwind with a gradual incline and near the end the rain started.  Despite driving 20 minutes home with the heater on my fingers were numb so I headed straight to the bath to recover followed by some pasta and rest because Sunday was going to be tough.
To build up for long distances such as the Keilder Ultra in less than 3 weeks time, you need to do back to back long runs to get used to running on tired legs.  Today was a 21 km run and the first hour went well despite the high wind and the rain.  I deliberately chose a hilly route as yesterday's run didn't have much climbing in it but Keilder does.  I made sure I had a good breakfast to so there was plenty fuel in the tank and took a couple of gels to keep me going.  It's also part of training making sure you can stomach taking fuel on board when running.  The second hour was really tough but I just got into the mindset of "perpetual forward motion" - a mantra I used in the Tahoe 200.  It wasn't fast and it wasn't pretty but it was done.  It might not sound like fun but it's one step closer to my goal.  I felt behind on my training for the Keilder Ultra a few weeks ago but after two weeks of big back to back miles I'm beginning to feel like I'm getting there.
The race may be cancelled due to Covid-19 as a lot of races have but if that happens then my journey will continue because the race is only the "icing on the cake".   Covid-19 can go f@@k itself.  We're going to get through this but in the meantime, keep your goals alive.  Stay safe.