Spoiler alert. Not to be read while eating.
What a shit week - literally! The first rule of an ultra is "don't trust a fart". I have a well practiced routing in the morning making sure I'm as "light as possible" if you get my drift before I leave for my run! But the "runners curse" kicked in and let's just say it was a very messy last kilometer! But I didn't slow down as I had a target to hit!
My first race of the year is 4 weeks away. 125km over two days with an over night under the canvas to look forward to. 3,513m of elevation is the key and as you know I've spend a lot of time in the mountains to get my legs used to the ascending but more importantly the descending - that's where the damage is done. In training you need to regularly "shred your quads" to get them used to the strain because if they fail, and it's happened to me before, it's the equivalent of going down hill with no brakes. You lose control over your legs. The training in the gym makes them stronger but trashing them on the descents makes them race ready.This weekends weather meant it wasn't safe for me to be high in the mountains on my own. I decided to recce the start of the race because I have run it in the other direction when I ran the Great Glen Way (73 miles) but I have no recollection of coming off the hills except I did too much walking because my head was in a bad place, despite coming top over 50 vet. I drove up the night before and at 8am headed off on the trail. I remembered none of it some of which was due to a lot of the trees having been cut down. But the first 10km felt awful with my legs being tired and my head telling me to turn back as I obviously "wasn't well" and the snow was starting to fall. I find the greater the distances I run the longer it takes to warm up. The route out of Inverness isn't a steep climb but it's generally upwards. I stopped and took a gel and drank some water. I jogged on and within a few minutes started to feel better and I talked to myself about how lucky I was to be in this beautiful forest. In short I'd given myself a good talking to and reminded myself of the journey I'd been on to get to this place and the goals and adventures I'd set myself for the rest of the year. I imagined what it would be like on race day with the excitement of running with my Canadian pals who I met in Romania and my spirits lifted. I thought of all the tough training runs with my friends over the years, yes years as you can't run these kind of distances on one seasons training.
It was an out and back and I did miss on very small waypoint and will make sure on race day that I don't. 32 km in the bag and nice to know that I felt comfortable with the start. I headed straight down the road and stopped for food as I was starving having burned 2,817 calories. I haven't stopped eating since getting home!
This morning was 15km, 2 laps of Chatelherault. The first minute is a gradual climb and I could feel my legs which up and till then had seemed fine. I told myself how important this run was because it's the combination of the back to back runs that matters. Running when your legs are tired is the only way to prepare for long distance runs because in reality it's 3 marathons in 2 days and it's hilly and on trails which drains your legs. I've ran longer, 205 miles in 3.5 days with 40,000 of climbing, and while this might give me confidence in knowing I can do it, it's down to my physical and mental conditioning on the day. So this mornings run was important and I dug in deep. I ran on feel and was surprised when I completed the first lap in 43min 33sec - faster than normal by a couple of minutes. I set off again and said, let's make this a negative split (a faster lap than the first one) but I knew it would be hard as I was fatigued. I felt good as I'd warmed up with the first lap but knew it wouldn't be easy as I rarely manage a negative split around Chatelherault. But then I'd never consciously decided this was what I was going to do.
And this is where you help me. I think about what I am going to write in my blog while running. I want to pass on any tips or to inspire to you "raise the bar" as we are all capable of so much more. So thinking about you reading the blog made me push myself on the second lap. I could feel the fatigue in my legs but again I gave myself another good talking to. FFS I said, in 4 weeks time a 15 km run is nothing so what are you moaning about. I applied "rule 5" (Man the fuck up). I made my split negative, by 20 seconds. Had I not set that target I would have been at least 3 minutes slower so thank you for being there for me. Pushing me on when I needed it. I know you'll be with me in 4 weeks time when I will really need your positive energy. I've rested all afternoon and haven't stop eating or rehydrating. My Garmin said I should take the next 4 days off. My coach gave me 1 day off and I have 14 km to run on Tuesday and a gym session. She understands what I need better than my Garmin.
Set your goals high for the season because there is nothing worse than setting them low, and achieving them!
