Just over five weeks to go now, and the training is starting to feel like hard graft at times. I suspect this is a good thing. Easy training certainly wouldn’t be good preparation for what is clearly going to be a hard race, so I feel fairly confident that the training is going well. That thought isn’t making it any easier.
Since I allowed myself to mentally commit to this race the thought of it has basically taken over my life, in so many more ways than I had expected. I knew that fitting in the training runs would become more time consuming as the date drew closer and the runs got longer, but in many ways that’s the small part. I find myself thinking about the race at all times of day and night, obsessing about food and fuelling, going over my kit and whether anything needs replacing, wondering what I’m going to wear on the day and what extras I’ll carry. I’m analysing my runs as never before in terms of route/distance, my pace and my calorie usage. And I’m constantly thinking about my injury and whether it’s healed enough for what I’m putting it through.
Many of these are little thoughts that flit in and out, but a few take some more serious thinking about. Whether to recce the route has been a question I’ve danced around for a few weeks, as with the race starting so close to home it is entirely possible to recce the whole thing before race day. There are obvious benefits to this: discovering and resolving any navigational issues in advance, knowing the terrain and how it changes, and being able to visualise myself on the route ahead if I’m flagging. These are benefits that may well prove vital in the latter stages of the race, when tiredness is creeping over and thought processes start to slow.
But what about the sense of adventure, of exploring somewhere new for the first time, and doing it entirely under my own steam? I accept that race conditions aren’t the ideal time for my favourite sort of exploring, the sort that involves getting stuck in at least one field, but if I’m going to run a trail race there needs to be an element of the unknown, surely?
So I’ve compromised. The final stretch is one I know well, I should have run most of the middle stretches at least once by race day, but the first eight miles will be entirely new. That feels like a fairly realistic balance. Unless the weather turns, of course. This cold but dry spring has made for ideal running conditions, but the whole route will feel very different if the wind and rain hit! These are hardly new conditions to run in, just slightly less practised than usual at the moment. Is it wrong to hope for a rainy, windy run sometime soon, just in case?
My biggest worry, as always, is fuelling. I’m still experimenting and have added pizza muffins and peanut m&ms to the raw energy balls and new potatoes I’d already discovered. I always have a stash of Shot Bloks too, just for a straight forward sugar hit, and I’m going to experiment with Tailwind this weekend as liquid calories could be a real bonus in the latter half. There is a very real chance I’ll stop to buy a Calippo somewhere en route too.
This is where my nerves are. I did a rough calculation and it looks as if I’m likely to use around 5000 calories on that run. I almost wish I hadn’t worked it out, it’s a dauntingly high number, and could far too easily become one to obsess over. Nevertheless, it helps to think about it, to plan some fuelling up before the race, not just during it, so that I have something extra in the tank if needed. I’ve also taken on board some advice from Lowri Morgan’s inspirational book ‘Beyond Limits’ – first fuel at 40 minutes, then every 20 minutes after that. Little and often should see me through.
With all this going on, is it still fun? After all, the only person making me do this is me, and there’d be very little point if I wasn’t enjoying it. The answer is a resounding yes. I’ve done some fantastic training runs, mostly with friends who are also training for the race, all bar one of us doing an ultra for the first time. The companionship and sense of community that training together has brought has been an absolute joy, and will only get more intense as the race gets closer, all our nerves kick in, and we keep each other’s spirits up to reach that starting line. Not long to go now.
I Run Free 