Race minus 10.5 hours - Reflections on the training

Looking back over the last 16 weeks, I was initially half-heartedly training for the Black Dog Marathon, before I signed up to do the Race to the Stones race, picked up the 5 times a week ultra-running training schedule, and pretty much stuck to it, something I have not done in a couple of years.   Over the last 12 weeks I have lost a stone in weight, and am now at my lowest weight in about 20 years.  All of this is despite losing 10 days of training at the peak schedule stage, due to a chest infection.

There have been a number of learning experiences, from coping with carrying half a stone in weight rucksack on my back, to getting lost in the Halvergate Marshes in the cold wet rain, to confusing the local pub-dwellers of a bobbing head torch light out in the fields when I did my night-run session, to achieving a personal aim to run from Cantley to Great Yarmouth along the Wherryman’s Way river route.

All of my running has been done without headphones and I did it fasted, in order to train my body to rely on what it has at least for the first 10 miles, and again I have nailed the timing of when I need to refuel on the longer runs, so apart from the one time I intentionally bonked, I did not run out of energy.

To be blunt, Spring is the optimum training season if like me your training needed to be fitted in as early as 5am.  It does mean you sacrifice any evening TV as effectively I needed to go to bed by 10pm to get enough recovery, especially you have the triple back to back mid-week runs that made the third 6mile day as tough as the Sunday long-run.

Growing a beard to be a stereotypical male ultra runner is something I do not plan to repeat, and it will bite the dust sometime on Sunday - far too itchy and I found myself picking at it resulting in bald patches but fortunately not too visible.

I have loved discovering all the local fields and where seemingly hidden footpaths led.

I will definitely want to maintain an element of trail running, and look for other off-road challenges in the future, as well as some road running.

Eating more sensibly, particularly using MyFitnessPal, has showed you can be disciplined 90% of the time, so you can fall of the wagon the other 10% of the time.

This is my final blog until Sunday, when I hope to write several (with photos) blogs about the day itself.