Week 9 completed, looking good, time pressured 20 miler, the backpack, and a look ahead to the dreaded Week 10

Week 9 I did five runs that added up to 41 miles (20 done today), and it is becoming clear that whilst I have no scope to do much more, particularly mid week, it is actually (surprisingly) very manageable.

There is a another benefit to all this running in that in the last eight weeks, I have lost 10lbs in weight and now need to lose another 3.5 lbs to set a new lowest weight - I have been recording my weight on and off for the last four and half years when at that point I had hit a whopping 16st (224lbs).  My present weight is 12st 10.25lbs (178.25lbs) and the current lowest record is 13st 7lbs (175lbs).
Anyhow, I am getting a lot of comment about I look slimmer these days - my missus reckons I am vanishing up my own backside..... - and to finish this section I have two "aspirational" shirts ironed and hanging up, waiting for me to fit into them, and I hope after Race to the Stones, I will fit into them for work.

Now today's 20 mile run became a little more time pressured than I had originally planned when I overslept by one hour and I had a deadline to be home by.  As a result today's run was more like a training session for a marathon rather than a run-but-take-time-to-enjoy-the-views-ultra.
As with all runs to date, it is a fasted run and I comfortably did the first ten miles around various farm fields, and facing the quarter-mile nettles of doom along the river like last week's long run, before then taking on water and to start with jelly babies.  At mile 12, another batch of jelly babies and water, then at mile 14 a large banana and water, mile 16 was a breakfast bar, mile 18 more jelly babies.  At no point was I feeling like I was out of energy, so nutritionally I had nailed it.
One thing I did do to help with breaking down the 20 miles was I noticed I was doing just about 48 minutes after four miles and quickly calculated that if I could keep to an overall rate of four miles every 50 minutes (12.5 minutes per mile) I would get the run done on time.   This was useful as I could add up batches of 50 minutes in my head and along with your subconscious being in full flow it kept the brain active working out if I was meeting this target. In the end I did it with a few minutes to spare at a rate of 12 minutes 20 seconds per mile.
Apologies, no photos due to this - will try to take some mid-week as I found a nice area that has a lot of environmentally friendly areas for wildlife just outside of Reedham.

That 20 miler was with a full backpack (with two full bottles of water as well), and out of interest I thought I should weigh the bag to work out how much weight I was carrying for the whole run - total weight was 7.5lbs, or just over half a stone.
I do need to start packing it with the stuff I will have on race day rather just stuffing it with lots of clothing - time to look at what I need on race day (will blog another time).

Finally a look ahead to the dreaded Week 10 - 3x6 miles (Tuesday to Thursday) and my only day off on a Saturday but Sunday is 26.2 miles, yes a full marathon.  Total mileage will be 44 miles.

A long run in the marshes along part of the Wherryman's Way - What could possibly go wrong?

With a 15 mile run to be done, in an unplanned manner I found the Wherryman's route whilst exploring the nooks and crannies of Reedham Village, so I thought why not and promptly headed out along the marshes following the route towards Great Yarmouth with an aim of getting to the Berney Arms train station, before then finding why way back to civilisation - as you see from my photos below I never found it despite being very near to it according to sign post.

 

It rained for most of the run, and in not finding the train station I continued onwards getting more and more lost with low cloud reducing visibility across the marshes, to a point I found myself in the most unexpected of places, the A47 on what is known as the Acle Straight, and is a very busy road with no grass verge and ditches one side, and thankfully a wide grass verge on the other side - still I would be running along this for at two miles being hit in the face by spray from 60mph lorries - nice not.

To add to matters the charge on my phone had gone but thankfully a caravan was in the lay by and helped me by allowing me to borrow their phone to contact family as I was close to an hour late, and request to be "rescued" at a closed restaurant / pub that was formerly known as the Stracey Arms.

I am knackered but a plus point was wearing the backpack for the duration, and because I had bagged everything inside it in plastic shopping bags, nothing got wet, other than me.......