14 weeks, 74 miles and 5 consecutive 10+ mile days.

The King of the Hill race last weekend had tired me out more than I was anticipating. I did an immensely sluggish 5,4 miles before and after work on Wednesday which was tortuous. I couldn’t generate any momentum on either outing.

Luckily Thursday morning was a bit easier, it was brighter as I set off at 8am rather than the 5am start of the day before. I was able to listen to podcasts and music without having to constantly focus on maintaining forward progress.

I continued on with another 5.4 mile loop after work that evening and then a 10 mile effort on the treadmill at lunchtime on Friday.

This left me with 42 miles to cover across this weekend to reach my target of 74 for the week. Apart from a bit of indecision around whether to do 21 each day or 27 then 15, I was pretty confident I could manage this.

Taking my wife into work is never going to make my favourite activities of the week list, this is compounded when I end up doing so on weekends! Because I was keen to get yesterday’s running finished with in the morning, I set off at 5am for 2 loops of the 5.4 mile route and then did another 2 loops after dropping her off.

I completed the goal for this week with 10 loops of Wythenshawe Park at 5am this morning, it was ridiculously dark for the first hour or so but was fine after that.

My main motivation for this week has come from a basketball quote I remembered reading in a Sports Quotes book I got when I was about 14.

I really enjoy the competitive element of this and how he was so confident in his shooting ability that he could focus purely on his opponent. My opponent for this week has been covering 74. Regardless of how bad my legs felt on Wednesday this was never going to change.

I have another 2 weeks to maintain this level of mileage before hopefully tapering for the St I'lltyd Ultra (100k) on the first May Bank Holiday. Having received the pre race briefing this week certainly makes it feel imminent.

Being able to finish this will be a massive stepping stone to completing the Great Glen Ultra.