20 weeks remaining, 42 miles and a renewed respect for the elements.

I tend to go through phases with how I manage with adverse weather, I can have some weeks where I feel it hardly impacts on my running and others where it’s very apparent that I’m going slower and moving my arms more without it benefitting my forward momentum in any way. I think I do this to kid myself I’m trying harder.

My 7.5 miles on Tuesday morning was borderline pleasant. I set my alarm for 4:45am and was out the door at 5:20am once the Decibel Nutrition pre-workout had kicked in. It’s a fantastic feeling being alert and energetic on routes I’d previously stumble through at that time on a morning.

The plan for the following night was to do 4 miles near my house. I love running in the rain and find it far more character building than when it’s dry, unfortunately my enthusiasm for when it’s windy is nowhere near the same. My 4 miles were ridiculously difficult and the wind was constantly in my face. I had to really will myself up a hill which I’d normally soar up in auto pilot.

I found my 7.5 mile run on Thursday morning far easier. There’s something satisfying about running in daylight when it’s a contrast to the majority of your mileage. My logic behind this was based on a video I had found on YouTube earlier in the week which someone shot during the Dusk Til Dawn ultra. The race starts in Buxton at sunset on Halloween weekend and the premise is you have until sunset to run 50 miles. This was a only 15 minute clip but it genuinely felt like it would never get light for parts of the video!

I did a lap of the 5.4 mile loop on Saturday morning which was largely uneventful. I found going up the main hill far easier than I expected and it was good to be able to switch off for large parts of it.

To finish the week, I did 18 miles spread across 2 runs separated by a 20 minute drive across the city. I started with 2 laps of the 5.4 mile loop with a slight diversion at the start to make up 11.6 miles, I then did a 6.4 mile run with my friend Patrick. This was definitely a run of two halves. I had taken the Decibel Nutrition Pre-workout at 6am before setting off at 6:30 and then again at 8:30am. I had remembered a quote from a Players’ Tribune article I’d read last week that was

“We do not seek comfort”.

The article was written by a Pittsburgh Steelers NFL player called Cameron Heyward. This was apparently the mantra their coach used after they lost to the Dallas Cowboys and had a record of 4-5. (4 wins & 5 losses). The idea behind this was that they don’t look for excuses why the team were in that position and instead be honest with each other and make adjustments so the rest of their season went better. I think there is a lot of relevance about this attitude outside of sport and it is often easier to believe a comforting lie than a difficult truth.

My 11.6 miles was relatively effortless but I really struggled for large parts of the 6.4 mile run after. The hills were the only parts I felt comfortable on and the wind was fierce along the flats. Luckily me and Paddy got round in a reasonable time and I felt a bit better after a warm down and a coffee.

Hopefully I can maintain this level of mileage over the next few weeks and gradually build up a fitness base so I can be confident in the race going well. It’s one of the things I like most about running is that it is brutally honest and regardless of how many motivational sources I find, if the mileage base isn’t there, I won’t be able to finish. I haven’t gone into a race underprepared before and a 100km footrace certainly doesn’t feel like a place to start!