23 weeks left, 6 training runs totalling 36 miles and an appreciation of how running serves as an allegory for the rest of my life

This week has been one of the most enjoyable I’ve had in terms of running and building confidence this year. I have always been the sort of person who relates their training and how well that goes to their overall mood. The nature of the races I choose to enter tends to mean I have to rebuild from scratch following each one and this is the first week I’ve had where I felt I was back to being an ultra runner rather than someone who “just” ran enough to be able to finish marathon distance races.

Since February I’ve entered 2 marathons, most recently the Bournemouth Marathon in October and before that the Midnight Mountain Marathon in June which certainly wasn’t a misnomer! Although I enjoyed my training for these, there was a certain “been here before” element of having a lower weekly total to aim for and knowing if I managed a 20 mile run twice in the weeks building up that I’d finish them. Training for a 100km race has motivated me a lot more as there is a genuine fear of ending up as a “DNF” (Did Not Finish).

In the build up to the last ultra I ran, there was a spell of a few weeks getting up to 60-75 miles where I was supremely confident I would manage the 50 mile goal and this fed massively into my confidence in other areas of my life too. While the miles I have ran this week are nowhere near the total I will need to realistically feel the same way about this race, how comfortable I have felt during them has given me a level of confidence about reaching that sort of mileage again.

I started this week with a 5.4 mile run on Tuesday at 5.30am, I’ve never been a morning person and the super caffienated Decibel pre-workout drink certainly helped my enthusiasm.

In a similar fashion to last week, my Wednesday training run got put back to Thursday and I did 7.5 miles later at night than I’d have liked. The weather wasn’t ideal and I had to concentrate more than usual to get up the 2nd hill on this route.

I decided to do a 2-a-day on Friday to get most of my miles in, this was 5.4 miles at around 8am then another lap of the 7.5 mile route early evening. I tend to have a hate-hate relationship with dropping my fiancée into work on a morning and after 4 consecutive days of this, it took a lot of effort to head out for my run before going to work.

My 7.5 miles was less than 2hrs after having a sports massage and I was very sluggish for the first few miles. The main hill I tend to be able to power up without thinking about was ridiculously hard and I had to keep repeating a quote about fear part way up to ensure I managed to run all the way to the top. I have only really memorised this as the first 2 ½ lines but have included the whole quote below

The 6.4 mile run yesterday morning was completely different and I found myself able to surge on during hilly parts. I like to believe when I force myself through tougher outings like Friday night that I will have an easier time shortly afterwards. This tends to mirror other aspects of my life too, I’d be lying if I tried to pretend my confidence in my running wasn’t linked to my confidence elsewhere.

I finished the week with a 4.8 mile steady jog this morning and enjoyed the flatness of running in Manchester. Having finished 2 miles short of the suggested total from week 1 of my plan, it is good to have matched the requirements for this week. I have included the plan I am following below so readers have an idea what I am aiming for in subsequent weeks.