24 weeks to go, 31 miles and a lesson in pain management

It has been an interesting challenge maintaining my running without writing this blog over the last few months. Similar to how some people joke about “if you go to the gym and don’t post on social media about it, did you even go to the gym?!” The amount of running I’ve done hasn’t felt as accountable without having this to articulate how it has gone and how far I’ve ran.

I have signed up for a 100km race from London to Brighton next May and sourced a plan for building up towards this. Here is how my training has gone following week 1 of the Relentless Forward Progress 100km training plan.

I was intending to follow this plan as rigidly as possible but unfortunately this only lasted for the first 2 sessions. I did 6 miles at the gym on Tuesday which was at a reasonable pace and I felt pretty comfortable throughout. My next session was meant to be 5 miles on Wednesday but I ended up doing it at 5.30am on Thursday morning. I have been taking a pre workout supplement by a company called Decibel Nutrition that has 400mg of caffeine per serving. There are several guidelines around not taking it less than 4hrs before bed for understandable reasons but as side effects go it could be a lot worse than my ears itching at that time on a morning. The boost to performance is certainly noticeable and there is also theories about caffeine being linked to a reduction in perceived effort but this might be psychological more than anything!

After intermittent caffiene withdrawal symptoms at work for the rest of the day, I headed to do some plyometric training at some steps at 7pm. The plan was to do 24 reps up all the steps and have this divided into 6 with one foot on every step, 6 with hopping both feet together for every step then repeating both exercises but with every other step.

I had not done this workout for a few months and was appalled at how out of breath I was during the 2nd set of 6. I was walking back down at a brisk pace in between but my HR never seemed to go below 100. Luckily the remaining reps went fine.

My plan called for another 6 mile run on Thursday but I decided to tag this onto the end of the run for Sunday instead. I took Friday as a rest day and planned to leave my car at work then run back to it the next morning after my work xmas do.

After an enjoyable evening including bowling, drinking and being trapped in a lift, I rose very groggily at 8am on Saturday and shuffled out the front door feeling very sorry for myself. I tend to put a lot of my self worth in being good at pain management and being able to persevere when my circumstances are less than ideal.

I had a blister on my left ankle from stupid formal shoes being too tight and the plaster I had put on it proved of little value, the route I had decided to run involved a significant section without pavements and my enthusiasm for running on wet grass was minimal at best. My hangover also contributed to this being a rather attritional outing.

The most common question I get asked about running for long distances is what I think about when I’m not listening to music or anything else as stimulation. I would love to be able to say that it is nothing and I enjoy aimlessly parambulating about. In reality I tend to pick up sources of inspiration when I’m not running and these sort of come back to me while I’m out and power me through. The one that worked on this occasion was the Vince Lombardi quote below about faith and commitment. I tend to go for ones like these more than his more famous ones about winning at all costs.

By my calculations I was not a winner on all 3 counts mentioned earlier but I was far too stubborn to let it affect me making it the 10 miles to my car.

My week finished with 2 laps of a 5.4 mile loop this morning near my flat. This being hangover free and at a warmer time of day made it considerably easier than yesterday’s endeavour.

I am happy to have made up the 31 miles this plan called for over the course of this week and optimistic that if I can follow it in a similar fashion for the next 23 weeks I won’t go far wrong in the London to Brighton race.