25 weeks, 55 miles, 7 runs including a feeble attempt at stair running

This week was considerably more intense than my recovery week following the Paris race. I battled through some snow on 2 laps of 5.4 miles on Tuesday, one of these was in the dark before work and another was in the dark after work. I think it is sometimes easier to spot ice when it is lit under streetlights rather than during the day.

I took Wednesday off then did another 5.4 miles before work on Thursday, this was icier than Tuesday as a lot of the snow had melted then froze! The second mile of this route involves running on the pavement next to a 70mph A road so I was quite keen to avoid slipping out into traffic! I ran on grassed sections where possible and had to slow to a complete halt at roundabouts, using the lampposts to stop from skidding out onto the road.

On Thursday evening I did a stair running session where I would sprint up 5 flights of stairs then follow a 1/3 of a mile loop back down to the bottom and attempt to repeat this. My plan was to do a minimum of 12 loops. For the first 6 loops, I was able to maintain a reasonable pace and my breathing was fine but the effort to take steps 2 at a time was a lot harder for loops 7-10, I was past caring for the last 2 and barely managed to maintain a similar pace based on the Strava recording of the workout. Whilst this was a session I enjoyed, it will have to be replaced at some point with purely going up and down the stairs. Over 700ft of elevation over 4.4 miles was still way more than I get when running on roads though.

I definitely had put more effort into this than I had first thought based on how difficult I found the 5.4 miles the next morning. Luckily I had the NFL podcast summarising last weekend’s games to distract me. This is a sport I have followed since around 2003 and they were reviewing one of the most captivating weekends I can remember. It’s quite impressive how listening to their analysis of key plays took away any recognition of how difficult the session was. The time I gathered it was a tougher session was only when I got back and realised how long it had took.

The 6.4 miles I did with Paddy yesterday morning were the most comfortable of the whole week, we had a bit of conversation for the first 3 miles which made them pass faster, then increased the pace a bit as it got lighter.

I have a distant recollection of being foolhardy and heading out in snow a few years ago in vest and shorts aiming to do 20 miles and having to stop at about 12 because I was understandably unable to manage the cold. Today was the closest I have come to what that was like! I did 3 laps of 7.5 miles in driving snow and although I had 3 layers on my top half and a hat, wearing shorts was a ridiculous choice!

I like to believe managing the muscular and physical pain of running long distances is something I have developed a bit of confidence in doing and despite my legs being very red and stiff from the cold, I was able to persevere and switch off for short periods listening to a podcast called Sirens of Scream. This is a horror discussion with a different area of the genre as the topic for each week. Stephen King’s books, adaptations into films and mini series were compared and contrasted between the original and other formats. I particularly enjoyed a review of the generational differences between film adaptations.

I think the Great Glen Ultra is serving well as a motivational endpoint and because of that there was a massive element of forcing myself through today’s run. The elevation graph for the 2nd half of this route looks particularly grim and hopefully being able to carry the pain with me will he useful in July. Below is a Murakami quote I think illustrates this point well.