34 weeks, 10 Laps of 5.4 miles and a fantastic additional justification for strong beer in Ultra running

This week has gone by very quickly. I think because I waited until Tuesday evening for my first training run, the other sessions have felt closer together. My running outings for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were all for one solitary lap of 5.4 miles each day. I had chickened out of my 5am start twice by Friday and really had to force myself out the door on Friday morning.

I neglected to take my gloves and although it was only just under an hour I’d be outside for, in terms of areas where self neglect becomes abuse, this was definitely the worst I have done in 9 years of running!! My fingers were ridiculously cold and I had to keep clenching and unclenching a fist just to keep some feeling in them.

Friday evening’s run of 5.4 miles was a godsend in comparison, having 3 layers on as well as a hat and gloves was so much easier.

I had read at the start of the week about Camille Herron breaking the women’s 100 mile record by over an hour last weekend. I haven’t done the maths for this but it can’t be far off in terms of % improvement as someone running a marathon under 2 hours. It’s appalling how little media coverage this got and shows what a niche sport Ultra running can be compared to the coverage more sedentary sports receive.

There was a podcast interview with Camille by a show called Bad Boy Running podcast, in this she mentioned about having a 6.5% Rogue Ale at the last checkpoint in her race. This was a strategic move based on previous success in a 100km race. Apparently she crashed at a checkpoint and her husband gave her beer which helped her come round and finish. Her scientific justification for this was that beer is a vasodilator. This means that it causes blood vessels to dilate which allows blood to flow faster. I’ve really bought into the carbs element of drinking beer on ultras and now I have an extra string for that bow!

My last outing of the week was 5 laps of 5.4 miles starting at 4:20am today. These were largely uneventful apart from lap 3 which was difficult, I was forever in a stage where it was just getting light but never actually doing so, and lap 5 where both my IPhone and Work phone decided to shut off with over 20% battery left on both. With headphones and nothing to recieve anything from, I had to concentrate more on actual running, my legs were quite rigid at this point and the last 2 miles were a particularl grind!

I had found a quote last night from Dean Karnazes that resonated quite a lot with me. Hopefully little bits of motivation like this can get me through the Paris by Night race in 7 weeks.