4 weeks, 10 training runs and 120 miles
My running for this week has largely been viewed as one collective effort spread out across the 7 days. I have listened to podcasts less and made a conscious effort to not go off too fast at any point. Slowing down when I’ve felt I needed to, has also been important. It’s one thing being able to look back next month on this week being the one where I built up the last bit of endurance to help me finish, it’s quite another if I’m looking back at it as the one that burnt me out!
In terms of sequence, the 7.5 mile laps fell as follows across the week
Monday: 1
Tuesday: 2
Wednesday: 2
Thursday: 2
Friday: 4
Saturday: 4
Sunday: 1
My midweek running has previously maxed out around 52.5/60 miles so being at 82.5 going into the weekend was likely to prove more of an effort. My last 2 laps on Friday were quite uncomfortable and I struggled with the heat.
I have a habit of running on an empty stomach which I don’t think helped on Friday, I decided to try and treat the 4 laps on Saturday as if under race conditions. This meant re-purposing the kitchen area of my flat into one aid station with an abundance of Cheshire cheese sandwiches, fruit, jelly beans, dairy fudge, wine gums, diet cola and water. I wasn’t hungry at any point in this run and found I was able to amble round at a slightly slower pace while my stomach was processing the food.
I know I can go for 30-40 miles on minimal food but there will be a point on the 100 where my stomach will need to be working harder than it has on the near-fasted training runs.
I’m satisfied after this week that I have given myself a wide range of scenarios in the past 11 months of training for this race. Most of my morning running has been at the coldest time of day and I have some residual skill in fighting sleep from the overnight efforts in training for and completing Paris By Night.
Granted the race is going to test all of this in the space of 22-28 hours, but I think there is enough transferable skills developed to be able to handle whatever the race throws at me.
