6 weeks remaining, 51 miles and breaking a 3 year old record for total distance covered both outdoors and outside of race conditions

I picked the Relentless Forward Progress 100km plan for 2 reasons, the first was that it was 24 weeks long so I wouldn’t have to extend a shorter plan, the other was that the longest training run was “only” 31 miles.

Knowing I had done training runs of 34 miles twice in preparation for the Grand Tour of Skiddaw was a big confidence boost before starting this but it was still in the back of my mind that I had the finished the last few miles of both of those on the treadmill rather than in the woods. This may seem trivial but there’s a big difference between keeping moving on a machine that propels forward and forcing your legs to keep going when remaining where you are is infinitely more appealing!

I started this week with 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route on Tuesday and Wednesday, . These served no other purpose than bulking out the weekly mileage around my big run on Thursday.

The goal for the last few months had been for my 31 mile effort to be 6 laps of the 5.4 mile route. This would in my mind be easier than a 31 I was unfamiliar with, as the psychological side of running up the hills in that route would be more comfortable in knowing I’d covered them hundreds of times.

Having converted our dining table into a “mini aid station” with 3 types of nuts, energy balls and some fruit cake, and loaded the fridge with all of the pint glasses I own (5) full of squash, I set off with the aim of doing 2 laps before returning to the “aid station”

This worked well and I enjoyed having some squash and salt and pepper cashews before setting off for another lap. Using a bit of a distraction of thinking I was nearly half way there for the entirety of this lap seemed to help!

I had some smoked almonds and squash then set back out for lap 4. This was quite hard to keep focused on as it was a lot brighter than the first 3 laps.

I took some squash, salted peanuts and one of the energy balls before starting lap 5. Remembering how exhausted I had been starting this lap training for when I did my first ultra of 35 miles in 2014 was a sharp contrast to how I felt setting off. My left calf started locking out with cramps about 400 metres into this lap. Being stubborn I just ran through it until it went away. Having gone up the main hill in this route 4 times already, I was vehemently against walking any of the last 2 laps.

I had some more squash, salted peanuts and another energy ball ensuring I left some of everything to have at the finish before setting off for lap 6.

Apart from parts of my lower back and triceps cramping up, this was largely uneventful, I managed to run all of it and my pace hadn’t dropped significantly from lap 1 for any of the subsequent laps.

I resumed running again this morning and took my GPS watch for a 8 mile steady canal side outing. It was one of those mornings where every limb wanted to stay still and purely the aim of hitting my weekly target was what kept me going.

It is a relief having my long training run out of the way now in terms of race preparation. I had spent some of last week listening to an audiobook called Mindset by Carol Dweck. This compares two mindsets (growth and fixed) and evaluates how these affect people’s outcomes. Considering I am attempting a distance around 19 miles further than I have run in one day before, there are elements of the growth mindset I am trying to use in order to convince myself I will finish. One of the quotes I found resonated with me in the book was about how people perceive their idols as being born different to them and possessing traits they could never gain.