Everest Challenge days 23-30: 26 laps and a new weekly PB for distance

I finished this challenge with 2 laps of my 5.4 mile route on Thursday and 24 laps over the last 7 days. This involved another 2 on Friday, back to back 6 lap outings on Saturday and Sunday to finish last week and 2 laps for Monday to Wednesday, ending with a 4 lap effort today.

The back to back 6’s were the main focal point of the Challenge and I knew if I got through those without much difficulty, the last 4 days wouldn’t be a problem. I had listened to Rich Roll’s podcast on Saturday which really helped me with maintaining a focused mindset for the last few days. One of his guest’s Chris Hauth had an interesting theory about the mindset of athletes and how some of the tactics used in races and training are transferable to dealing with the anxiety people have around Covid-19. It was brilliantly summarised as being able to stay in the moment and working fully working towards the task at hand whatever that may be.

I found the last 2 weeks of March really challenging from a personal standpoint and selfishly was concerned that because every year since 2014 I have had a race to test myself in, I would really struggle if Lakes Sky Ultra was postponed or I had to go the whole year without having a ‘proving ground’ to test myself in.

Having the last 30 days to know regardless of fatigue, enthusiasm or willingness, I would be compelled to go running because of the format of the challenge, has really helped me. I think it’s acceptable for me now to be able to set some things I can test myself with before the end of the year if LSU doesn’t go ahead and feel in a much better place than 6 weeks ago.