This week was tough! I knew from the beginning I was going to have to force myself out the door for the 16 mile run on Saturday and my midweek training did little to dissuade me from that fact.

I managed to stick to the suggested days in my plan more rigidly and did 5 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday followed by the 5.4 mile loop on Wednesday and Thursday. I had a very broken night’s sleep on Wednesday night (totalling around 3hrs!) so was quite groggy for the Thursday lap. My usual over the shoulder blind spot checks when crossing roads were reduced to stopping and turning round then setting off again which wasn’t ideal! I can normally function on minimal sleep but doing anything at pace is a bit much to ask for. I got round in a reasonable time and was glad to have the rest day on Friday ready for the 16 mile run yesterday.

The maximum mileage on one outing in this plan is 31 miles...

This week has been one of the most enjoyable I’ve had in terms of running and building confidence this year. I have always been the sort of person who relates their training and how well that goes to their overall mood. The nature of the races I choose to enter tends to mean I have to rebuild from scratch following each one and this is the first week I’ve had where I felt I was back to being an ultra runner rather than someone who “just” ran enough to be able to finish marathon distance races.

Since February I’ve entered 2 marathons, most recently the Bournemouth Marathon in October and before that the Midnight Mountain Marathon in June which certainly wasn’t a misnomer! Although I enjoyed my training for these, there was a certain “been here before” element of having a lower weekly total to aim for and knowing if I managed a 20 mile run twice in the weeks building up that I’d finish...

It has been an interesting challenge maintaining my running without writing this blog over the last few months. Similar to how some people joke about “if you go to the gym and don’t post on social media about it, did you even go to the gym?!” The amount of running I’ve done hasn’t felt as accountable without having this to articulate how it has gone and how far I’ve ran.

I have signed up for a 100km race from London to Brighton next May and sourced a plan for building up towards this. Here is how my training has gone following week 1 of the Relentless Forward Progress 100km training plan.

I was intending to follow this plan as rigidly as possible but unfortunately this only lasted for the first 2 sessions. I did 6 miles at the gym on Tuesday which was at a reasonable pace and I felt pretty comfortable throughout. My next session was meant to be 5 miles on Wednesday but I ended up...

Yesterday was a lot tougher than expected. I had planned to do 12 laps and hadn’t really considered the possibility of doing any less. The race started at noon and I intentionally left my phone in the hotel room and told my fiancé and her parents that I would finish at midnight. The race started at noon and I was certain however hilly the course was, the race I did in Skiddaw would have been steeper and longer than what I would have to do in laps.

I found the first few laps quite comfortable and even though there was some decent climbs in it, there wasn’t anything I thought would be a problem later on. I got round between 43 and 47 minutes for most of my laps of 4.2 miles. The weather was quite settled and the ground was pretty steady underfoot.

I thought (perhaps erroneously) that if I wore me thermal base-layer top and leggings with my running top then saved the waterproofs, hat...

This week was quite disappointing as I had anticipated doing 35-40 miles and ended up being nowhere near that. I had a difficult time finding free time to go out before Thursday so started my running week with 5.4 miles that evening.

I found my repeat of this route on Friday night a bit more settled as I had felt like I hadn’t ran in ages going round on Thursday. It was also nice knowing I was on annual leave for a while.

I managed 2 laps of the 5.4 mile route yesterday and was appalled at how cold I was for the first 2 miles. That is definitely a downside of running at this pace that it takes you so long to warm up. Once I got past that point I was fine and managed to maintain a sort of rhythm at that pace and not be discouraged by the multiple changes in weather. It was the first time I can remember training in falling snow for ages!

When I got back I noticed there was a small cut...

The ability to remain focused on a long term goal is something I have always thought I would be able to do, since I followed a 4 month plan in ‘09 for my first marathon, I have found the discipline of ensuring I follow the expected mileage more of a challenge than the event I use it for.

I started this week with a 7.5 mile run on Tuesday evening which was quite a settled pace. There was a certain element of enthusiasm that was gone last week and I enjoyed being able to use on this run. I found the momentum from this fed into my session the next day.

I have found my average speed has decreased considerably since I increased my weekly mileage from 40+ to 60+ over the last few months. The ability to get up to the sort of speed I used to do 5km or 10km runs on the treadmill had been out of reach recently, never mind sustaining it over those distances. I started out my 5 miles on the...

This week was very sluggish and I lacked any motivation to head out until Friday. The Comrades plan I have been following originally called for 2 consecutive weeks of 75 miles but how tired I was for the first 4 days of this week shows how far away I am at the moment from being able to do this.

Granted I had lost a few weeks due to injuries, which I either ran on for reduced mileage or rested and it would have been a bit close to the race to try this week anyway, but the idea of following the same plan more rigidly in a few years does seem possible. At least there is some comfort in knowing the race I’m doing is not 56 miles in under 11hrs what the plan was designed for.

The first run of 5.4 miles on Friday was quite sluggish as I had been for a sports massage earlier in the day and the top of my right leg was quite painful. I continued to persevere with this for my run with Paddy on...

This week was always going to be one that needed to go the way it has done. I have always believed the hardest part of any race isn’t in the actual race itself, but in one of the weeks leading up to it where the threshold of where you thought you could get to is passed. This makes it easier to pass the same threshold during race conditions.

The threshold point for me with marathons was always 20 mile training runs. I did a 35 mile Ultra where 28 mile runs were that point and for Skiddaw this stretched to 32-34 miles. Since this race was using a different programme where back to back long runs are valued more than one longer outing, I have viewed the 75 mile week this plan peaks at as a “totem pole” which my ability to finish the race will rest on.

I have used the REM song “Walk Unafraid” as a sort of theme for this week and listened to it a lot in between running. There is a lot of...

I achieved what I wanted out of this week by reaching a respectable total but not emptying the tank before my 75 miles across 7 days attempt next week. In an unwanted recurring theme, I didn’t feel remotely like running until Thursday when I did my first 5.4 mile loop but got back into the swing of things after I had that out of the way.

I managed a 2 a day of the same loop on Friday. This was satisfying as I had anticipated the weather being worse than it was by that point and being able to get some miles in decent conditions was always going to be easier than the snow that was forecast for later in the week.

My Saturday morning outing was cold but I completed my 5.4 mile loop and a 7.5 mile loop without too much difficulty. I have quite grown to like the quiet of heading out in the morning when it is light outside but still early enough for there to be hardly any traffic.

The...

This week was more challenging than I expected in lots of ways. I didn’t feel remotely like running on Tuesday morning after last weekend’s efforts. In the interests of doing something rather than nothing, I did 10 miles in the gym on a stationary bike instead.

I tried again on Thursday and my legs felt very heavy throughout my first mile at the gym and my ankle was locking out so I hopped back on the stationary bike again for another 10 miles.

Luckily I found something from somewhere that evening and managed to head out for my 5.4 mile loop. I took out my GPS watch which helped maintain some enthusiasm. I have been trying to eat a bit healthier at work and blame the reduced carb intake for my last 2 miles being a bit sluggish.

On Friday night I went out for another 5.4 miles. I spent most of my time on this run thinking about what to aim for over the weekend and decided to try run...