Hello you!
I didn’t update yesterday I was too busy recovering from my second 18 miler of the week.
I ran it at a 10:37 min/mile pace and it was a perfect run apart from the end where I got caught on a dark stretch of road with narrow pavement.
I was terrified of tripping down the curb and injuring myself so I kept my running slow until cars came to light the way.
Once the car headlights lit a sufficient part of the pavement I sprinted as quickly as possible to try to get back into a well lit area ASAP.
It’s only when I’m completely in the dark that I realise how awful my sense of balance is. I was getting vertigo in the dark and was having to hold my arms out to balance myself.
Thank fuck I didn’t end up in a hedge with all of the angry badgers.
An Irish badger on holiday.
New long run fuelling strategy.
Normally I fuel with gels and sports drink alone, but yesterday I tried something a little different.
I brought along a selection of Haribo inside my marathon race belt.
I started eating them after 90 minutes on my feet and aimed for 2 gummis every 10 minutes. And you know what? I actually wanted to eat them.
I’ve struggled in the past with fuelling on the run. I just don’t like the sickly sensation you feel after chowing down on real food.
Eating Haribo on the move wasn’t a chore. In fact by mile 15 I was completely out of them and wished I’d brought along more.
The best thing is that they worked in keeping my body fuelled. My plan was to stop at 15 miles and then stop. By that point I knew I had more in me so I continued on until 18.3 miles.
I think this is the last time I’m gonna use gels for long runs. I can’t justify the expense at the moment whilst Haribo cost only £1 a bag.
Changing my attitude ahead of the ultramarathon
Yesterday I felt down about ‘only’ running 18 miles and thought about ordering myself in a Domino’s pizza to try to boost my morale.
That’s the problem though, junk food doesn’t help my mood in the long term. After the pizza is finished I feel like shit. I haven’t solved anything. I’ve given in. I’ve fallen back into old habits.
A time to be rational.
Every time I start panicing about the 100k I relax and try to do something practical about it.
Eating pizza now won’t help with the 100k. Eating more healthily and running will however.
Today I went out and ran 9 miles in 89 minutes. It was quite tough maintaining any sort of pace as my legs were heavy and my calves were chaffed from the 3 hour run yesterday.
I had to change the way that I was running to stop my legs rubbing together. It was quite literally agony.
They haven’t been this bad since the Paris Marathon when I was last wearing my plastic trousers that begin melting into my skin after 22 miles.
Tonight they are much better after applying some healing cream to them.
It’s frustrating that my body chaffs so much at the minute but it’s only because I’m carrying some excess weight.
I’m aiming to be down to around 207lbs come Saturday. That will mean I’ve lost 10lbs in under a month.
It’s gonna happen!