The week after a marathon there is only one thing to do, right? Lie down in a darkened room and recover. Well that has been my tactic after every other one I have run, where the last thing I want to do is to put on my trainers and head back out to get a few miles in. But this week has not been like that.
This week it has been about getting back out there and keeping things going, because for this training block, the marathon is not the end goal, but just a step along the way. A massive step, certainly, but only one more. There are many more to go.
“chance to rest up”
The other thing about this week is that I will not be doing the long run which would be scheduled as part of my training plan. I am going away for the weekend so will take the chance to rest up, but I have increased the amount of running I have done during the week to partially make up for that.
I have recovered well from the twenty six and a bit miles I ran last weekend, so while I was a bit stiff in the immediate aftermath of the run, being up and about on Sunday definitely helped ease off my legs so by Tuesday I felt fine to go out with my JogScotland group for a five mile run. I think, because I felt quite relaxed about doing the marathon distance – no pressure for time, no pressure to do anything other than get round – that this helped the recovery.
“a run too far”
The mental approach to so much of running is very important for me. Getting my head around the distance and the challenge helps me deal more easily with what the training plan throws at me, even though it has been very tempting to feel overwhelmed by what lies ahead. I am not going to deny that, up to only a few weeks ago, the ultra distance has felt like a run too far. But now that we are only two weeks away from the actual event – the D33 on March 9 – I am at peace with putting myself through it. And getting to the finish. No time in mind. No pressure. Just get there.
After the five mile run with JogScotland I went out for a quicker run with another friend, something I have really not done for a couple of months. While my cough is much better, I still have the blocked nose which has plagued me since the start of the year, so it felt challenging to step up the pace on the one hand, but also good to at least feel that I could push myself a bit harder, for a short while at least.
“nothing like the mileage I would have run”
After that, a solid five and half miles with JogScotland on Thursday night and that got me to one hundred miles for the month. That may seem a lot – and it is – but it is nothing like the mileage I would have run had I been fully fit. This does give me pause for thought for how those final miles in the event will be, as I do think I am going into it a bit undercooked, but I have done as much as I can.
So close to the race now, there is no point attemtping to chase missing miles. They have gone, all I can do now is prepare myself as best I can for the actual day itself. That will involve further running next week and probably a half marathon distance run one week out from the race. this is the crazy thing about really long distance training, you begin to view the thirteen miles of a half marathon as just a short one. Crazy.
“no point in panicking”
Maranoia is a term used to describe how stir crazy you can go in the final couple of weeks before a race. I have undoubtedly been a sufferer in the past, but experience helps me cope better with all of these things now. No point in panicking about things I cannot control, it is about focusing on the things which I am in charge of and making sure I deal with them.
For now, I am looking to a rare weekend long lie on Saturday for a change, and the realisation that perhaps my run last weekend was the last one, for a few months at least, where I will be leaving the house at the weekend in the dark. Light mornings are a sign of Spring and a sign of optimism for what lies ahead. I need to tap into that for what lies ahead.
A rare running pic I like
One further positive – I have written before about body dismorphia – was I appeared in a running photo and I quite liked it, so I am taking that as another win. Focus on all the positives now. That is what will get me to the finish line.
Five gels, two bottles of 500mls of electrolyte drinks, an energy bar, two sausage rolls, and a secret weapon for a boost at twenty miles. As I left my house at 6am to attempt to run a marathon distance as part of my ultra training, I felt less of a runner and more of a mobile vending machine.
The night before, when I had been describing to my wife what I was taking with me, she had likened me to one of the ice cream sellers that you see in the interval when you go to the theatre. Personally, I was just glad I had enough pockets between my shorts and my waterproof jacket to store all the stuff as I think running with the kind of tray that they carry when selling the treats might have inhibited my running aerodynamics a little bit.
“final glory lap”
I have run six marathons before, but they have all been the culmination of months of effort; the final glory lap of an intense period of training. This was different. This was just another step on the way to the ultra – now just three weeks away – where the distance I need to cover is thirty three miles. this was just part of the build up to that.
I began preparations for this specific run a couple of days before. Eating and drinking more, making sure that my hydration stayed topped up, particularly the day before. Hydration is not just about what you drink during the run, it is about making sure that you start in a good place too. I was planning to get out early, even for me, so I set my alarm for 5.25am in order to get out the door by 6am. A couple of friends had offered to run parts of the route with me, and I had to make it to certain places by a certain time in order for that to work, so an early start it was.
“too many thoughts swirling round my head”
While my eating and drinking had gone to plan – lots of carbs on Friday, big bowl of pasta for dinner – my sleeping did not. Like my other marathons, too many thoughts swirling round my head the night before about how things would go, how I would feel, whether I would get through it, led to a restless night, but I would just need to deal with that.
I had planned my route – as I always do for my longest runs – so I knew what lay ahead of me. The route was broadly flat – similar to what the ultra is, if you can call almost one thousand feet of elevation broadly flat – but that does not lessen the distance. Twenty six point two miles is a long way, regardless of how hilly it may be.
“would never eat it through choice”
Breakfast was my running staple, two sachets of instant golden syrup flavoured porridge, though I did bolster it by also having a slice of toast, and a glass of orange juice. I am really not a fan of porridge and would never eat it through choice, but I have found it works for my when I am running, and so while by the end of it, I was chewing it down, I knew it would be doing me good. One thing about the end of a marathon cycle is looking forward to not eating porridge for a while!
Anyway, porridge down, food loaded, running pack on, I headed out into the darkness again -I am struggling now to recall a run when I left the house and it was daylight – at six am. My route was easy to start, downhill for the first few miles and an opportunity to get into a rhythm and set the pace. Like my run last week, I was aiming for around eleven minute miles. My cold and cough have still not cleared up, so I do not feel up to any kind of distance running quicker than this right now. As I got down to Aberdeen beach, the first embers of daylight were beginning to flicker through the clouds offshore.
Daylight begins to emerge
I was heading towards five miles by this point, so the start of the fueling. I nibbled on my energy bar, stopped beside a bin to take my first gel – I use Torq gels, raspberry ripple flavour – and I took a drink. I drink regularly while I am running, having got used to my bottles from my running backpack. I knew the next section would be challenging as it featured a long uphill section. It was fairly gentle, but it stretched out for a couple of miles so this was just about maintaining the pace, relaxing and not pushing too hard.
“ten second rule”
As I pushed on towards eight miles, I thought about my half marathon run only a few weeks ago where, by the time I was at eight miles I was already done in. I felt good, giving me confidence about how my training had paid off, despite the illness. Then a bit of a blow, I took out my energy bar to take another nibble and promptly dropped it. Yes, I know all about the ten second rule, but I did not want to stop to pick it up, plus, as a mobile vending machine, I had plenty of other snacks to keep me going.
I had arranged to meet my friend Susan at about twelve miles and to run around 10km with her and her dog Scout. It is amazing what a boost it gives you when friends join you on the run. While I am comfortable running on my own, just having someone else there really takes your mind off what you are going through, particularly in these long runs.
The route took us out an old railway line – not the one we will be running in a few weeks time for the ultra – and this was the only part of the run which was off road. I had worn by road running shoes for this one – though will use my trail shoes for the actually event as parts of the course will be muddy.
“a major difference”
As I got towards eighteen miles, I was still feeling ok. This was a major difference to the last time where Susan and I had run together, where she met me around thirteen miles as I tried to get to seventeen, and spent a fair part of the run having to take walking breaks or stopping. Again, progress as I said goodbye to Susan and Scout with a nibble of a sausage roll, and a treat for Scout as I gave him the final mouthful (I had another sausage roll in my other pocket).
Leaving Susan at around eighteen miles
The next few miles were flat and downhill, and this might sound a bit odd, but steep downhill sections are not great at this point of a race. My thighs were beginning to burn a bit and the effort of trying not to go too quick through this section was quite tough on them. My toes were also beginning to hurt, a reminder that I need to cut my toenails before the big day.
I was meeting my other friend, Maxine, at around the twenty mile mark, and now it was time to deploy the secret weapon. As I got to twenty miles I stopped on a bridge and brought out a buttered fruit scone. OH MY GOD IT WAS AMAZING!! Talk about something hitting the spot. I had about half of it, keeping more of it for a later boost, had my fourth gel, kept on drinking and met up with Maxine.
Last weekend, we ran together as I got up to twenty two miles. By that point I was done in. This week – while I would not say that I breezed past twenty two, it certainly barely registered as I was able to maintain a conversation and we ran on towards Seaton Park. Our plan was to loop round there then head back to where she had parked her car.
I was still feeling good as we got to twenty three miles, only a parkrun to go! But at twenty three miles, it is the hardest parkrun of your life. Now I began to feel like I was struggling, getting beyond twenty four, then twenty five. Another bite of the fruit scone was deployed. We kept going.
“distance never comes easy”
By this point, looking at my watch was too regular a feature of the run. Distance never comes easy, and the less you look at your watch the better, but I had fallen into the trap of checking it. Then checking it. Then checking it again. I was thinking, “What do you mean I have only run point two of a mile since I last looked at you, I must have gone further than that”. But of course I had not. Twenty six point two was firmly in my head now and it was hard to think of anything else.
On the route back to the car, there is a small bridge which, for some reason, has wellington boots attached to it. I began to realise that this, after an uphill section, would be where I would get to the marathon distance. Trying to keep my head up, rather than looking down, I began to zero in on this. We came over a small rise, then heading gently downhill towards the bridge. I found some energy from somewhere and for the last fifty metres broke into what felt like a sprint to get there. I had done it, twenty six point three miles under my belt, with a running time of just under five hours. My total time was more than that of course as I had stopped a few times but all of that is important as it is just time on my feet.
With Maxine on the “welly bridge”
So what do I take from all of this? A huge amount of confidence and a bit of faith. Faith that perhaps I do have it in me to get through this ultra. I know I still have another seven miles beyond what I ran this weekend to get to the finish. I know that this is going to be really tough, but I also see the progress I have made since the dark days of January where I was struggling to get beyond eight miles.
“get the big miles in”
There is no mystery to long distance running in my mind, it is all about training. If you do the training, you can do the distance. I have not had a perfect training block, far from it, and I have had to make many adaptations along the way just to get to this point. But while I have not been able to do the midweek runs I would have planned, I have managed to get the big miles in, and that is what really matters.
Back home, it was about recovery. Drinking a lot, making sure I replaced all of the calories I lost during the run. Ensuring that I do my best to get prepared for running again this week. So it was rolls with lorne sausage, a cup of tea and a can of Irn Bru, followed by lots of soft drinks through the day, home made soup and a big dinner.
This was polished off in an instant
That is my final really long run of the training, from now it is about winding things down over the last few weeks and preparing for the ultra. Next weekend, my wife and I are away, so I will try and run a bit more during the week than I have been doing to compensate for that. Then the weekend after it will be probably around ten or eleven miles. When you are at this point of long distance training, eleven miles feels like a hop, skip and a jump.
This is not over, not over by a long, long way, and I am in no way minimising what lies ahead. But after last week and this week, I think I have finally got my head around what I need to do to get through the ultra. But I will not know that for certain until the day itself.
It is raining. It is cold. And it is windy. I am twelve miles in to a long run and I am standing at the side of the road as cars and lorries race by, their draught blowing even more wind and rain in my face. I am eating. A sausage roll. A cold one. And I am thinking to myself, “well this is a scenario I never foresaw when I took up this running lark”.
But this is where I am. This is the reality of ultra marathon training. But why a sausage roll? Isn’t endurance training all about gels, energy bars and electrolyte drinks? Well it is. And for my previous marathons this has been how I have fueled. But for the ultra, which is thirty three miles (more than 50km), there is a real prospect that I will be out on the course for six hours or more, so I think I need more than what I have been eating for the marathons. And I need something to counterbalance the rest of the stuff which is pretty sweet.
“it tasted great”
To that end, I asked some people who have done ultra events before what they would recommend. Now none of them suggested a sausage roll to be fair – salted, boiled, and salted, roasted, potatoes were a popular recommendation - but what they did say was to have something that you really like. Something where, even if you did not particularly fancy having, you would wolf it down like your life depended on it. I am partial to a sausage roll – hot ones mostly to be fair – so when I was considering my options this was the decision I made. And it tasted great.
It was maybe a bit chewier than I would have liked, but it hit the spot. I didn’t eat all of it in one go, just a couple of bites to keep me going. And I am still taking my gels and energy bars too, but at least this gives me another option. I am also going to further experiment next week with a fruit scone. How nuts is this?
“wind things down a bit”
Distance wise, it is truly nuts, but one thing did this week – long run apart and we will come back to that – was to wind things right down. With my cold still lingering around and little prospect of the cough I have had since New Year shifting, I got some advice from a friend to scale things back, concerned that I was pushing myself so hard, while being ill, that I ran the risk of making things worse by continuing to try and train as if I was fully fit. It was good advice.
This week I only ran once – the five mile group at my local Jogscotland club – and that was it. I was planning to go out again on Thursday, but other things got in the way and while I could have chosen to run, I decided against it. Then when it came to my long run, I made a decision to really slow things down. Too often on my long runs I have been completely shattered by the end. And I mean completely. This time I wanted to try and finish the run and at least feel that I had something still left in the tank.
“I do not expect to run all of it”
Going back to what I mentioned earlier about the prospect of being on the course for six hours and maybe more, the reality of the ultra is that I do not expect to run all of it anyway, there will be some parts where I will walk, so for this week’s long run I was focusing as much on time on my feet as anything else.
Going out too hard is a mistake I think every runner makes at one time or another. The longer the distance, the bigger the mistake and the more you pay for it later on. It is one thing to go out too fast in a 5km race, but it is something else completely when you go out too fast on a very long distance. The harder out you go, the more time there is for you to have to pay that back.
“my head felt clear”
Another reason for taking things easier is the ongoing battle with the cough and cold. This week I decided to attack it a bit more with vitamin C and regularly using cold and flu tablets over a period of days leading up to the run. This was to try and at least clear my nose and give my body a bit of a break from the blocked up head and hacking cough. It seemed to work, as I had a couple of days where, in the evening at least, my head felt clear. I am never a fan of taking drugs but I am a bit at the end of my tether with this thing now.
It was miserable when I set out on the run just after 6am. Wind coming straight off the sea from the east blowing in bursts of rain when went off and on for most of the duration of the run. I set out to run at around eleven minute mile pace, as I said, I wanted to try something different and comfortable. That became clear to me when I stopped at around six miles to have something to eat and I noticed how relaxed my breathing was.
“hanging on for grim death”
As the run progressed, of course, the effort increased and things became harder but over the past month I have been making noticeable progress. It was not that long ago where I set out to run a half marathon distance and was done in by eight miles. Then when I went to run fifteen miles and was shattered by eleven. Then to do seventeen and was done in by fifteen. And then last week where I set out to do twenty and felt like I was hanging on for grim death by the time I got to seventeen. Every run has seen that really tough stage happen later. Endurance running is about enduring things – the clue is in the name – but by persevering and adding the distance gradually, it does become, if not easier, then at least a bit more comfortable.
This time round, I met my friend Maxine when I was at around sixteen and a half miles and was aiming to get to twenty two miles and four hours of running. Eleven minute miles is roughly five and half miles an hour. The last few times when I have met her, the closing miles of my run have seen me stopping quite a bit, walking in parts, and unable to have a conversation. Yesterday, I only walked once, up a short, steep slope, and we had one stop to have a drink and a bite to eat. It is all about progress.
“two crazy runners”
We ran a looped route, the second half back up a steady slope which I managed and as we got back to where her car was parked – in a supermarket car park – I was only a few minutes shy of four hours and about half a mile shy of twenty two miles. So now I would like to formally apologize to anyone parking in the Tesco car park yesterday who saw two crazy runners running loops around it. I got to four hours running. I got to twenty two miles.
And then I went home and ate and drank lots. And then I went out with my wife into town and ate and drank lots there too. The end of one run is the start of the recovery for the next one.
I know my training has not been ideal. This should be the period where I am doing serious mileage throughout the week, in addition to the weekend long runs, but life has just got in the way. It is what it is. Again it is another week of hoping the cold will finally clear off as next weekend I have another big run to get through. After that it will be winding down the mileage to prepare for the ultra event. There are only four weeks to go.
In coughing related news, this week hit a new peak. I have now been coughing so hard and for so long, that when I do cough, my teeth hurt. The coughing seems to particularly offend a couple of my teeth on the top right of my mouth. They appear to take even greater exception to the barking than the rest. Joy.
In running related news, the mileage for the long runs just continues to add up. What is not adding up is how I am feeling. I am still unable to shake off the cough and cold, and that is just making everything feel so much harder than it should. And even if I was fully fit, it would still be really hard.
This week has seen some progress. I was able, on Thursday, to return to the six mile running group with JogScotland. This would usually be my go-to group if I was not coaching, but I have been so under the weather that even the prospect of trying to run at that pace was off putting, far less even try to do it. But I managed it ok and that gave me a bit of a boost.
Come the weekend, it was time to build the miles again, this time up to twenty. In marathon training terms, twenty miles is often the furthest you go during the preparation for the twenty six point two mile challenge. It is a major milestone in that journey to the start line and can be regarded as a bit of a breakthrough distance. Get to twenty miles then it is only 10km left, and the adrenaline of the race itself can help propel you to the finish line.
“minor stepping stone”
For my ultra, which is thirty three miles, twenty miles feels less of a milestone and more of a minor stepping stone along the way. There is still a really serious distance left to cover, even when I get to twenty miles, so while in marathon terms twenty miles would be a point for celebration, for me the run has just given me more food for thought. For a couple of reasons.
The first one is just that the run was really, really hard. Even the early miles felt hard, the route taking me down to the River Dee in Aberdeen and then onto the old Deeside Railway line which forms the route of the race for a couple of miles.
The daylight breaking through as I ran past the River Dee
The middle miles were ok, the closing miles were a mental and physical battle to keep going. I got through it, and I have to take a huge amount of solace and confidence from that, but in equal measure it has just made me think all the more about how on earth I am supposed to cover the rest of the distance? This race distance has got into my head way more than any other event I have done. I think I need to snap out of this attitude.
The second thing, and this is quite specific, is what happened during the run. I had got to around twelve miles when I decided that I was going to take one of the gels which I use for distance running. This was always part of the plan. I had taken one at around six and half miles and that was ok, so this was just another fueling part of the training. It is worth mentioning that I have also gone back to basics with fueling by having porridge before I went out, and then using the electrolyte drinks I have used in previous marathon cycles.
Anyway, I slowed to walking pace to take the gel and to also have a drink (though I am ok to drink while running). Usually I find that gels take a little while to kick in and have an impact, but this time, only a few hundred yards later as I was running downhill through a small park I felt amazingly good. That should have been the first warning sign.
“fallen off a cliff”
About half a mile later, things went seriously south. I was running up a small incline, not even something I would count as a hill, and I suddenly felt grim. I could not carry on. I said this out loud to myself, “jeez Craig, you have fallen off a cliff here”. I had to walk. I had not even reach half marathon distance and here I was struggling to keep moving forward. I walked for a few hundred yards, to the top of the incline and where the road then headed down for a hundred yards or so and I felt able to begin running once more. Once I got going, I felt ok again.
I have no real idea what went on. My initial thinking is that the gel caused a massive sugar rush, followed shortly afterwards by an equally massive sugar crash. I have never experienced anything like that before, where, so suddenly, I felt that I could not carry on. The gels are ones that I use regularly, so there was nothing new in that, so this was totally out of the blue. What it did do, was put me off taking the other gel I had taken with me, which I planned to take at around the sixteen to seventeen mile distance to help give me a boost to get me over the line. Perhaps this also contributed to how grim I found the last couple of miles of the run as I was clearly running out of gas.
The route, including the section out and back on the railway line
I mentioned earlier that the run has given me plenty of food for thought and, if I am being brutally honest, I just cannot see at the moment how I am going to manage those extra miles. Maybe I have been running too fast, particularly in the early miles, given that my body is still attempting to fight off the cold so is not at is best. It is a weird thing to say, having just done twenty miles, but at a time when I should be feeling supremely fit, I feel far away from that. This should be me approaching my peak, building up mental strength and physical fitness, but I feel weak and uncertain.
My friends are all telling me that I have it in me to do the distance, but at this point, they have more belief in me than I have in myself. And just five weeks out from the race, I do not feel that I am in a good place. That is not to say that I am giving up, far from it. I am now thinking about how to approach next weekend’s run, which would see me go beyond twenty to closer to twenty three or twenty four miles.
“marathon runner’s mentality”
Slowing down is going to be my main approach, as one thing which I feel I am getting wrong is that I am still going into things with a marathon runner’s mentality, about beasting myself through it. When I have spoken to ultra runners, they have all talked about it being a very different experience to a marathon, and so I think I need to change my attitude and perhaps relax a bit more.
The gel episode has made me wary, but I am hoping it was a one off., Certainly next weekend, the gels will continue to be part of my fueling strategy. I also will eat and drink a bit more in the days leading up to the run. This is something which I have done in the build up to a marathon and as I am almost going to be running that distance, I should really adopt that sensible approach for these major training runs.
Doubt continues to linger around this whole race for me.
craigaw 1969 