Plan, Train, Repeat...
 
Ran Sunday, Monday, Wednesday & Thursday last week and defo noticed it Friday morning!
Thursday’s run felt like I was towing a small house. All said & done, I don’t know how, but the route was 7 mins quicker than the Wednesday run, although speed is NOT on my agenda. Weird how sometimes you can go for a “plod” and find times drop without additional effort.
 
Up until Friday morning I was planning a long one over last weekend but reconsidered it coz my left Achilles wasn’t feeling great but I’m putting that down to road running. Maybe I need to start getting more off-road?
 
Monday bank holiday was quiet, so decided to kick myself and run to the dojo and back on Tuesday & Wednesday (about ~10 miles total)
 
Long-range Jungle preparation this week has been researching foot taping/ strapping, which is more than inevitably going to happen.
 
The IoW ultra (66 miles) has always produced the loss of toe-nails, blisters & shin-splints. Although it sounds grim, it’s not actually as bad as it sounds. Yeah their sore to the touch afterwards but mine usually take a few days to turn black and then weeks later to actually fall off (which is a painless but grim sounding experience) and the blisters… well that’s par for the course.
I’ve done the Island Ultra for 4 consecutive years and in a diverse range of weather conditions (torrential rain, excessive heat, wind etc) but at the end of the race it’s my feet that show the main signs of how kind the weather’s been.
 
The first year was probably the most horrific wind & torrential rain EVER!. My feet were totally ruin!! Blisters were mental.
Although mine were pretty grim, I saw some other runners with feet that made mine look amazing. Running in wet shoes for 16 hours was always going to take a toll but naivety as it was I didn’t prepare.
 
Heading into the Jungle where 99% humidity, swamp, mud & rivers etc are going to be the norm for 5 consecutive days without much means of drying out kit, it’s inevitably going to have a pretty dire impact on foot condition. I’ve spent quite a lot of time looking into preventative taping but tbh it’s a minefield and one you don’t want to get wrong. Apparently, the biggest killer for the Amazon runners is trench-foot so pre-warned is pre-armed I reckon.
 
There appears to be various conflicting pro & con arguments for taping but I think the toughest part is going to be finding a tape with adhesive that can withstand constant moisture. Either way, it’s clear that the actual taping application process is somewhat of an Art and pretty time consuming. Wrong / incorrect taping can cause just as much damage as not doing it at all apparently.
 
I’ve been advised by a seasoned Fell Runner that, in continually wet climates (such as the Amazon) to get out there and do training runs in wet shoes to acclimatise feet. Right now I’m still trying to acclimatise to carrying what feels like a small car on my back but on a positive, living by the sea, there’s no shortage of water to accommodate the wet shoes ‘n’ feet during training. 
 
We’re fortunate here on the Hampshire coast to have Queen Elizabeth Country Park which in the winter is a great place for off road training. It has a 5 mile loop which, during the winter months is always wet, muddy, slippery and quite honestly bloody grim BUT absolutely going to be a great training patch. Roll on the winter!?!? :o/
 
Anyway folks.. thanks for having a gander at the Blog. More next week!

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