"I've always considered myself to be just average talent and what I have is a ridiculous insane obsessiveness for practice and preparation."
Will Smith
Well boom – and there goes the UK Summertime, at least I thought that was the case until last week we had a small heatwave!!
Straight into a
taste of Autumnal weather in the blink of an eye a couple of weeks ago was a
bit of a shock.
On a positive I didn’t have to intentionally carry so much water for my little running buds although I’ll still continued to carry the 1.5 litres because it adds to the weight and I’ve settled into 11kg – 12kg nicely for training runs so no biggie.
Felt strange heading out the door in some pretty wet, cold and miserable conditions but hey, once you’re wet you’re wet right? Wearing long sleeved tops and having to contemplate a waterproof jacket was the complete opposite to what it was just a few weeks ago.
We’re still holding back on Full Marathon Monday’s but keeping the day as a mid-distance one ready for when it happens.
I feel I should be doing around 50 miles a week but in my head I always want to get the lion’s share done at the beginning of the week and then the remainder almost becomes a walk in the park but I seem to have bottomed out at doing 10-14 milers each day with a shorter faster one at least one day in the week.
I’ve managed to get out on a couple of occasions with a running mate and being sympathetically constrained to a comfortable 10 min mile pace it’s been pretty comfortable compared to the ridiculous sub 7:30 min miles I’ve been doing for the last four months with the hounds.
It’s great getting to the six mile markers at the slower pace and still feeling as though we’ve just started a session which is a great position to be in I think.
On the flipside I’ve been adding in the occasional sprint session with shorter 5-6 milers at blinding speed.
I have no idea why I’m doing it but apparently you need to mix training up so thought I’d give it a little bash.
Lapping the
local airfield (approx 5.5 miles) I’ve managed to break my sub 7 min miles
albeit only by 1 whole second.
I’m not gonna lie to ya but it’s bloody hard going with the 11½kg of weight strapped to my back but hey, it’s all good training whichever way you look at it.
Although I’m sure there’s benefits, I’m not so sure it’s conducive for my Ultra events but whilst I’m just ticking over to clock up mileage I’ll crack on with them every now and then.
As I head towards the end of the year and longer distance kicks in I’ll probably knock them on the head and focus on lengthening routes and time on feet.
All aside – in the last week I’ve suddenly gone from having no injuries for a year and a half to a mare of a week with no understanding or explanation why.
First I picked up a sore on top of my toe from the Salomon shoes. Again, I have no reason why because they’ve been amazing for a couple of months.
To fix it I patched the sore for the next run and in turn it caused a mahoosive blister on the next toe. Taped both for the following run and to say it was uncomfortable would be an understatement.
The conclusion I’ve come upon is that the shoes have reached end of life although it only seems like yesterday that I bought them. In all honesty tho’ they’ve probably done close to 500 miles so it’s justified and looking at the tread it’s clear that I’m defo a “heal and toe” kinda runner since the tread is almost non-existent now in these two areas.
Speaking to the
guys at #AltonSports I’m going to try a whole size bigger than my normal shoe
size but going up a full size instead of a half size is going to be a first for
me. Went ahead and bought another set of bigger SpeedCross 4’s and been using
them for a couple of sessions. If I’m honest I don’t feel much difference
whilst out running but the extra toe length is certainly noticeable when
putting them on and no sores or blisters!
The other injury (which is more of a niggle really) are my knees. Thankfully they’re not sore or painful but they so seem stiff during the day but unnoticeable when running so nothing to worry about right now but keeping an eye on how they go.
The back sores I had a couple of weeks ago had healed having repacked the weight and replaced the foam strip I’d inserted to keep the load off the poorly designed seam and away from contacting with my back. All was good but a couple of sessions later it wore away again epically.
Fortunately I remembered that the pack I used in the Amazon was only a few weeks old but hadn’t worn it since my return (I’ve been using my legacy training pack since). Digging it out was a real time hop. Caked in God knows how much mud, grim, leaves and who knows what else it defo needed a bloody good scrub.
Seems to me that I bought back a fair portion of the jungle with me but after a right royal clean up it’s almost good as new.
Transferred my
sacks of rice and all the other clobber I lug about from the old pack to new
and we’re back in a good place.
So, it seems that Ultimate Direction packs have a lifespan similar to trainers and need replacing every so often because the replacement has been great since the swap over.
Lesson here kids… keep an eye on your kit. If it’s knackered, replace it or pay the price through injuries!
My backache of a few weeks ago has been loads better since my Chiro (Nicola @ Pure Balance) put it right several weeks back. Sure it’s a bit blurgh at the end of a run but that’s to be expected but it doesn’t last more than a few hours and feels fine during the day. Money well spent I think.
What’s planned?
I’m on a bit of a mission to try and beat my aversion to do more short events and get involved more so I’ve entered the Great South Run in a few weeks.
I’ll be running with a mate and generally treating it as a training session. Partly it’s to try and get socially more interactive but also to get him over the finish line too.
Sure it’ll be with the weight but it’s all about clocking off the weekly miles and supporting a friend so not going for a PB in any way.
I’ve also volunteered to help marshal my local run club’s Half Marathon in Oct. I’ve got loads of friends running and figured it was time to give something back to the amazingly supportive local running community so I’ll be there as a happy clapper cheering everyone in the right direction.
The only other event I’ve gone for is the Stubbington 10k in January. Yep, it’ll be just another training run if I’m honest but it’s one of those events that has a an amazing atmosphere and a nice route. Usually there’s loads of friends running this one too so it’ll be a plod and chat along the way.
Last year I “ghosted” the event because I was out training at the same time coincidentally.
It’s one of those local events that sells out inside a few days but this year I was fortunate enough to get a spot so all’s good. By my planning I’ll actually get to run this without weight in 2022 assuming I still can run after next year’s Amazon and the 2021 Ice Ultra of course.
So there you have it, two more weeks of training completed, some more valuable lessons learned, lovely people met along my journey and 1,750+ miles done so far this year.
Only 261 days left before the start of the Amazon 2020 event and so much more training to do but I’m sure it’ll all be worth it.
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Will Smith
Well boom – and there goes the UK Summertime, at least I thought that was the case until last week we had a small heatwave!!
On a positive I didn’t have to intentionally carry so much water for my little running buds although I’ll still continued to carry the 1.5 litres because it adds to the weight and I’ve settled into 11kg – 12kg nicely for training runs so no biggie.
Felt strange heading out the door in some pretty wet, cold and miserable conditions but hey, once you’re wet you’re wet right? Wearing long sleeved tops and having to contemplate a waterproof jacket was the complete opposite to what it was just a few weeks ago.
We’re still holding back on Full Marathon Monday’s but keeping the day as a mid-distance one ready for when it happens.
I feel I should be doing around 50 miles a week but in my head I always want to get the lion’s share done at the beginning of the week and then the remainder almost becomes a walk in the park but I seem to have bottomed out at doing 10-14 milers each day with a shorter faster one at least one day in the week.
I’ve managed to get out on a couple of occasions with a running mate and being sympathetically constrained to a comfortable 10 min mile pace it’s been pretty comfortable compared to the ridiculous sub 7:30 min miles I’ve been doing for the last four months with the hounds.
It’s great getting to the six mile markers at the slower pace and still feeling as though we’ve just started a session which is a great position to be in I think.
On the flipside I’ve been adding in the occasional sprint session with shorter 5-6 milers at blinding speed.
I have no idea why I’m doing it but apparently you need to mix training up so thought I’d give it a little bash.
I’m not gonna lie to ya but it’s bloody hard going with the 11½kg of weight strapped to my back but hey, it’s all good training whichever way you look at it.
Although I’m sure there’s benefits, I’m not so sure it’s conducive for my Ultra events but whilst I’m just ticking over to clock up mileage I’ll crack on with them every now and then.
As I head towards the end of the year and longer distance kicks in I’ll probably knock them on the head and focus on lengthening routes and time on feet.
All aside – in the last week I’ve suddenly gone from having no injuries for a year and a half to a mare of a week with no understanding or explanation why.
First I picked up a sore on top of my toe from the Salomon shoes. Again, I have no reason why because they’ve been amazing for a couple of months.
To fix it I patched the sore for the next run and in turn it caused a mahoosive blister on the next toe. Taped both for the following run and to say it was uncomfortable would be an understatement.
The conclusion I’ve come upon is that the shoes have reached end of life although it only seems like yesterday that I bought them. In all honesty tho’ they’ve probably done close to 500 miles so it’s justified and looking at the tread it’s clear that I’m defo a “heal and toe” kinda runner since the tread is almost non-existent now in these two areas.
The other injury (which is more of a niggle really) are my knees. Thankfully they’re not sore or painful but they so seem stiff during the day but unnoticeable when running so nothing to worry about right now but keeping an eye on how they go.
The back sores I had a couple of weeks ago had healed having repacked the weight and replaced the foam strip I’d inserted to keep the load off the poorly designed seam and away from contacting with my back. All was good but a couple of sessions later it wore away again epically.
Fortunately I remembered that the pack I used in the Amazon was only a few weeks old but hadn’t worn it since my return (I’ve been using my legacy training pack since). Digging it out was a real time hop. Caked in God knows how much mud, grim, leaves and who knows what else it defo needed a bloody good scrub.
Seems to me that I bought back a fair portion of the jungle with me but after a right royal clean up it’s almost good as new.
So, it seems that Ultimate Direction packs have a lifespan similar to trainers and need replacing every so often because the replacement has been great since the swap over.
Lesson here kids… keep an eye on your kit. If it’s knackered, replace it or pay the price through injuries!
My backache of a few weeks ago has been loads better since my Chiro (Nicola @ Pure Balance) put it right several weeks back. Sure it’s a bit blurgh at the end of a run but that’s to be expected but it doesn’t last more than a few hours and feels fine during the day. Money well spent I think.
What’s planned?
I’m on a bit of a mission to try and beat my aversion to do more short events and get involved more so I’ve entered the Great South Run in a few weeks.
I’ll be running with a mate and generally treating it as a training session. Partly it’s to try and get socially more interactive but also to get him over the finish line too.
Sure it’ll be with the weight but it’s all about clocking off the weekly miles and supporting a friend so not going for a PB in any way.
I’ve also volunteered to help marshal my local run club’s Half Marathon in Oct. I’ve got loads of friends running and figured it was time to give something back to the amazingly supportive local running community so I’ll be there as a happy clapper cheering everyone in the right direction.
The only other event I’ve gone for is the Stubbington 10k in January. Yep, it’ll be just another training run if I’m honest but it’s one of those events that has a an amazing atmosphere and a nice route. Usually there’s loads of friends running this one too so it’ll be a plod and chat along the way.
Last year I “ghosted” the event because I was out training at the same time coincidentally.
It’s one of those local events that sells out inside a few days but this year I was fortunate enough to get a spot so all’s good. By my planning I’ll actually get to run this without weight in 2022 assuming I still can run after next year’s Amazon and the 2021 Ice Ultra of course.
So there you have it, two more weeks of training completed, some more valuable lessons learned, lovely people met along my journey and 1,750+ miles done so far this year.
Only 261 days left before the start of the Amazon 2020 event and so much more training to do but I’m sure it’ll all be worth it.
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