An Idiot's Guide to Ultra Training........Part 2

At last, here it is, the eagerly anticipated follow-up to Part 1 coaches up and down the land have been waiting for....

So what's new in the Guide?  Well for starters, it has occured to me that as a person who struggles to get up in the morning quite why I have opted for an ultra starting at 6am is beyond me. To prove that this is something I can overcome with a few early sessions on Sunday I got up at 6am to run part of the Lomonds Regional Park route. I was armed with maps, compass, usual food and drink and with a bellyful of toast and weetabix I made my way to Lochore Meadows, today's starting point. It was a disaster. I got lost. Enough said....

Other than that, it's been a successful  few weeks. Lots of long runs, lots of short runs, the odd tempo run, though not necessarily at tempo pace, and an interval session or 2 again not at the intended pace. I've had a few sessions now on the Fling route (okay 2 but another planned for this coming weekend) and a few long road runs. These are hard because I've been feeling the pressure to keep the pace up more on the road than on the trails. Why? Who knows. I had a great afternoon up the snowy Lomonds and kept up the hill stuff on what's available nearby. I still can't climb a hill however and, as Sunday again proved, my sense of direction is staggeringly bad.

I've been partaking in the odd bit of cross training too. This is totally random and unscheduled of course and consists of cycling when Victor the Bus isn't quite feeling up to it (poor old bugger's heading to the scrapyard) and walking lots when my legs are feeling particularly trashed (e.g. after Carnethy).  I've also been hopping. I thought it might be a good ankle strengthening exercise. Whether or not it is is irrelevant, it's such fun. 20 hops one side, swap to the other, repeat until you drop. Easy. You can do it standing still, up and down a room, there are no rules. See? This is useful stuff.

Is it all working? Well so far so good. I survived, even enjoyed, Carnethy, I had a great race and PB at Smokies and I've been enjoyng the picnic pace of the biggies. The dramatic weight loss appears to have settled but surely less weight = more speed?!

And that about sums up the latest instalment and with a mere 4 and a bit weeks to go until the big day, after this weekends biggest, longest ever training run it will be a simple case of maintenance. I may even indulge in a pre-race massage. Now that's something even real athletes do...