Kind of why I suggested ploughed field 😀

So what part of training does the theft of fine Cambridgeshire clay form? Or is it the bit where my wife runs after me, trying to kill me for traipsing it into the house? 🙂

I might just stick to trying to avoid the mud by running on the verges…

I’ve just started training for another Ultra. Though so far I have had little running due to a back problem. It can be a pain having to take things so steady, especially recovery. But it must be done. It’s an important part of ultra training.
I have a Jekyll and Hyde kind of approach. I do have to have discipline, at the point of being quite ruthless and antisocial at times. I also make sure I just run. Without worrying about times, distance, any niggles about gear or pains. Just run and enjoy it. As the race gets nearer I tend to run boring gruelling routes. Repeating them over and over again. Until I hate them. I find this gives me that extra edge on race day, when I start making excuses why I should just stop and not bother. Having to go through that training again is an incentive to get it done and focus on the race at hand.
If you are a slightly obsessive, sado masochist who has terrible memory but is as stubourn as a donkey then go for it.

Terrible memory, check! Or at least I think so. Ask my wife, I can’t remember.

Sado-masochist? Not really, but I have a really high tolerance for pain.

Stubborn? Hell yes. Most of the stupid things I do just make this part worse.

Having said all that; I had, possibly, my worst ever run on Tuesday night.

I hadn’t eaten or drank since lunchtime and headed out on 6 mile run to join an 8 mile club fartlek…the 6 mile run home was interesting. I, foolishly, didn’t take any water, money, phone, jacket, anything; it was -2 and I absolutely detonated 3 miles from home. I ran (ahem, walked, ahem) past 2 Tesco Express knowing that a couple of wine gums would easily get me trotting along again. I’m not doing that again in a hurry; it was bloody grim!

So, don’t listen to me; I know nowt.

Prior planning and all that…

Mind you, I’m not one to talk either. After all that bravado, I did a PFA on Thursday and could barely manage the minimum standard for situps. Even press-ups were a struggle, but I did exceed the standard on those. Nailed the run though; was two minutes under my age limit.

It would seem tha all the running I have been doing in the last two months, and the absence of any gym work at all, has totally killed my core strength. Completely. Yes, I have lost some lard and got faster, but where has my upper body strength gone?

Time to spend at least tow nights a week in the gym pushing weights I fear.

Oh it was an entirely deliberate effort….a starvation run. What’s a PFA?

Seanoc, PFA is a Personal Fitness Assessment. The Army makes me do one every six months or so depending on where they want to send me. I’m ahead of my age group, but the fading of upper body strength is worrying.

Anyway, I got up early this mornign and headed out for a 13.55 mile run to the next village and back. 1 hour 57 minutes later I returned home feeling aerobically fine, but slightly tight and a little bit painful in my upper legs. My right knee is a little tight right now too.

So, I can do longer than 10k, which is nice. Since I said I would only contemplate signing up for this on after doing 13+ miles, I think Monday will see me a signing up fee poorer. My knees better last till then and I will be up for any advice on training and kit people have too. My new trail shoes (Mizuno Trail Ascend 7s) should turn up on Monday or Tuesday, so I can start varying the running surfaces a bit more.

The thing with ultra training is that recovery is as important as training and so you’re not going to get much good advice here as you’ll be doing phys on Tuesday and Thursday morning (probably) which may or may not be complementary to you ultra traing. Also, Wednesday afternoons, and CO’s PT on Friday is going to wreck any running specific plan. And thats without even going into deployment, exercises, courses, etc.

Your best bet is to speak to your staffy/color/QMSI PT and tell them your training plans and ask if you can get off tp pt to concentrate on running. As long as you smash some press ups out every now and then I’m sure you can stay on top of them.

Used to be sub 8 minutes BFT, 9.25 in fighting order, still do a comfortable sub 9 now every month.

Seanoc… I’m lucky (sort of). I’m a part-timer, so manage to miss out on the formal PT. The down side is that our unit does not have an official PTI, so there’s a limit on who I can talk to about training. It also doesn’t help that the rest of my unit think I’m mad. Apart from the one that did Everest last year.

Anyway, enough of that. I’ve got Relentless Forward Progress coming from Amazon next week and some new shoes coming soon too, so I’ll just go with the training program I found on the internet and crack on with it. Hopefully my knees will stand up to it.

PFT: My aim is to get my run down to sub-9 minutes. If I can do that by the time I’m 40…

Well, after an hour’s meeting and pain with the physio this evening I have taken the plunge.

I’ve entered the Wall Run.

I’m now both excited and slightly scared by the level of training I am set to do before June, but really keen on getting going on it. I want this. Really badly and I WILL FINISH!!!!!!

In 1 day? Top effort.