One of the reasons I started penning some reflections on this training block was to mark progress and bring focus. I am not a fan of the “measure it, you manage it” mantra. I am a however a believer in that if make something front of mind, or as Charlie Nicholas would say ‘fronter of mind’, then you tend to increase the chances of a positive outcome.
And I feel that is happening now.
The last few weeks have been increasingly positive. The numbers are starting to bear that out. The thing is, for me the numbers are secondary to the feeling. And in the words of The Black Eyed Peas, I gotta feeling. I also may have said pump it, but I just don’t think that works as well, but would have shoe-horned Fergie and gang pointlessly into my blog.
The reason I mention feeling is that when you are training for an ultra you want to get into a training flow state where sessions are anticipated. Long runs are planned with excitement and there’s a constant happyhum [I made that word up if you are wondering] of running in your day-to-day thinking.
This week I had a 52k run today on Thursday morning. Rewind a few months and I would be in last minute prep mode for these. Not even thinking about the route, the nutrition or the performance I wanted to get from the run until sometimes on the morning of the run.
By Tuesday this week I had already plotted my route, more on that in a moment. I had decided what I would eat, what I would drink and how I would do the tempo pick-ups. This is like visualisation. By Wednesday night I was excited about the run and I knew that I was gonna to have a good run.
I chose to do what we call locally as Insanity Loops. It is a 1.15 mile loop. It has around 100 feet of climb per loop and is about 2 mins from my house. It is hilly, it is short loops and it has the option to bail out every 8-9 mins or so.
The picture below shows the loop and the hills.
I started the run at around 4:50am and by 5:00am I knew it was gonna be a good run. I was feeling it. I just didn’t look at the pace except when I did 3×10 mins pick-ups. I got faster as the run went on and I was running with gratitude and joy. In fact, I did a bit longer than I planned.
The feeling of running into form is a good one. I have about 4 weeks of hard training ahead before the Sidlaw Ultra. My only want for the race is to run happy. If I finish with a smile and a feeling of accomplishment then my race will be perfect. Numbers are secondary. I am firmly in the camp that if you are running strong, training well, engaged and focused in no matter what the endeavour, then the results will follow.
The only number I will share for this week, Tak90 of 100 done. 10 to go. Feeling good about that!
James Stewart 