Sessions 19 and 20, and some other stuff!

Since my last post, I have been resting more; this is a good thing, as I have been showing some classic signs of being over-trained: general fatigue, waking in the night, and continuous aches and pains! This means I have skipped sessions on my plan, and focussed on some faster stuff (as well as distance).

Continuing with the theme of making myself do stuff I don’t want to, this week I ran a steady 5K around Thetford with Sophie (a superb work colleague and even better runner), very early the morning after a heavy Christmas works do! I have little to say about this other than I wish I had more opportunities to run with Sophie, and 5K is a superb hangover cure!

Thursday’s club run composed of pretty straightforward loops around Ely; but this week, a beginners’ course graduate turned up for a taster session, and seemed a little apprehensive. I decided to go for the open-level option (four laps), having offered to run lap one with the beginner lady. I enjoyed the steady loop one, and once the beginner lady and I exchanged farewells, I decided to speed things up for the lonely three loops. As per previous club sessions, my thinking was to do the fourth loop: even though I didn’t want to. I am realising more and more that when preparing for an ultra, you are training the mind as well as the body.

Each December, Ely Runners lay on a coach to ferry us to Woodditton (Suffolk), so that we can enjoy the gorgeous trail back to Ely. I went for the full 18.5 mile option, which takes in Devil’s Dyke, mud, and parts of the Fen Rivers Way. I LOVE this run, which happened today! Arranging to run with Charlotte, Nick and Andrew was all quite last-minute (and I wanted run with each of them for different reasons). Although the pace of this small group was a tad faster than I should have run, I enjoyed every minute. I actually managed to eat, as well as drink all of the water (with Tailwind) in my collapsible bottles.

At one point during the run, fellow Ely Runners, Claire and Emily had laid on a mini-bar! The Rolo Vodka, although in no way recommended as an aid to ultra training, was sublime! Claire and Emily are bloody heroes!