Sunday 3 July 2011

Effortless....

Well that has to be the best week of running I've had following an ultra. Taking it fairly easy in the Greensands Ridge race last weekend has paid back. I didn't run until the Wednesday, however on the Wednesday I ran a 5 miler at lunchtime and joined the club in the evening for a 10 miler. Then on Thursday I did a slow 5 miler with it in mind to not overdo it before my long run Saturday morning.

This Saturday morning long run was just 7 days after the GSR, and thinking back I don't think I've ever attempted a log run of 20 miles off the back of an ultra. I rose early... 4am early! And was out the door by 4.30am. It was a warm night so I didn't have to wrap up. Just shorts, a no sleeve base layer and T. I also experimented with two handheld water bottles for the first time. They worked out really well. If I'm to use them on a ultra however I think I would need some handles with them so I don't need to grip them so much.

Anyway this post was about one thing - and that was just how effortless I found this 20 miler to be. Without doubt the easiest 20 miles I've ever run. And again just a week after ther GSR.... not bad. I started very steady and slow and just went with how my body was feeling not worrying about the numbers on the Garmin (for once). This certainly helped and I think, in fact I know, that you can undoubtedly run better and more evenly when not chasing numbers.

I felt stronger and stronger as the run went on and the miles clocked up without me really noticing. I wish every run was like this! I completed the 20 mile run in exactlty 3 hours, averaging 9 minutes per mile. The last mile was a 7 minute mile!

Its too early to get overly excited, and you shouldn't read too much into one training run, but it does bode well as I start my training 'proper' now. I've set out my training schedule for the next 6 weeks, and hope that this will bring me to the start line of the NDW100 in the best shape of my life.

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