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.