Well after my adventures on the Ultra 90 weekend, I had a fairly easy week regarding running, I managed 7 miles total.
Having said that though running a total mileage of 120miles the previous week I figured I did deserve it.
I must admit I did think that my feet would take more of battering than they did considering my previous experience with blisters. I only had 3 small toe blisters, although I did end up with 3 lifted toe nails, one which has subsequently fell off.
The following week I managed a few more miles bumping it up to around 35 miles for the week.
So this week I knew that I needed to start ramping it up if I am going to be in any kind of condition to be able to compete in the GUCR and finish in the time that I have set myself.
I started off well with a fast tempo run back from work on Tues night hitting around 7.45 minute miling for 8 miles.
I had planned a nice 12miler back to work in the morning but I could not get my lazy backside out of bed, so it was 7miles on the treadmill when I got home which ended up being another tempo. Its question of getting the job done as quick as possible on a treadmill for me.
Thursday was my planned 8 miler home again which was steady.
Then on to the weekend run - Sunday planned run of around 35miles.
I was up at 4.40pm having had a disturbed night, dealing with children waking up.
I got myself sorted and consumed a marmite bar, then it was out the door and on my way.
The first 6 miles to Broadway went very well although possibly a bit to quick, I quickly consumed a gel and carried on my way. I started seeing quite a bit of traffic on the road from Broadway to Hinton which is unusual at that time in the morning. I was stopped by a couple of cars asking me for directions to Evesham, which I thought was a bit odd as they were gong in the opposite direction. I crested the hill which overlooked the A46 and saw a lot of blue flashing lights. My first thought was I hope I can continue my run as all I wanted to do was cross over the road to the lane which led to Elmely Castle. As I approached I saw that the road had been closed but further up towards Evesham so my way was clear. (I later found out that a man had been found in the road with serious injuries apparently looks like a hit and run)
I carried on to Elmely where I tried my new food snack a marmite sandwich which tasted nice but was a bit hard to swallow. I carried on and soon found myself through the combertons and heading for Nafford. Here I went off road and ran round Birlingham (my old stomping ground) via the river for a few miles. As I came out of Birlingham I started feeling tired and my legs started to feel heavy no real aches as such just hard to put one foot in front of the other. I tried my other food snack a lemon curd sandwich which again tasted nice but was hard to swallow. It did make a difference for a while but I was soon struggling again I battled on to Pershore, by this time the rain was coming down heavier along with the wind which I had been battling with for the whole run. I thought this was probably the main reason I was really struggling. I got to a point on the way to cropthorne where I thought I can struggle on and finish this run but it might take a lot out of me and affect the runs I have planned for next week or I can call it now and be satisfied with a run that was at least 25miles....
It was a tough choice as I am very stubborn and when I set out to do something I usually finish it, but after weighing it up in my mind I figured a DNF on a training run was better than ultimately getting one in a race.
So I made a call to Anna to say I would be taking a while longer than I anticipated as I would be walking home from where I was. She kindly offered to pick me up which to be fair I was very relieved as once I had made the decision to quit, all I wanted to do was get home.
On reflection I think I know what went wrong, when I was unpacking my running pack I noticed that the bladder was still fairly full. I then realised I had only drunk around half a litre in around 4 hours which I think could have been one of the main reasons why I went down so fast.
This is a big mistake on my part as I am usually very good at hydration, hopefully lesson learnt.
Still 27.5miles was still ok, I also learnt that sandwiches while ok are not a replacement to malt loaf , rice pudding or cranberry flapjack..
The main lesson learnt is drink drink drink.........
I still achieved 50.5miles for the week, hopefully I can follow that up with another solid week this week coming....
