Positive Vibes

What a difference a week can make, I am positively reformed.

Mentally I am now totally focused for the coming weekend.

Physically I am prepared.

I will conquer and overcome there are no negative thoughts everything is positive….

What has bought this whole turnaround form last weeks despair; well I can’t answer fully why the transformation has occurred I guess it’s a combination of a number of factors.

The first being I completed a couple of good days running 32miles on the Thursday followed by 26.5 miles on the Saturday. The recovery for both runs was such that I could have comfortably run the next day if I wanted to.

The second being a swift kick up the backside metaphorically speaking from my wife, who basically said "get a grip man, with me crewing, you will be kicked down the canal to the finish."

The third was the fact that after my last few Ultra’s my children have taken my medals in for there show and tell sessions at school. My one lad asked me last week if I would be getting a medal this time as he wanted to take it in for show and tell next week, if I needed any more incentive to finish that was it as I certainly don’t want to let him down .

Yesterday I spent the day manning a checkpoint for the Cardiff Ultra which is one of Rory Coleman’s races. The route started in Brecon and followed the route of the Taff trail to Cardiff. We were situated at the 28mile point in Aberfan. The route looked fantastic with some great views and talking to the runners they certainly backed this up. (One for next year maybe)

Any how I got to talk to a lot of the runners generally giving them mental support and the usual banter you would expect.

All in all I had great fun, met some great folk and spent the day being inspired.

I spent some time talking with Rory and he gave me some pointers for the race itself which was helpful. The discussion also touched on the Ultra 100 which is 3 and a bit weeks after GUCR and would I be recovered for this. I can’t answer the question but I hope to be but time will tell.

So this is my plan to complete the GUCR. Start at 6am in

Gas Street

, finish at Little Venice some time on Sunday to get my medal…

As you can see I have no aspiration on time or placing, I am going to listen to my body or more to the point my feet. This will be my biggest fear finishing with shredded feet and then having insufficient time for them to recover for the Ultra 100.

As this week goes by my mind will become more and more focused on one single action, the point at which Dick hangs MY medal over my head. I will be so focused on that one single action that it will rise above the inevitable negative thoughts which will try and take over during the race.

All that’s left to say is Bring it on I am Ready……

Standing on the edge of GUCR despair

Well I have been finalising  my GUCR crew details this weekend.

This involved trying to give my crew an indication as to where I will be during the course of the race (on the side of a canal I should imagine).

The very thought of putting pen to paper and saying I will be X miles in by Y time has frightened the life out of me and I can no longer seem to focus on the actual race without getting feelings of fear, trepidation, despair & a sick feeling in the depth of my stomach. I am seriously doubting my whole preparation for this event at the moment and am feeling woefully inadequate and under trained for the task in hand.

This is not good with less than 2 weeks to go. I need to refocus and get my head back in the game….

Quitting is not part of my vocabulary and I have never had a DNF against my name.

One thing I have decided is that if during the race I feel like throwing the towel in I will need to defer to Anna to make the call as I refuse to carry the quit number in my phone.

Anna has stated that if she is forced to make that call I will have to move out for a while as I would be impossible to live with whilst I beat my self up about quitting, so I know she will not make that call unless an injury forces me to quit, even if I am begging her to in the middle of the night….

Enough of this negative thought’s……..

I am really looking forward to getting remotivated and one way I have found which works for me is watching others achieve there goals and dreams.

So to that end I am off this weekend to help out on the ULTRArace latest race in the 9Bar series the Cardiff Ultra.

Anna and I will be manning one of the check points together with number one and two son in tow (oh and the dog).

I get a lot out of these events meeting like minded people and seeing them achieve there ambition is very special.

I can see why Race Organisers go through all the grief and heart ache to organise these events to see the culmination of there efforts etched in sheer joy and elation in the faces of everyone that finishes.

It is the positive motivation I need to get my sorry backside to the starting line of the GUCR with the vision of my own finish line experience firmly etched and focused in my mind. It will be the one thought and vision which will see me through the dark patches..

Quick Update

Well I thought I had better put a quick blog in as it has almost been a month since my last blog.

I made the local news last month which was good to see Ultra running making its mark although I must say the title to the article would not have been my choice here is the link to the article :-

http://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/sport/other/8995848.Dardevil_Spiers_gets_ready_for_Ultra_tester/


My training is going well for the GUCR build up, I even managed an 80mile week last week so all things considered I cant really complain, or can I?

My only gripe / fear is the lack of runs over 30miles, I fear this may well come back and haunt me at sometime during the 28th/29th.

I plan to do another 50k this weekend which will give me a 75 mile week and then it will be a mini taper, as I am treating the GUCR as a training run so to speak.

The logistics involved in organising a crew, food & clothing is all time consuming at the moment, I am also trying to plan a rough pace chart for the crew so they have an idea where I should be ( I hasten to add this will be very much guesstimation).

Will blog before the GUCR epic when there will be a good mixture of nerves, excitement & lots of other emotions to add to the pot...