... 10 days to go! Until the "Highland Fling" race, my 2nd ultra race, but my 1st over a distance of 52 miles. I will have 15 hours to complete it and completion is my main goal! Time does not really matter as long as it is within the 15hrs, but I do have a "silver" and a "golden" goal! A finish in time for the prize giving would be absolutely fantastic, i.e. within 13.5 hrs. Anything less is at present unimaginable!
I don't have any predicted times for the checkpoints, just what I can expect to do from my training runs. I reckon 2:30 to Drymen, maybe 2:20, then 4:00 to Balmaha and 6:00 to Rowardennan. After that it will be a blur. I will try my best to get to Beinglas even if I am in trouble as I do not want to get stranded in Inversnaid. And I have previously covered the distance to Beinglas in the Devil, so I should be able to get there. After Beinglas will be "unknown territory" for me. I will be on my own with my drop bags until Rowardennan (half way point) where our friend Nancy will meet me for moral support and any first aid I might need (new socks,T-shirt,Compeed etc). After that my drop bags will be waiting for me again and get me to the end (hopefully).
Today saw me doing another double session with my last long run at lunchtime and an easy 5M with the club tonight. In the last 8 days, i.e. from last Thursday when I also did the same double session, I have done my highest mileage ever. On Saturday I ran from Milngavie to Balmaha and on Sunday I ran for about 2 hrs, 1 hour out of Balmaha towards Rowardennan and back. A few easier and shorter runs in between and then today's last long run. I actually felt better on my long run this week then last week. And I think I have finally decided what I will take food/energy wise.
Now it is taper time! The best time!! I don't need to worry about getting a long run in and can relax! I am off next Thursday and Friday so I will get plenty of rest and time to carboload. And strangely enough I am starting to look forward to this race. For me it is a big adventure, to see if I can do it. I entered (or rather was entered) and did not know if I would be up to the miles. But I decided to see where I was in April and decide then if I would give it a go. I have certainly not done as many miles as most other runners, in fact I have probably done not more than 35-40M per week on average with some weeks even less than that, but I have done as much as I could and as much as I wanted to do given the time constrains, laziness etc. I really enjoyed my long runs out on the trails and I hope that this will keep me going on the day. What I did not like was the fact that I have missed a few club runs that I had wanted to do, because they were on days when a long run was planned or the day before. And that is the downside, it is quite a commitment and shorter races are not really part of the preparation. Well especially with my Achilles tendon problem as well.
That Achilles tendon problem will remain for now. I have had a number of sessions and even dropped my mileage a lot for 10 days to give it a chance to get better with physio etc., but after a long run it would just flare up and the physio would start from square one again. So I decided to ignore it just now if I wanted to have a go at my planned runs this summer. As long as I don't press on my Achilles tendons they are fine! They have to wait until autumn to get seen to again. I just hope they can wait that long!
So bring on Saturday, the 24th of April 2010! I am as ready as I will ever be!
6 comments:
I think you've done really well in your preparation and training.
I'm sure you are going to really enjoy this race and have a feeling you are going to surprise yourself!
See you at the prize giving!!
I'm with JK. I think you will surprise yourself too. Think big, stay slow. See you Saturday x
You will be great Silke. Just think about completing each section and the mileage will happen. I really enjoyed the adventure last year and had much the same attitude as you - I simply wanted to see if I could (I hadn't even done a marathon prior to the Fling so If I can do it you can too!)
Hope you have the weather we had last year.
Keep smiling and it is amazing what you can achieve!
Kaz.
Good luck with it! :-)
You enjoy your run, and I agree with the others, you are going to do something surprising!
Silke, I think you will have a fabulous run. I have seen you after training runs and you look like you have just done a 2 mile jog. You always seem very fresh after it. A sign that you are pacing well I think. You will surprise yourself next Saturday but to all us that know you it won't be a surprise. We all know that you will do well.
Have fun and see you next week.
Marco
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