By now I've realised that I'm not quite fit enough for an ultra. Or even a marathon for that matter. Not that I ever thought I would be without many, many hours of training. But it has been good to see a little progress.
The training is having an effect - with a BMI in the high 31s at the end of last year, I just sneaked into the 27s this week, but there's still a long way to go to get to race weight.. 43.7 lbs to be precise.
Not that I'm getting obsessed with BMI, distance, calories, or any other statistical measure of performance. It's way too early to get into the detail and besides, I'm more a follower of the Dirk Gently approach; just do what feels right, follow your instincts and stop if something feels like it's going to go ping. You can't improve if you're injured.
From a very historical background in middle-distance track 24 years ago (!), learning to train for an ultra is proving to be a very different process. The "plenty of long runs" theory seems to be right as the results from last weeks track reps training and another 5k has left me with severe calf & thigh stiffness.
Maybe time to build some flexibility training into the schedule as it's no fun hobbling around like a 90-year-old. If this continues I'm seriously considering a stairlift, though two good videos I found by Andy DuBois should help.
On another point, now that the training is properly underway I'll be rescheduling the blog to a monthly round-up. My first event, the Cheltenham Circular Challenge is not until late June and it's going to become pretty repetitive listing "what I saw in training" for 8 weeks.
In the meantime, I'll be enjoying some excellent spring trails in Ashton Court and elsewhere, and hope everyone else will be getting out & enjoying the endorphins.
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