You do remember you're running 50 mile event next week?

An overall success this week, but with a wake up call on Saturday.

On Tuesday I did a 30 minute session on the treadmill, running at an even 12.5kph. For some reason I find it really hard to run on a treadmill. It's the boredom aspect and the fact that you have to manually intervene in order to change your pace. I don't like that; I like being able to slow up for a few seconds and then run faster sometimes. So, the pace always feels harder than it should. After the run I did an hour in the gym as usual; a strengthening and stability session. I do a mixture of upper and lower body strengthening each time.

On Wednesday I did a 10 mile trail run, ending in pitch darkness as is the norm now. My head torch is my best friend these days, but the light that it projects is very flat and you get no sense of depth, leading to the odd stumble or misjudged foot-fall. Where possible I will always turn it off, if the moonlight, or light pollution lights my way sufficiently. I always run my Wednesday session at what I call my endurance pace; which over this kind of terrain (20% road, 80% trail including fields, woodland, stiles etc) is 9 minute miles. The Wednesday session is supposed to be a fairly easy session; following the training routine of easy day, hard day, easy day, hard day etc. I'm wearing 3 layers of clothes on my upper body now. I rapidly warm up and would ideally like to discard a layer, but the sooner I get used to being uncomfortably hot the better! I'm wearing the new season Raidlight Winter running tights, which are much thicker and have a cosy lining inside. I can thoroughly recommend them. Hat and gloves I wear too, again I often want to discard these 10 minutes into a run (not always though!) but am forcing myself to keep them on and overheat slightly. The 10 mile session went well.

On Thursday I did a repeat of last weeks session; a 7.5 mile interval session, with hill intervals in the middle. Once again it was a tough session, and really takes it out of me.

Friday's gym session went well, as always. On Saturday I planned what I hoped would be a fairly easy 15 mile run, although there was 1500ft of ascent. I had planned to enter a 10k race the following day, once which I have entered for the past few years down in Apedale where I run almost every day. So, I planned just 15 miles thinking it would leave me fresh for the 10k. The problem I have is that I have run almost every square inch of off-road footpath in every direction for miles around. I like to run a new route every time; it keeps me interested. So, apart from the start and end I just picked random footpaths off the map to fill the middle. You may remember I did the same last week, with awful results. This week I think was worse!

Firstly, I was not using GPS as I had linked it up to my mobile phone to produce a live tracking feed which you can see if my previous blog post. This made route finding difficult, because some footpaths just did not exist or were so overgrown they were impossible to find. I made a couple of serious navigational errors, and ended up not just adding distance on, but adding some even more horrible terrain into the route. There are a few flags on the map below.



Everything to the left of the one at the top and bottom of the map was tough going. There had been very heavy rain the night before, so heavily cattle-divoted muddy and marshy fields, and slurried routes around farms were par for the course. The other 3 flags and lines in red indicate where I went well off course. One such error had me having to get back on course by jumping a small river. I just made it, only dipping my heels in; I don't know why I even bothered because my feet were soaked through from start to finish anyway. After the river I then had to climb up a slope which was at the very limit of steepness that was possible without a rope I think. Needless to say this wasn't an official path, but more a means to get me back on one, after negotiating the barbed wire at the top.

All of the terrain, and especially the errors sapped my strength. I had hoped that I would have the whole run well covered off in under 3 hours. I hadn't even bothered to take along any electrolyte or snacks, just water, so I really began to feel weary. The route ended up being over 18 miles, 2000ft of ascent and took me almost 4 hours. I was tired afterwards, and one of my ankles was playing up. Nothing too sinister, just a very tight tendon in my leg causing it I think. That will go in a day or two. It then dawned on me that I was running 50 miles a week later. 50 miles! A year ago I tapered for a month when I did my only road marathon; 25% less distance each week. Here I was after already having covered over 40 hard fought miles since Monday (over 80 total if you count the two days prior to that), considering an actual race just 24 hours later, plus an extra run to make up the Sunday mileage. Add to that a full weeks training ahead, albeit slightly reduced, and I was thinking I was going to be fine for the Round Rotherham 50?

I woke up at that point. I stopped and listened to my body for a couple of minutes. Saturday had taken a lot out of me, and on the back of the last 10 days mileage, and I took a few decisions then and there.

1. I would not to the Apedale 10k. I would not do it justice in my weary condition, and that the race is really just a distraction. I'm not conditioned for short distances like 10k's trails anymore.

2. I would rest on Sunday totally, and take it fairly easy this next week. I will do my gym on Tuesday, and on Thursday not Friday. My runs on Tuesday and Wednesday will be shorter that planned.

3. From now until the MDS I will stick to running on routes that I know. I won't risk anymore unknown footpaths. Some of the paths I was on in the last 10 days were all but forgotten, and I suspect not walked in years (maybe decades they were so bad). That's not to say some of the terrain on my familiar routes is great, but better the devil you know.

I feel better having made these decisions, but hope that I am well enough rested for the Round Rotherham. I will be starting it no matter what; I just hope I am up to finishing it. I was momentarily tempted to do it without a pack, let alone without 5kg or so, but that was quickly dismissed. I need to cover the distance with a pack, or not at all, otherwise what's the point?

Other news; as my trip to Tenerife draws closer, I am finalising my routes for my 3-day camping expedition around the volcano's crater plateau and Teide itself. I ordered a tent which should arrive in a few days, and I have received a solar charger to keep my phone and GPS alive for the trip. I won't be taking these items to the MDS, as I don't want any distractions or unnecessary paraphernalia. I'm taking these for navigational and blogging aids in Tenerife only. I hope to live-blog the Tenerife trip, but that is dependant on the mobile network coverage and GPRS capabilities. My Mountain House food order arrived from the States. I ordered two of everything, so I will cook a few meals whilst camping and see what suits me best, taking it's duplicate with me to the MDS.

So, a more restful week ahead, and a diet of rice and pasta to fuel my main goal for 2007; The Round Rotherham 50 on Saturday.

Have a good week.