Muddy Out and Back

Hi There’s nothing for it... I’d fell out of love with running. October 2018 saw me complete the GB Ultra Snowdon 50. An event which brought with it a kaleidoscope of physical and mental pain and more ups and downs than the profile map. At the end I crossed the finish line with five minutes to spare. I took the remaining five minutes to stand and grin like a Cheshire Cat. Everything felt great. Fast forward five months and I’m struggling to put my trainers on, both mentally and physically. Physically, I’ve got more midriff volume than open space volume in which it can occupy when I bend over... I’m overweight and have to adopt some interesting poses when tieing up my trainers any yoga sensei would be proud of. I’ve convinced myself I’ve not got time to run and if I do, it will be so painful and only go on to emphasis how bad things are. Even when writing this down a part of me thinks, ‘that’s just stupid’. The problem is the other part of me which isn’t saying anything. That par...

The headline is, I didn't finish the Chester 100 Ultra. The story, well it's complicated. A Cheshire field.. The view looking back. Preparation and build up for the event was as good as I could have asked for. I not only stood at the start line healthy, I was looking forward to the challenges the experience would throw at me. The heat was a concern, but my feeding plan is simple. Have my watch beep every kilometre which would remind me to drink, eat and ask myself was I hurting. So that is how the day went. I stopped and enjoy the views and even used the excuse of sorting my socks out to take on an ice cream whilst at the Delamere Forest checkpoint. Sorting my feet out So where did it go wrong? The short answer I'm not too sure.  On reaching checkpoint 6 I had my first drop bag waiting for me which contained a change of clothing, more food and some 'wet wipes'. An actual necessity as my face had more salt on it than a Northwich salt mine. I to...

2017 has been a good running year for me. I love stats and being on Strava and having Garmin Connections gives me loads of data to oggle over. I set myself a goal of running 2017 km in 2017 that goal is now 2018 km. A good early year of long runs meant I was ahead of my target by a good margin. This would prove to be a benefit later on as I seemed to lose my motivation from August and not get it back until November. Monthly Distance 2017 Three of the four ultra distance races were also in the first half of the year, again adding to the overall distance for the year. I like to finish the year off with a good old run and this year was no exception. Having signed up for both the 50 mile and 100 mile Chester Ultra races I need to put in some serious training to make the 'events' as painless as possible. Oh I'm not kidding myself, I will have  low points in both events but I'm hoping the physical and mental training will help me survive them. Therefore, the last...