The alarm sounded at 5am, I was still in Leeds heading back on the train later in the morning. I wanted to make the most of the canal while I was here though so had planned to rise early. Today was a 7k recovery run that I’d originally thought of doing back in Ealing with the club run but I am starting to realise I prefer to run in the morning if the choice is there. So up, dressed and fuelled I headed out on the canal. I ran until the first “hill”, which was a short, sharp humped footbridge over a junction in the still waters. It took a little while to get going with everything feeling stiff at first, the run out and back feeling tougher than the same bits the day before. Done and dusted it was time to shower, breakfast and catch the train home. This weekend had felt like a week away, absolutely no regrets missing the HM. All the running this weekend had been for fun and had shown me what a difference that can make.

Wednesday rolled around and that meant hills! Not a session that had featured much in the marathon training and I’d been looking forward to getting back into them, looking forward to West Walk again. By the time I’d finished work and headed home though I was feeling flat, deflated. Like a flaccid balloon hung on a gate post from some child’s birthday party the day before. When I got home I sat there for a bit, numb, barely considering my options. Somehow I was changed, lacing up my shoes. I’d switched to autopilot. I crossed the road by the Lion and Pineapple pub, hit ‘start’ on the Garmin and jogged on down the road. There were times when my mind acknowledged I was running but when I arrived at the bottom of West Walk I couldn’t recall much of the last 2.5km

When I checked tonight’s session my heart sank a little. I’d got it in my mind I would be running three sets of three over different times, the session was actually three sets of four. Let’s just get this done. I started up the hill on the first 90 second hard effort making a mental not of where I’d finished. Jogging back down I realised I hadn’t paid attention to how much rest to have, so as soon as I got back to the bottom of the hill I headed straight back up, aiming to go a little further than last time. There was nothing going through my mind, there was no real stimuli, like the aches and pains of the past, to even be mindful of how I felt. Sure, the breathing was hard and at times coming in gasps, the heart was beating away in my chest, I had settled into grinding out these reps, challenging myself to get a little further each time. Four sets of 90 seconds was followed by four sets of 60 second then four sets of 30 seconds. I was running on the shallow park of West Walk so I poured what was left of today’s energy into these final sprints. An easy cool down back to Acton and entered the session notes into Training Peaks. Jenny’s comments the next day made me smile, maybe I should just run on autopilot every time!

It wasn’t like that for the mile repeats at the end of the week. I had planned to run these around Hyde Park after work but my watch died so I opted to run the next days east 8k home instead leaving the repeats for Saturday. That day I was up early and prepared a running vest with water, gels and a pack to put my tracksuit in. I was going to be marshalling at the Ealing Eagles 10k race before running my own session and it was looking like a warm day. I was positioned on an exposed hill sides for both the junior and senior races with the sun shining gloriously in the blue sky. It was still a spring sun so standing there watching the runners flow past wasn’t uncomfortable, the runners passing my position looked hot though! The hill would have been playing it’s part of course, but as the runners passed me on the second lap you could see them all visibly leaking. I was glad I’d prepared the vest. 

So with the races run and having dropped off my hi-viz vest I tightened the straps of the vest across my chest and headed out for my run, it was almost midday. I took a green route over the top of Ealing home knowing there was a big ass hill towards the end. I’d just have to deal with that when I got there. There were going to be hills at the end of the next race so better start getting used to this. Just focus on getting the effort in. I sucked down a gel on top of the porridge I’d had six hours before, sipped at the tailwind laden water and started a little warm up jog to get my mechanics going. I never really settled in, not like I usually do after 1.5k, so hitting the lap button and starting the first interval wasn’t something I really wanted to do. It was going to get me home though. Right from the off I knew I was to fast, or was it? These were meant to be run at RPE 7-8. Maybe this was right.

I knuckled down, accepted my fate, understood this was going to be less than an hour of discomfort and ground it out. That big ass hill was a walk though, I was not wanting to try to run it. I happily collapsed after a long shower, washing the crusted sweat off. It had been the hottest run I’d done this year, the next day was looking hotter!

4am on a Sunday. Always an early morning on race day. Training Peak had a 5 hour hike in the training plan but the Hampton Court 10k was on today so I could work that into today’s session couldn’t I? I planned a route through Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common for after the race and decided to run the race and the additional miles using the 9:1 run/walk I’d practiced before. I left a note for Jenny letting her know what I planned on TP and, after not receiving any protest, found myself outside Hampton Court about to pass under the inflatable start arch. The run went really well, the runs here are well subscribed so there is always a good sized throng of runners. I’d got the hang of programming the watch now, so at the first 9 minute alert I slowed to a walk, a minute later back into a run. The flow between the two coming easily.

I collected the medal, refilled my water bottles, had a flapjack and some solid food and after a little “aid station rest” headed back out onto the tow path towards Richmond. Sticking to the 9:1 regime I was soon back along the route I’d just taken for the 10k but this time crossed the river and heading up hill towards Richmond Park. It was becoming a very warm day and the water I was carrying was going down fast. Runners from the Richmond Park Marathon were passing in the opposite direction, not a race I fancied at all! Out of the park, across the road and I was in Wimbledon Common, a place I had rarely run and that proved to be a beautiful place if still a little muddy in places. Setting out a little fast in the 10k was beginning to take its toll now and I was growing tired. So it wasn’t too long after getting on to the common I called it a day and decided to head home. I was short of the miles I had in the the plan for today but as Jenny pointed out later, I had made it a run/walk. Not the hike that was meant for the day.

The training for this Ultra feels much more relaxed than marathon training. There is no pressure to stick to a pace or run fast, the weekends feel more like days out, last week in Leeds felt like a long holiday. I certainly enjoy this trail running more than the road running.