lessthanwill1

Arcade Fire at Reading 2010 will always be my favourite gig of all time. Couldn’t have been more obsessed with a band at that point and those first three albums were pretty much perfect. Spent the whole Saturday on the barrier waiting for their set. The way they merged Rebellion (Lies) into Neighbourhood #3 was spine tingling! Sorry for digressing!

Yeah I did a marathon earlier this year and training is largely the same but with more of a focus on running on trails and getting a lot more elevation change. The route is marked so it will be very easy to follow I expect. Some of it will be in the dark but I’m told it’s still very easy to navigate - I expect the markings glow in the dark or something. I hope to different types of ultras in the future where you have to navigate as well but thought I’d choose a marked one for my first one!

Most of my runs are in the 8-14k range at a very easy pace (according to my heart rate). Maybe once a week I’ll do a harder one with some fast repeats or hill sprints. I’ve also mapped a course in my area that matches the same average elevation gain as the race I’m doing over a 5 mile loop so I try to do that quite often as well. On the weekends I try to do a longer one in the region of 25-30k with some hills. I’m aiming to build that up slowly over the next few weeks and peak early/middle October with a couple of 50ks and also one or two weekends where I do a 20-25 k run on both the Saturday and Sunday. On the longer runs I do carry a small pack with a litre of water and usually a few snacks. I still need to experiment with what food works best but I usually rely on “real” food like fruit and a peanut butter sandwich. I also like energy bars like Tribe or Cliff Bars. I haven’t tried using gels actually but plan to see if that works better or not over the next few months.

It’s the Wendover Woods 50. Organised by Centurion who put on quite a lot of the most popular U.K. ultras. It’s 5 10-mile loops of a pretty small but hilly wood. It’s 3000 metres / 10,000 ft in total of elevation gain. Manchester to Liverpool looks good. I’ve considered that one as well as it runs right by my in-laws house along the trans-pennine way. Looks like a good first ultra to me!

Great time @Kalopsia ! I’ve had a couple weeks off running due to holidays but am now back on it with 3 months to go until my first ultra marathon (50 miles). Hoping to gradually build up towards 70-80ish miles a week over the next few months.