Lucky 13

It's becoming very real, two and a half weeks to go!  Received race pack with program and ticket for registration.  I'm actually running an ultra-marathon!  

blue route is the 100km race

This was the last week of increased training at 104km/ 65mi.   Another week of good mental focus and solid performances.  Intervals, as per normal, started shaky but once in motion, the stars aligned.  Long runs, well, 73km in 2 sessions within 24hrs finishing last 30min near MP and with no major injury, that says enough!

Now it's taper.  This is the point where I (and I think most competitors) begin to question their training: 'did I do enough miles',  'what if I had done this instead', 'does missing those couple sessions make a difference' and 'will I have what it takes on race day?'    Advice I've received on this is simple, if you were consistent, hit all or almost all of the major sessions and make it to the start line with no major injuries, you're ready.

Along with the taper comes focused visualization.  Sitting quietly for some time imagining race day, the good times, the bad ones and the unexpected.  How you will react, and most importantly, how you will overcome.  This is relatively new to me, so unstructured, but I plan 10mins before bed four days per week.

With the visualzation will come goal times.  I've had a relative idea of my goal (under 10hrs, preferably 9hrs), but now that I have the race pack with times from the last couple of years, I'll make concrete targets.  To be posted soon.


H&N - 62kg/ 136.4lb and bf at 10.2%, on target.  Still clean diet, not yet at desired comp, so won't be giving in to cravings for soda, fried food or sweets (at least not until after the race!).  I'll cover race day nutrition in a future post.


R&R - Still on 8-8.30 sleep most nights.  Not skipping any stretch sessions, at least 1hr per day including foam roller and tennis ball foot massage.

No major injuries, but after 73km over 24hrs, hard not to have niggles.  The main concern is left hamstring and calf.  The back left side of the hamstring and outside of the calf are "off".  Not race ending "off", but they don't feel right and they get stiff after sitting for a while.  So, frequent icing and rearranging the schedule to get Wed and Thu off from running.  We'll see how it feels Fri morning.