See what I did there? Karin smiles or Karin's miles. I like to think I do a lot of the first one a while clocking up the second, my running partners may think differently... I’ve been toying with the idea of doing an Ultra for some time and this year I’ve finally entered for the Devil o’ the Highlands. It’s a race over the last bit of the West Highland Way from Tyndrum to Fort William, about 43 miles.
This is totally unknown territory for me. Umpteen people have asked me ‘How do you train for that?’ and I don’t know for sure. I’m doing slightly higher mileage than usual, but not hugely and I’ve been heading off the beaten track over the last couple of weeks to ‘enjoy’ more hills.
I went along to an evening for the West Highland Way racers organised by Run and Become and while their race is in another league entirely, it was really useful (and made 43 miles sound like an afternoon jog). I’ll try and keep this site updated with my progress.
I go for a sports massage about once a month. My massage therapist is Corina who manages to knead the niggles out of my abused legs without too much pain and have a good chat about running, triathlons (she does tri, not me) and life at the same time. Sometimes the conversation is a bit one-sided (it’s not entirely without pain – backpacking in Iceland left my hips tied in knots and the muscles are buried deep within my ample backside) but it’s generally fairly motivational as well.
I mentioned last week that I was thinking of doing an ultra-marathon and she produced Dean Karnazes’ book UltraMarathon Man which I’ve now read. This guy has run distances most ultra runners would baulk at and he still has a life outside running. I found myself getting quite emotional reading it because it’s difficult not to get caught up in the sheer magnitude of his endeavour.
It doesn’t alter the fact that moving up from 26.2 miles on hardtop to 42 miles across the hills is going to be extremely challenging, but it does put it in perspective a bit.
Actually it’s probably time to switch off the PC and get out for a long run today – the hardest part is always getting out the door.
I think I mentioned that I was training for a marathon at the end of September. In fact I have entered for two marathons within 2 weeks. Other marathon runners will recognise the flawed reasoning that got me to this point (yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time…) but there is now less than a week to go. I have moments of sanity when I realise that I’m not really fit enough to finish one decently, let alone a second one a fortnight later, but mostly I think something magical will happen and it will all be good on the day.
The first one is on 20th September in Dundee. There are only around a hundred entries, so there’s a very real possibility of finishing last, but I guess someone has to. The second is Loch Ness on 5th October and it will be a big affair, so at least I can probably be sure there will be company at the back.
Anyway, still believing that I can cram 3 months training into the last month, I went for a long run last Sunday and it was OK. I ran 19.5 miles and I didn’t feel completely wretched at the end but it’s still impossible to contemplate running another 6 miles beyond that.
However, despite the fact that 26.2 miles doesn’t seem to get easier, I’ve decided that I would really like to tackle an ultra next year and the one which is taking my fancy is the Devil o’ the Highlands which runs the 42 miles from Tyndrum to Fort William along the West Highland Way. I’ve been toying with the idea of an ultra for some years but I think it’s time to give it a go. If they accept my entry (and they have a strict limit and vet all entries, so I may get bounced) then I will have plenty to blog about for the next 11 months, but probably no time to post in between adding extra long runs to my week.
I’ll let you know how it goes. If anyone out there has tips on training for your first ultra, please share them.
