I’m about to fly to the US to spend 6 days running around a 443m indoor track. This sounds somewhat mad, even by ultra-running standards, but I’m looking forwards to it and feeling cautiously optimistic. As usual various last-minute niggles (both physical and mental) have popped up, and I’ve not managed as much training as I’d hoped. However I’m in significantly better shape than I was last year going into the Kauhajoki 6 day.

I first encountered 6 day races in 2013 when I did the 24 hour race at the British Ultra Fest. It coincided with the final 24 hours of the six day race. I was fascinated by the different strategies the six day runners were using (sleep-plodding versus moving faster with longer breaks) but I certainly didn’t have any desire or intention to do one myself. Over the next few years I realised that flat non-stop multi-day races are what I’m best at. And by 2017 ‘350-400 miles in a six day’ had made it onto my list of (otherwise wildly overambitious) goals. (The others included 100 miles in sub-20 hours, 115-120 miles in 24 hours and a Spartathlon finish…).

I made my first attempt at six days at the EMU race in Balatonfured in 2019. Injury meant my training was almost entirely walking, and I’d intended to walk the race with one lap an hour as a ‘run break’ (rather than the usual running with walk breaks). However a different mid-race injury made walking painful, and it transpired my ‘multi-day shuffle’ still worked, despite the lack of run training. I spent far too much time faffing around off the course, but still managed a respectable 362 miles (582.2 km).

Covid then put various spanners in the works. First no races for 2 years, and then 3 months out from Kauhajoki, just as I was about to start focussed training, I finally caught it. I wasn’t ever particularly ill. However it took a long time for my energy levels to recover and I did very little training, running or walking (the LDWA100 was the vast majority of my training miles). To my amazement, Kauhajoki went pretty well and I managed 393 miles (632.7 km). Tantalisingly close to the upper end of my original target, and begging the question of what I could do with proper training, on a course which is better suited to my shuffle. So I planned 2023 around Six Days in the Dome, which is on a 443m indoor track. Perfectly flat and even, no weather to contend with, but a bigger mental challenge.

I had a better start to 2023 training wise, but again just as I was about to ramp the milage up at Easter I got ill. ‘Just’ a cough/cold this time, but it lingered for weeks. I did eventually build my milage up, but the peak milage I can sustain these days is nowhere near what it used to be. 5+ years ago in preparation for long ultras I’d run 70-80 mile weeks, with back-to-back 20 and 30 mile runs at the weekend. Now my max is 40-50 miles, with a significant fraction of that being fast walking (4mph on trails or 4.5mph on the treadmill) rather than running. And even that training load is only sustainable with more sleep, and obsessive monitoring of heart rate variability and Garmin’s body battery. Looking on the bright side, Kauhajoki showed me that lots of recent training isn’t necessary for a decent 6 day performance.

As usual tapering the milage has led to various niggles appearing, in particular a sore knee (triggered I think by kneeing a style on my last long run). And I’ve got various mental niggles about the trip, in particular how well I’ll manage sleeping in a (possibly hot and noisy) communal sleeping area. I used to be a worrier, something I probably inherited or learnt from my parents. Over the years I’ve become able to ‘plan well and then roll with the punches’ (various travel adventures, in particular our honeymoon which involved me getting detained on the Russian-Mongolian border and a minor plane crash in North Korea, have helped with this). But more recently I’m tending to get anxious again. I don’t know whether this a post-covid thing, or a peri-menopause symptom (more about that at the end).

My plan for the race is to concentrate on executing as well as possible for the first 5 days. And then if I’m in a good place on day 6 I’ve got a list of targets to hunt down: various (metric and imperial) round numbers and positions on the all-time British women’s rankings (I’m currently number 10) and the 2023 World women’s ranking (last year I was 11th). The later is likely to be a moving target though, as there are some really good female 6 day runners entered: Annabel Hepworth (6 day PB 758.8 km), Ella Lombardi (700.2 km) and Sandra Villines-Burruss (679.4 km and US women’s transcon record holder). I certainly won’t be attempting to race them, but I’m looking forwards to observing and learning.

Finally, the ‘women’s issues bit at the end’. For the last couple of years long races have had strange and annoying effects on my period (it almost always arrives early or late during the race and sometime immediately afterwards as well). But in the last six months my periods have got much worse. They used to be short and light and not too painful. But now they’re long, heavy and for one day excruciatingly painful (although nowhere near as bad as many women’s, especially during peri-menopause). One is due during the race, so I’m taking norethisterone to delay it. I tried it out earlier in the year while on holiday in Japan, and it did its job without any obvious side effects. However a six day race is a bit different from a holiday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it works well again.

2022

was a weird running year. It felt like I didn’t ever manage a proper block of training. But somehow I managed a decent 6 day, plus a couple of slow 100s.

Lady Anne’s Way in January was the first of the slow 100s. I wasn’t fit, and even if I had been the route was too short/hilly for me to do well at. Plus my body did its worst; diarrhoea in the first 20 miles, and at half way my period started and I struggled to eat more than usual. I spent the rest of the Spring doing no more than 30ish miles a week of walking and slow running. Six day training proper was going to start in April, with the Pennine Bridleway Ultra, which I was planning on treating as a supported fast packing trip rather than a race. But covid finally caught up with me, thankfully just before rather than during the race. I was never really ill, but the cough and tiredness took a while to recover from. I did the LDWA 100 at the start of June slowly, only running the last 4 flat miles.

I went to Kauhajoki with pretty low expectations; on top of the lack of training I started with all sorts of miscellaneous aches and pains. However concentrating on executing as well as I could worked well, and I racked up a very respectable 393 miles.

I tried to keep training ticking over during the Autumn. But by mid-November I was exhausted for no particular reason. Despite doing nothing other than short walks, Garmin connect gave me a ‘strained’ training status and my heart rate variability was ‘in the red’. It wasn’t even a case of being sensible and backing off, I didn’t have the energy to do anything other than rest.

2023

The big goal is Six Days at the Dome in June. Flying to the US to spend 6 days running on a ~440m indoor track is somewhat crazy. But it eliminates some of the things that were sub-optimal for me in Kauhajoki (weather, uneven underfoot conditions). An obvious goal is breaking 400 miles (the target I initial set when I first decided to do a six day). But given that I managed 393 miles on very little training, I should be able to go beyond that. The question is how far beyond. 420 miles seems possible, 435 miles (700km) probably isn’t, but is a dream target. The big lesson I learnt at Kauhajoki is to focus on execution rather than milage during the first 5 days. However the goals and dreams are useful motivation for getting the training done beforehand.

After the energy slump in the Autumn I’ve been very careful to avoid a repeat. I’ve increased my milage slowly, while obsessively monitoring my body battery and heart rate variability. I used to be able to ramp my training up pretty rapidly, and in preparation for 100+ mile races would routinely run 70-80 mile weeks, with back-to-back 20 and 30 miles runs at the weekend. That’s just not possible at the moment (I initially wrote ‘any more’ but optimistically maybe things will get better post-menopause and/or when I retire). 40-50 miles, split roughly 50-50 between running and fast walking is what I’m currently managing. I was planning to ramp the running up once term ended. But lurgy hit at Easter, again (at least not covid this time). I’m currently reminding myself of how little training I managed last year, and trying not to panic.

The other race I’ve entered is the Gloucester 48hr in August. The plan for that is to use the fitness from the 6 days to try and increase my 167 mile PB a bit. In a ‘shorter’ race milage goals are more helpful, and the rough plan at this point is to aim for ~100 miles in the first 24 hours, and then try and ‘hang in’ for another 75-80 in day two.