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.

Shuffling past one of Lady Anne's castles