Week in review: My first ultramarathon of 2021 (2021 - Week 8)

Welcome back to another post on my blog! This week is largely centred on the solo 50km run I did on Tuesday. This was a key landmark in my 9 month training plan for the South Downs Way 100 as it was the first ultramarathon of 2021, and only the 2^nd I’ve ever done. Overall it was a fantastic success, but it wasn’t without its mishaps…

Monday – 10k easy
Whenever I have an ultramarathon planned in a week (and while I may treat the 50km run as just another training run it is an ultramarathon!), it’s fairly obvious that my other runs within the week are going to be planned around that. I knew I’d be spending most of Monday preparing for the 50km on Tuesday, sorting out elements such as food and the route. I therefore started the week with a simple 10km run around town. It was a bit of a wet one, but with the temperatures rising I actually quite enjoy light rain, especially on road loops when you don’t have to worry about mud!

Tuesday – 50km
I must confess, when my alarm went off at 5am there was part of me wondering what on Earth I was doing! I was certainly still tired, and I knew that logically I could start my run at any time. But a feature of ultramarathons are the early starts required, so I’d planned to start this one at 7am, meaning that since I like to have 2 hours between breakfast and starting I had to be up at 5. My decision was made once I saw that the England women’s cricket team were on TV – I could watch that while going through the motions of getting ready.

I knew I’d made the right decision when I stepped outside and saw the sky lit up in a whole range of oranges, pinks and reds as the sun was a few minutes away from rising. As I settled into a rhythm I was watching the sunrise for the first couple of miles, before it clouded over. I was surprisingly cold as there was a strong wind, but I knew that it would quickly warm up and the wind would be behind me for the end.

As always for my ultra practice runs, I run for the first half hour and then alternate 5 minutes of walking with 25 minutes of running. I had an unfortunate surprise during my first walking break when I opened my bag of food and found that the energy gel had leaked everywhere. Thankfully some such as the crisps were separately sealed, but the sweets were now a bit of a sticky mess. Oh well, there was no way I could go without food!

The first part of the route was familiar as I made my way to Bradgate Park, but after that I was on new territory continuing to follow the National Forest Way. I thought if I was going to run a long way I might as well take the chance to explore, and I want to be familiar as possible with the National Forest Way for a possible record attempt later this year. The first new area was Martinshaw Woods, which technically I’d visited once before during an orienteering event in 2019. It was one of my favourite events as there are a lot of trees but they’re very thin, meaning at ground level you get a great amount of visibility. It’s also split in half by a dual carriageway and as I crossed over I saw cars streaming in to Leicester. At this point it was rush hour and it made me smile to think of those on their way to a mundane day of work while I was on a personal adventure.

Thornton Reservoir - at 
least my glove wasn't in
here!

My positivity was slightly worn down over the next hour by a series of unfortunate events. Firstly there were several long patches of mud which had me scraping along the side of the path to try and avoid it. It wasn’t as bad as it was earlier in winter, but it was frustrating to be slowed down. Then at the halfway mark I took my gloves off for a food break, went to put them back on 5 minutes later and found I only had one! Turning back I thankfully found the other relatively easily, although of course it had landed in the middle of a muddy puddle – typical! This time I put it properly in my hydration vest, grateful that it was warmer so they were no longer required. A couple of miles later I then slipped over on a metal grate which had been concealed by a layer of mud. No major harm done other than some scratches and a new splash of mud up my arms to go along with the rapidly accumulating ones on my legs.

Interestingly these events amused me more than anything else, but I was glad to reach the 20 mile mark and the long road section that I’d put on the route to make sure I could do the new trails and still get home within 50km. It was at 20 miles in my race last year where mentally I fell apart, and it would have been easy to do the same while plodding along beside a dual-carriageway, but I was still feeling positive. I’ve been working hard on my mental attitude over the winter, and that really paid off here. I was focussed on the possibility of beating my PB from the race last August – 4:56:22. At the 20 mile mark that looked unlikely, but by the time I was back on trails and at the top of Beacon Hill after 27 miles it looked probable.

The only remaining hazard was the descent off Beacon Hill which can be tricky, particularly on tired legs. But there’s nothing like a PB to inspire motivation, and these would end up being my fastest miles of the whole run! There was a smile on my face all the way down as I looked back on last year where I was rapidly deteriorating, in contrast to this run where it felt like I was getting stronger and stronger. I even had energy remaining for a sprint finish down my road, and unlike a race I could finish at my front door rather than facing a long train journey home. The final time was 4:49:27, almost a 7 minute improvement! Seems like I’m coming into form just at the right time before my 50 mile race on April 2^nd.

Friday – 1 hour easy
I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel after the 50km run, but was nicely surprised to wake up on Wednesday morning and not notice any fatigue at all. It felt like I could probably go out and run that distance all over again, which was an amusing thought until I remembered that in June I’d be running just over 3x50km in the same day!

After a couple of long work days I was itching to get back running again, and so after watching the first Formula E race of the new season (not an enjoyable experience as a Sam Bird fan) I set off for a simple hour at twilight. While I could sense I wasn’t at peak performance, there was no discomfort or any sign of injury which was my main focus. Mentally I found myself in a relaxed state just plodding along for 6.6 miles, which after a busy week of work is exactly what I needed!

Sunday – Intervals
This was the interval session which I’d postponed last week. Thankfully there’s no snow around anymore and so it was back to my regular session of 5x1km with a 3 minute run/walk recovery in between. I wasn’t expecting anything special, but on the first effort I did notice that I was feeling rather good. Often towards the end of each interval I’m beginning to get very tired and can notice my form beginning to collapse, but today I felt like I could maintain the effort right to the end. Whatever the difference, I was able to take another second off my 1km PB, and also had the best average pace for a session! It’s a very special week when you can set both a 50km and 1km PB! 

It's nice to see these improvements as they're a good indicator of both the mental and physical training that I've put in over the last 4 months. Hopefully over the next 15 weeks I can keep up the consistent mileage ready for the SDW100!

Totals:
Week – 50.2 miles
February – 195.6 miles (a new monthly distance PB!)
2021 – 384.5 miles

Thank you for reading! Next week should largely be a recovery week after an intense training block this month, although I might use one of the runs to try and do a 10km time trial and set another new PB. How was your training this week?
For more regular updates, you can follow me on Instagram @andrewsultrablog, while to get more detail on my training, follow me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/5373701