Week in review: A new 1km PB and plenty of mud (2021 Week 5)

Welcome back to another post on my blog! After my recovery week last week, this is the start of a new 5 week training cycle towards my 100 mile race in June. My main aim this month is to log consistent 50 mile weeks, culminating in a 50km training run, my longest so far.

Wednesday: Interval run
While there’s considerable debate about whether interval runs are beneficial for ultraendurance athletes, that would be a discussion for a separate blog! I’ve been doing interval sessions for about a year, and while they’re not my favourite there is something fun about trying to run as fast as possible. Also, while my current priority is ultramarathons I would like to see some improvement in my 5km and 10km PB’s over the next year, and intervals are the most effective runs for that.

Throughout January I’d been sticking to the same weekly interval session: 5 x 1km efforts, with 3 minutes recovery in between where I alternate between a walk and jog. For the last few attempts I’d been trying to break the 3:30 barrier for each effort, but frustratingly kept getting 3:31. This week I found a major step forward, with my times being 3:28, 3:26, 3:27, 3:29 and finally 3:26. That’s right, all my reps this week were below my previous PB!

While there are many reasons why I might have made this improvement, I think there are a few main factors. Firstly, this was the first run of my new training cycle and so I was probably at my freshest compared to previous attempts. I also had a much more effective warmup and maintained a positive mental outlook throughout. Unsurprisingly it can be quite uncomfortable pushing your body to it’s limits, and so in the past I’ve been guilty of easing off in the last 200 metres, but this week I pushed all the way through.

The other potential reason is that I took a caffeine gel just before starting, something I don’t usually do. I’ve never noticed a difference to how I feel after taking a gel, but there is certainly a lot of evidence to suggest that caffeine can be effective at improving performance by reducing our perception of effort. I just hope that my improvements is at least partly due to physiological changes rather than a gel, but I’ll be experimenting in future weeks to investigate more!

Friday: 10km easy

You’ll notice that I do a 10km easy run pretty much every week. This is designed to be a run that I do after a work shift, adding some weekly mileage but without any intensity or difficulty. This week it was a nice chance for me to mentally reset, forming the border between work and the weekend. I honestly can’t recall anything notable from this run, but that’s exactly what I wanted.

Saturday: 20 miles ultra practice  

A lovely view
at the top of 
Beacon Hill

3 words: mud, fog and hills. The hills were a deliberate choice as my 100 mile race contains around 12,000 ft of climbing, and so I try to get as much elevation on my long runs as possible. I also enjoy the challenge and variation that hills provide compared to long flat trails, although I probably won’t be enjoying it so much in June when I’m slogging up yet another hill in the dark towards the end.

As for the mud, that’s just an inevitable evil when running trails at this time of year. In the coldest temperatures sometimes you get lucky and it freezes, but for this run it was hovering just above freezing – typical! While I don’t enjoy the mud at all, I’ve found that if I just put on a pair of leggings to keep the mud off my legs then I can at least ignore it a bit. Still, I’ll be glad in a couple of months when the paths are dry and I can fully enjoy them.

Not so lovely view in
Bradgate Park!

The one part of the run I wasn’t predicting was the fog. In fact, when I went to sleep the night before it was forecast to rain, so the fog was a surprise. When designing my route I included the first 6 mile stage of the National Forest Way, a 75 mile trail that starts close to where I live. I was enjoying following a couple of new paths until I got to the top of a hill in Bradgate Park where the instruction was ‘aim to the left of the two clumps of trees’. Normally that would be easy, but with the fog I was left guessing which direction that was! On a serious note, if you do go out in conditions where visibility is that low, make sure you have an extra method of navigation such as a compass or prepared GPS trace, as it can be easy to get lost. Thankfully I know the area well and just adjusted my route so I was back on familiar trails.

Despite the difficulties, this was actually a really positive run. I was trying my new hydration vest for the first time and immediately noticed the difference compared to a regular backpack. It was lighter, fit tighter to my body while being comfortable, and the bottles were easier to access. Hopefully this encourages me to drink more as hydration is one of my big weaknesses during endurance events.

The training aspect of this run didn’t finish once I got home. A core element of my training plan is back-to-back long runs over weekends, with the aim being to get me used to running while both physically and mentally tired. I’m therefore working out the best ways to rehydrate and refuel, as well as get as much rest as possible. This will be important for the latter stages of my 100 mile race, and even more essential during potential multi-day events in the future.

Sunday – 3 hours

I was probably only about 80% willing for this run when I woke up, but I’m very stubborn and so if my training plan says I should be out for a 3 hour run that’s exactly what I’ll do. At least watching the England vs India test match had me feeling positive when I set off!

Although confusing at first, orienteering
is actually very accessible once you
understand how to read the map

This run is measured in time rather than distance so that I can have a bit more flexibility with what I do. For example, today I decided to mix it up by doing an orienteering course at Beacon Hill. During summer 2019 I enjoyed my introduction into orienteering by competing in the local summer league. Being able to navigate during runs is an important skill, particularly for trail running, and orienteering is a fun way to improve. Sadly there are no events running at the moment due to lockdown, but there are a series of permanent courses marked by wooden posts which can be purchased online for very little – I think I got 9 local courses for £4.

The objective with this course was to see how many of the 30 markers you could find, and after 75 minutes I was on 24. I don’t think 80% is a bad score, and best of all it got me running on little paths that I’d previously ignored on my many loops of the hill. It also meant that I had a large variety in my elevation rather than the regular 1 mile up, 1 mile down route I’m used to. I’d definitely recommend having a look to see if there are any permanent courses in your area.

Having completed that fun, I still had an hour left of the run. It had been in the back of my mind that I needed 18.1 miles to hit 50 for the week, and I now realised that if I pushed a bit on the way home that was within reach. Of course the term push is relative when I’d already been out for over 5 hours this weekend, but it gave me the mental focus I needed to help get through the last section. A combination of strong wind and sleet wasn’t the most fun to run through, but I reached the necessary mileage with about 90 seconds to spare, rounding off a tiring but very successful week of training!

Totals:

Week – 50.2 miles
February – 50.2 miles
2021 – 239 miles out of my 2021 target.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear how your training was this week, and whether you include interval sessions into your training? Next week looks like being a very cold week here, so that’s going to add an extra challenge.

For more regular updates, you can follow me on Instagram @andrewsultrablog. Or to get more detail on my training, follow me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/5373701