This week I'll be mostly trying to run 100 miles.....

So just how feasible is it for Joe Average to run 100 miles a week?

A not unreasonable counter questions is why bother, well, because;

• I've never done it before
• My current employment status, [no status,😃] facilitates a flexible schedule
• It should improve my fitness [💪]
• It may go some way toward replicating the run at the end of Outlaw full [July 2018] and thereby provide valuable experience
• It's far enough out from the event to enable recovery from minor injury
• It's far enough out from the event to enable me to forget the pain involved [😂]

I've never run more than 50 miles in a week before, so although it's a step up I'm probably as fit as I've ever been so if not now, when........

Sunday 17th June

7.22 mi Running @ 8.07 mm

A massively boozy Saturday night restricted training activities to a bare minimum, that said felt surprisingly good and no doubt in part due to Saturday rest day. [excluding golf, rounders, basketball and energy sapping BBQ 😋]

Monday 18th June

I hadn't really dissected how the 100 miles was to be tackled, however was very aware of the need for some wiggle room in case of injury or other impediment, so on that basis I went down the easy to follow 5 days @ 20 miles plan.

13.1 mi Running @ 8.42 mm

A favourite route from the house and perfectly measured half-marathon. I have an infatuation with ensuring that all those miles were covered in sub 9 minutes and although I achieved this, was concerned about my pacing would work out for the rest of the week.

After a quick rinse I landed upon an excellent article from UKTriChat about Ironman run training. The advice was simply to do majority of training runs at proposed marathon pace with anything different both risking injury and being fundamentally pointless.This was a light-bulb moment for me and shaped the week to come.

7.21 mi Running @ 9.11 mm

Same route as Sunday,[although slightly straighter] at a comfortable recovery pace.

Sat down to watch England v Tunisia feeling well enough to partake in a couple of celebratory beers.

Tuesday 19th June

16.78 mi Running @ 9.51 mm

I'm generally comfortable with running 13.1 mi without hydration, so in order to justify dusting off the Camelbak it's necessary to push a few miles further.

This is a traditional "quick" cycling route for me and one which I used frequently for my 70.3m training. The beauty of the distance was that it took me about 6 rides to get it under the hour, with a few efforts within 20 seconds that simply spurned me on to go that bit harder.

Once I comfortably cracked the hour, it was used as half-brick session with the 7.21 mi run making up the balance, with the aim of getting both completed in under an hour. It's these kind of internal challenges that I find to be a huge motivator.

[As a side note, I did my first ever half-marathon in Stafford and took 2:00:19 and to this day believe I would have hung up my trainers had it been a sub 2-hour] 

The run felt ok and it was a pleasantly different experience covering a very familiar route on foot. 

3.47 mi Running @ 9.31 mm

Another firm favourite circular route and neatly dovetails with the daily 20 mile target. 

1,777 yd Open Water @ 2:00 min/100yd

I guess it wasn't a good sign when my arm cramped as I did up my wetsuit, however Tuesday nights Open Water at Ellesmere are not to be missed. I aimed to do 2 laps, however legs cramped at various point on the first lap and decide to call it a day at half distance. My swimming technique is not great at the best of times, however hampered by cramping hamstrings and calves reminded me of the time our cat fell in the fishpond. Lots of enthusiasm to exit the water but a sub-optimal technique.

Consoled myself with a pint of excellent Elder-flower beer, [brewed in Port Madog] in the Fox on the way home

Wednesday 20th June

20.01 mi Running @ 10.24 mm

I'd always planned on doing at least one 20 miler and this is a great circular route from my marathon training days and no more than a well struck driver from the golf course.

My first big mistake of the week was to think it sensible to play in the mid-week medal competition at the golf club and then embark on a 20 mile run.

My golf was atrocious, with my mind very much on how I was going to survive a 20-mile run on a pretty empty stomach in the midday sun.

I dropped in on the supermarket en route to the run and picked up some bananas, Lucozade Sport for the Camelbak and a pack of not previously tested Trek Peanut Power bars to sit alongside the standard gels.

The run was expectantly miserable I stopped for a gel around mile 11 and a lady who was walking her dog asked me if I'd fallen in a brook! [it was warm and I was leaking from every pore]

At mile 14 I sat down and had a serious chat with myself. At the start of this challenge I'd committed to "running" only, stopping was fine, but under no circumstances was I to walk. 

The objective had been to try and replicate the Ironman run and to get as close as possible to that sensation without actually doing it. If I was ever going to make a fist of this Ironman challenge I was going to need to cowboy up a little and formulate a plan.

I tucked into my Trek bar and was surprised by both its consistency, [fudge like] and taste [good like] and made a contract with myself to run 3 miles, stop have a gel and run the remaining 3 miles.

Those last 6 miles were ugly, [ I didn't stop at mile 17 for fear of not starting again] but I managed to stumble my way though, with my final incline hampered mile taking a whopping 11:26 seconds.

I felt pretty shattered and not feeling especially enthusiastic about Thursday. I was not carrying any injuries as such, just a body racked with pain from the waist down. On the upside, I guess this was exactly what I had set out to achieve, exhaustion pain and the requirement to run some more when it was the absolutely the last thing I wanted to do.

Thursday 21st June

14.78 mi Running @ 10.19 mm

Another circular cycle route that I had used for my initial tri training.

It didn't start well as my Garmin had not recorded my first 0.7m and although it may not sound a lot, the thought that I'd have to run nearly an extra mile irked me somewhat. [I'm very strict about this - if it's not registered on the watch it didn't happen]

Near the end, I got confused about the distance and absolutely convinced that I'd run further than I had. [in hindsight I'd actually got my routes confused and cut a few corners]

The shortage of mileage meant that I had to run round the village a couple of times and at this point I started to get a bit dizzy and began to stumble. Managed to zig-zag home and plumped my self in a cold bath and had another chat with myself about nutrition.

For reasons unknown, I have this macho approach to feeding, where I believe that by depriving my body will make it stronger for the future. This run had been nutrition free and something I would need to address in the future.  

 

5.01 mi Running @ 10.23 mm

I'd got back from the earlier run at 11am ish and was absolutely dreading the next 5 miles, to such an extent that I couldn't settle and set off again at 1pm. 

Those 5 miles were run in a trance and exactly what I expect the run in the Ironman to feel like. It was an out of body experience and performed by instinct only. In retrospect it was a good example of mind over matter, there was absolutely no way my body would have chosen to cover that distance at that time!

Friday 22nd June

20.13 mi Running @ 9.47 mm

Woke up both tired and relieved that if I nailed today, then I could reward myself with the weekend off.

After yesterdays experience of double-run pain, I plumped for a single-outing strategy and another circular route from the house that required an additional 2 mile loop, but done in reverse. It's a trick that I read somewhere, if you want to freshen up a tired route, run it backwards or should that be in reverse? Anyhow, I'm always amazed at how different it feels and this was the kind of fresh approach required to finish the job.

Although I felt pretty tired, I was mentally strong and felt pretty good all the way round as is evidenced by the pace. I stopped for 2 minutes at mile 11 and woolfed down a Trek bar which took me comfortably to the landmark mile 13, [7-day 100 mile mark] and then onto the finish which marked the end of my 100 mile 5-day challenge. 

Lessons learnt [in descending order of importance]

• Pace it right and consistent - as it stands I'll be aiming for 26 mi @ 10 mm for the Outlaw Marathon and yes I'm aware this is patently obvious, but if it hadn't been for UKTriChat advice then I'd still been on the "run like hell  for as long as you can before imploding" strategy for idiots
• Nutrition - again, blindingly obvious, but I really felt the power of Trek! I must stop the attitude of trying to summit Everest without oxygen and eat sensibly throughout my exertions.
• Mind over matter - it hurts like hell, but pain ebbs and flows. Some moments you feel like you could't go another step, whilst a minute later you feel like you could go on forever. The obvious take-away here being that at some point its going to get easier. [or you are about to fall over]
• Know your body - I'm obstinate, but I knew that another open-water lap was inappropriate

That's the running challenge banked and a confidence booster for Outlaw, sooooo now it's down to the most critical of disciplines, cycling, any thoughts?