Eight weeks to go. The training is progressing though sometimes it feels like really hard work. I've been going through these gates a lot recently. But are they the gates of heaven or hell? Going one way leads through into the deer park. Past the church and the obelisk. It can lead to a wonderful world of antlered deer stags, ice houses, world heritage, buzzards, the foothills of the dales, and a cafe with scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. Heaven on earth. But it also leads to a very long mile uphill - the 'Studley Mile', up to it's very own Barkley gate at the top which I have to touch to complete a strength sapping speed interval. Eight minutes of hell doing each hill effort. Only to have to turn around and repeat, again and again. Or onwards through those gates at the top to do another 23 miles to complete a back-to-back-marathon-long-slow-trails-weekend. The thought of doing it is daunting. Going the other way through the gate is usually good. It'...
The doubts subside and I'm sleeping better and getting excited. Telling more people makes it real. "Why are you doing this?" asks just about anyone* I've already bored with my plan, with a look of pained perplexion on their faces. (*Ultrarunners I know excepted - they just want to know more) So I've been reminding myself that running is actually quite enjoyable. Yes it's hard, and yes there are times that I'd rather be sat relaxing in front of the wood-burning stove/drinking aperol spritz in the summer sun (delete as applicable depending on what time of the year you're reading this). But never after I've done a run - I'm always thankful I did it. And this type of ultra running is slow and it's ok to walk up hills. If you're out of breath you're running too fast. That sounds good, no? The challenge on a really long run is how much you can eat to keep fuelled up. I love food. It's just how my body reacts to it during the r...