This week has not really been an ultra week.
It turns out that my capacity for alcohol intake is still pretty good, however the recovery on the back end is rubbish. Saturday night was a blast, a really great night out with really excellent mates. I woke on Sunday and felt pretty good, as the morning progressed i felt worse and worse. By Sunday evening i had a bit of a cold and was feeling pretty rubbish. I would feel like this through until Wednesday evening. Basically a 4 day hangover.
The running plan this week was to be 34 miles for the week broken down as...
Rest - 4 miles - 4 miles - 4 miles - Rest - 18 miles - 4 miles.
Losing the beginning of the week meant that i was chasing my tail. I decided not to go for the long run but to concentrate on building a solid mileage and ensuring that i am in shape for next week. This week has been about no alcohol, eating well and plenty of hydration. I managed 31.3 miles which is only a couple short of target. I finished the week with a nice 10 miler at 7:08 pace. I felt great and it was nice to run without a pack. I really focussed on trying to keep my cadence high (aiming for the magical 180 bpm). There's plenty that's been written on this and is available on YouTube, to corroborate it feels lighter on the feet and you get a good kick-back (is that what it's called?) where you can feel your heel noticeably rising higher towards your backside as you run. It feels fast but also much less stressful on the body. It also makes it virtually impossible to heel strike. Concentrating on the form like this and dispensing with headphones makes running even more of a meditational activity than i normally experience.
Next week the mileage ramps up a bit with a weekly planned mileage of 42 miles. With a couple of days away with work this will be difficult but i am planning on a 20 mile day at some point.
I use the training schedule as a framework rather than something to be followed to the letter precisely for weeks like this. i love my running but you've got to live too.
