A Good Plodder On-er

Last long run before my taper

I have a three day ultra coming up which means it is time to taper. A taper is a period of time where you reduce your training load to allow your body to rest/recover and be at peak form for race day. Well, my body is long past peak form but in the interests of doing the best I can I had my last long runs planned last weekend. My schedule called for 16 miles on the Saturday and 31 on the Sunday. I was working Saturday morning so fit that one in after work which just left the 31 miles for the Sunday.

It was at this point that while pondering that this was quite high mileage 2 weeks before my event that I realised I had miscalculated where I was on my plan and was a week behind. If I was following the correct week I would be doing 5 miles on the Saturday and 24 on the Sunday. As it turned out it was just as well that I didn’t need to do this mileage.

My first error was that I had forgotten that the clocks went back on Sunday. I have an alarm clock that slowly increases the light half an hour before it goes off. To those of you who know me or have read my blogs before it will not surprise you that I had forgotten and so had not adjusted this and funnily enough my husband was not impressed at the light coming on in our bedroom at what was now 4.30am. After a swift kick I turned it off and fell back asleep but then didn’t wake up until way after my alarm was supposed to go off. I still got up with what should have been enough time, I walked the dogs, cleaned out the current crop of foster kittens and settled down with a drink impressed with myself that I was ahead of time. I was planning to meet a friend for a sea swim at 9am about 25mins away from my house. My husband left for a cycle ride at 8am asking what time I was planning to leave and I told him confidently I had loads of time (which I did). My husband came back from his bike ride a few minutes before 9am finding me half dressed racing around the house trying to get everything together for my swim and my run and phoning my friend explaining that I “might be a bit late”. He gave me his standard “I knew this would happen” look as I rushed out of the door.

My friend who has known me for over 20years did not seem at all surprised with the news I would be late and patiently waited. It is good to have people in your life that understand that when you are late it is not because you feel your time is worth less than theirs, a deliberate sign of disrespect or because you don’t care. I HATE being late. I find it incredibly embarrassing and I don’t know how I manage it but I do. I can be incredibly early or late. On time seems an impossibility. Growing up with this degree of time blindness can be incredibly shameful. You constantly get the message that your lateness is a deliberate insult and people often feel that you just don’t care enough to be on time. However, as I said my friend is still my friend because to stay my friend you have to have a pretty high degree of patience.

Sea swimming is not something that I am particularly suited to. I am incredibly wussy about getting in and now it is November (although hardened sea swimmers say this it’s not even cold yet) I find it freezing. My friend walks in and apart from a bit of a “it’s a bit cold” makes no drama. I however get close to hyperventilation, swear a lot ask several times why I am doing this and need her to count down from 3 several times before I plunge my whole body under. The “swimming” is really just bobbing around for a bit moving enough to stop feeling too cold and vaguely moving between a few groynes. The problem is once I have been in for a few minutes I feel fine and she has to remind me that if I don’t want to get hypothermia it’s probably time to get out . Next is the palaver of getting dressed. I have one of those fancy dryrobe coats that I get changed inside but I find it incredibly frustrating how sticky cold slightly damp skin is but eventually got my running kit on.

We had agreed to have a drink at a cafe to warm up before I set off for my run and I had a snack too. I had a hot chocolate. This seems like a little thing but I have always only had black coffee when having a drink out. One of my eating disorder hang ups has been drinking things other than black coffee or diet coke and I have been practicing over the last few weeks having hot chocolates while out with my daughter and tea with milk at work. There is no logic to this at all and no reason not to have a hot chocolate but my emotional brain and my logical brain often don’t see eye to eye so this was quite scary but a real win to have done out with someone other than my daughter. I also had advocado on toast (despite being to old to be a millennial) but it took me ages to eat it as my body was shaking so much with the cold I couldn’t cut it or bring it up to my mouth for ages.

Because of all of these screwups I arrived for my run much later than planned. I had gone to the South Downs Way where I had not been for a long time because I am trying to mainly run from home to reduce my carbon footprint however because it was my last long run and I was already out in the car it was a better time to go to my favourite training place.

The sun was out, it was cold but clear and a great day for running. I went to use the toilets before setting off but then realised I had left my headphones in the car. I walked back to the car and then realised I had lost my car keys. Some of the centre staff took pity on me when they saw me hunting around the toilets and directed me to reception where fortunately my keys had been handed in.

I was now really ready to set off. I had calculated that 31 miles was not going to happen as it would be dark before then and I had forgotten my head torch so I reckoned it was 5hrs until it got dark so I would go for 2.5hrs turn round and run back.

I loved being back on the South Downs Way. I am definitely going to continue running from home or getting the train somewhere to run for the vast majority of my runs but being back “home” seemed extra special. The sun had even brought a caterpillar out although I fear his dream of being a butterfly, now it is late October is unlikely to be realised. I saw my favourite tree and the views were amazing in the sun.

On my way back I started to realise the error in my calculation. Firstly I am usually slower in the second half of my run (especially if I have run 16 miles the day before) and secondly the last mile and a half of the run is through heavily wooded area and on a steep downhill. This meant the light was extremely low and I was very close to going off into the wrong direction on my own in the woods in the dark . I was very relieved therefore to see the lights of the visitor centre and find my car to get home.

The final challenge was that the road home was closed so I was sent off on a diversion. I am so glad google maps is a thing now or I might still be driving round in circles. The visitor centre was closed when I got back and I needed the toilet so I also needed to stop at some services. I managed to drive in and out of the services twice before working out where to park but I succeeded which was just as well given my extended journey home.

It is now less than a week to go XNRG Pilgrim’s way. This is a three day event each day being 27+ miles and is my biggest event since being injured last year. I am really looking forward to it and trying to keep in mind that I might be slower than I was but I am so lucky to be out there doing what I love again.