This week saw the start of my training for the Ultra Trail South West. The recovery phase after the Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon is over, so now it is time to get to work.
I have thought about my training plan for a long-time, anguished about it, tinkered with it, researched some more, refined it, revised it and tweaked it. Then I left it alone and have not looked at it for several months. When I did look at it I was happy that it is a good plan. You can always change things, but having a reasonable plan and implementing it well is better than constantly changing things and never properly implementing it. It is now MY plan and I am sticking with it.
My resolve did have a slight wobble when the race organisers announced that the event had been awarded 4 qualifying points for the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc. That means it is a very tough event, very few get awarded 4 points. But I knew it was a tough event when I entered it so why change the plan just because some French race organisers recognise it is tough.
I am a distance junkie and the thought of not running much for many weeks fills me with dread, but the plan says speed work and quality sessions with nothing over 10 miles until mid-January, so that is what I'll do. I did, however, sneak in an ultra at the weekend; the 45-mile Likeys Beacons Ultra. One desperate last quick fix before going cold-turkey. No that is not a reference to Christmas, I am vegetarian.
The Beacons Ultra is an interesting course, with the same meaning as in the Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". It starts benignly enough with a jolly jaunt along a canal (later on this canal becomes a nightmare) then you head uphill and just keep on going uphill, as it gets steeper, for what seems like mile after mile after mile. Once you are over the hill (no unkind comments please) you cannot relax because it is a two-lap course and you know that 20 miles later, when you are tired, you have to tackle the hill again.
There is, of course, the canal to look forward to. However, the race director Martin Like, despite his cuddly forum name 'littlefatwelshman' is a master at the black art of tough ultra course setting. He knows that a little bit of boring flat stuff is a relief, but 5 miles of it can break even the toughest soul. That day the Gods were on my side. When I joined the canal a heron that was perched on the bank flew off, glided along the canal and sat on the bank some distance ahead. As I got near the process was repeated again and again and again. I watched this magnificent bird for a long time and was 'pulled' along the canal route by it. What should have been a tough grind turned into a very pleasant interlude so at I was mentally rested before tackling the big hill again. Once the hill had been conquered there was only 16 miles to go to the finish, which being roughly half-way along the canal section meant only 2.5 miles of canal.
Those 2.5 miles can be sheer purgatory, the end is near but you just never seem to get there. That was my experience last year, but this year the Gods were still on my side. As I was crossing the canal bridge and was just about to drop down onto the towpath (in the dark so no hope of herons) I remembered a passage in Martin Dugard's book 'To be a Runner'. It talked about association and disassociation and how to use each. That was it, associate, concentrate on my form, my breathing my running, be at one with it and time will fly by. So that is what I did and before I knew it the finish line was there in front of me.
Thank you Martin Dugard
Thank you Martin Like
And thank you heron, I assume that your name is Martin.