Enjoying the process and not forgetting what the plan was!
Sometimes you need a little reminder of where you came from, and what your original plan was. In my case, and as I’m a runner these days ;), it’s where I stand at the end of 2024. So, lets go back to the beginning of this recent running project which kicked off at the end of summer in 2023….
I needed a project. I was going through the routine with climbing however it was all at indoor gyms (not a bad thing, however, as someone who used to travel so much for the sport, the repetitiveness was wearing off) and needed something new. And I thought back to my ultra running adventures in 2017-2019, as well as the time limitations I now have with a young child. The conclusion was to see whether I could. make it work to make the start line of an event in 2024….
Of course, since 2019, I’d picked up a busy new tech job, Covid had happened and most excitedly, a mini-human had entered my life! So…I had barely run in the intervening three years! By ‘barely’, I mean I’d ran less than 50km annually. Nothing. Zero. Zilch.
So…mid-2023 came around and for whatever reason, running came as the idea for a project…to go and try and do an ultra. Firstly, tick 100km as the arbitrary distance, and then….
October 2023 after the initial sluggish month or so, I found an event. One year away, France, 100km: here we go UTMB Nice 107km. Of course, it was quite a few months later before I realised that the official vertical gain was listed as 4000m, but was really more like 5500+m and also that there was at least 1000m more descent than ascent: kind of making sense by starting inland and running ‘down’ to the sea…..
And so, the year went. A bad ankle roll in December meant six weeks of zero running (but at least I was familiar with that ;) and then re-starting again. And because of that ankle injury, I was having to tread carefully so I fell into the ‘zone 2’ experiment and ‘the uphill athlete’ experiment: try and keep to mostly zone 2 (99%, 143bpm) but also aim to incrementally increase my vertical gain throughout the year. Did I succeed? Well, I’d think so - my zone 2 got very solid (even on hills) and I progressively built up my vertical culminating with 5000m in a week, and averaging 1600m of vertical per week for the whole year.
The event then happened, and I’m now in ‘phase 2’ of my plan…Get fast and try compete at an event. Not to win (I’m too old for that sort of lark! :) but actually do well, which means a decent result in my age category. I’m also learning what I’ve gained from all my years of climbing - get over-strong so that moves feel easy! - and also integrating the latest methodologies in nutrition (a minimum of 60g of carbs per hour, and ideally pushing up to 100g or more). The hardest part is understanding speed in running - for some reason, I was really struggling to understand it but I now get that I translate it to km/hr and now I’ve got targets!!!
So, as I enter this new phase of learning speed - with the help of a coach, Rene Borg - I make sure to remember that:
I’m a dad now and my daughter and wife are most important.
I’ve a full-time job
I’m in my mid-40’s
I’m healthy and fit
And I’m only truly starting as a ‘runner’ in 2023
Heres’ to the next 5 years - what can I do in the 45-49 age category with some serious training?! More to come :)