I have a 100km in 4 weeks.
I am less than ready.
I'll give it a go anyway.
It's been a strange month. A 50th birthday, a trip abroad, and a training programme that has been sporadic at best. Anyone following this blog since January this year will know that it has been an utter clusterfuck of a year.
Pneumonia, illness, wisdom tooth infection, serious back problem. Literally every month from the end of January until the end of April has been something quite unpleasant. From coughing up blood, through to well over a week staring at a ceiling flat on my back, everything has eviscerated any kind of consistency and progress in training.
This isn't great.
For now I am putting aside any notions of weight loss, 100km time target. For now I am focusing on one simple act... finishing. When I finish this 100k on what is weak preparation That will be a huge win.
The furthest single distance I have run this year is 20K. Peak weekly 7 day volume has barely scraped 50km. The worst thing I can do right now is overcook the training and bump it up bigly in terms of volume.
It's not what I had in mind for celebrating my 50th year whatsoever. But health issues are health issues. Yes, I could have quit entirely and written the year off, but that's not me. If I think I can, I'll go for it.
Right now, I think I can. I came through May with no major issues with triggering my back issue, contracting another infection or being struck by a meteorite. I have a back to back 25/25K this weekend. If I can come through that then I'll be confident of a finish. I'm probably resigned to walking the majority of it, but I simply won't know until the day.
The good thing is that I know where my current edges are. I know when I'm approaching that cliff edge, and I'm committing to listening to what my body is telling me. I've still 4 weeks to keep sessions going even if I am tapering and shortening them so I'm counting on a bit of muscle memory helping me out.
I'll get another post in before I tackle the Peak District 100km for the first time. It's a bit of the unknown and much can happen on the day with weather, etc. The only racing I'll be doing is with myself to get to the finish. How that will turn out we'll see on the day.
Thanks for reading...
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