40. I Am An Ultra-Runner - and I learned soooo many lessons

Saturday saw me complete my first ever ultra-marathon run. And I was battered. 52km of solo trail running in pretty draining conditions (cold and very windy), achieved in just over 10 hours. Not fast. Not pretty. But done.

My engine was good throughout. I didn’t feel too tired and balanced my energy well. The problem was carrying a Hamstring injury picked up around 27km. It was pretty shitty going half the route with it (I'll explain how it happened in a moment) but managed to carry on and complete even though it slowed me down somewhat.

There were a lot of lessons learned from yesterday and I'm left with a thought: 'This is why we practice!'

1. Your stomach can become your enemy (Warning: Graphic Description)

Once again, my stomach decided to do its own thing and fuck my shit up. This time it started early. As you recall, I've been fat adapting the last 4 months with great success. However, for this run I chose to carb load 24 hours before the run to make sure my glycogen levels were good, and to take carbs through my run. My stomach chose to respond in style.

Having left me fairly 'loose' that morning before I set off (though thought I'd gone out 'empty'), quite quickly it became apparent that my dominating thought of the day, was 'where would I find a toilet'? A thought that gathered force as I jogged mile after mile of country trail. Bouncing along did not help. Neither did the fact that all the pubs were closed because of covid lockdown.

This did not help my mood and ultimately shaped how the run went. You can ignore it for a while and the urge disappears, but there comes a point that you cannot. I reached that point.

It happened about 2km after my halfway lunch rest stop. Fortunately I was prepared with dog poo bags and wet wipes (essential kit!!!). But it was nasty. How the trail gods must have smiled at me for what is regarded as a true initiation of wild running. This, however, caused a big problem, as the squatting to avoid getting any on my shoes, along with holding a bag against my ass to ensure I didn't, ended up in me tweaking my tiring hamstring. For which the discomfort, and eventual pain, became the predominant thought for the rest of the run.

The lesson I take from this is that I should have eased into my carb loading days earlier. My body was taken by surprise from the sudden dietary change and it punished me for it.

2. Layers matter and you get colder than you think

Prepare for all weathers. Once again the trail gods decided to mess with the weather forecast. What was meant to be calm and mild, turned into cold and windy. As you sweat, this steals heat from you faster than you realise. Especially when you stop. I went out with base layer (top and leggings) trail shorts, technical T-shirt, mid layer and I had invested in an incredible wind resistant Gore-Tex superlight jacket a couple of years ago, and it's brilliant... but it's not infallible. Those layers helped. But when I stopped for lunch (a well received mercy drop of food and hot coffee from my wife) I realised how quickly I was cooling down and stiffening up. 35 minutes later and i had to be moving again. The longer I was sat there the colder I was getting.

By the time I reached home I was very cold after finishing, and had the shivers for a couple of hours. As a precaution I think I'll pack a space blanket in my case for when I finish the 100km, as I'll likely be waiting around in a marquee for a while afterwards.

3. Cool Down properly AND Stretch BEFORE eating

The problem I had coming into the rest stop was I ran to that point, then just stopped and sat. Then drank. then ate. And there is a big lesson here which i will do differently on the next. That is to give myself a cool down walk for a few hundred metres as I approach a rest stop, rather than just run into it and stop. And to do my stretching FIRST before anything else!

Stretch the muscles while they are warm, BEFORE they cool down and stiffen up. Do your sock change, blister checks, etc, BEFORE you sit down and eat/drink. It's twice as hard to do when you have cooled down and stiffened up. Also, given I was sat down for a bit, I should have done a few warm up exercises to get the blood circulating before stretching off. I certainly think these were contributing factors to my hamstring strain only a little while after I set off.

4. Blisters - Prevention is better than cure

50km is a pretty long way. Even having amazing footwear and no problems in training, when it comes to this type of distance, blistering can hurt like hell. I have all sorts of precautions such as tape, plasters, etc. The thing I forgot to do though was use my lambs wool padding for the top of my toes. The 75,000 steps meant the top of my toes were rubbing against the top of my shoes a lot and didn't become a problem until about 2/3 of the way around. By then it was too late. That meant I just carried on. Adding to the discomfort from a tired body and strained hamstring. The lesson here was to take that extra time to add a bit of cushioning over the top of my sock across the toes. It's something I'll test out with these particular shoes over the next couple of weeks.

5. Don't just double your last pre-taper running distance

I missed an important week when I screwed my back up. Instead of running 35-40k just before I tapered into this 50, I ended up just walking 20... slowly. Not the best prep. Me being me, decided I'd be fine but my achilles and hamstring certainly reminded me that I should have had another pre-taper long run in the mix. I was guilty of upping the miles too quickly because of it and now have both a minor injury and a flare up of my achilles and peroneal tendonitis to show for it. Icing the areas has been a big thing since and will be for a few more days. Looking at my schedule I only have 5 harder training weeks left before I taper into the 100k event. I have to factor in an easier long run at the weekend, about 20-25km, assuming the injury is OK and then put in a 30km, 40km, and a 30km/30km back to back (to run on tired legs) set of long runs in there. I have to be smart about this or risk triggering the tendon problems too much so have some planning to do.

6. Do more strength work and get that form right

I noticed that after about 35k and with leg pain my running form fell apart. Not sure if that was strength required not being there or if it was down to the injury. Either way I'm paying serious attention to ultra long distance running form. I have more strength work to do for my soleus, peroneal and gastroc muscles in the lower leg to do as I could feel these fatigue quite quickly after the injury. Possibly from taking on more load from the injured leg. But I have time to work on the strength here. Form is the big thing though. I'm looking at footstrike and body position so I am better using gravity to move me forward. Traditionally I've been running a little more upright than with a runner's lean forward so im pushing body up with each step. I'm intending to work on getting a better stride by elongating the push behind me and striking the foot below my hips rather than slightly ahead of them. The lean means I will use gravity better and thus preserve energy, and reduce impact shock. I'm going to test 'chi-running' which makes a big deal of this from a technique point of view.

That said, I was very happy to complete my very first running ultra. It's quite a moment to do something that has been so far away from what my ageing and injured body was designed for. No medal. No cheering crowds. Just a quiet satisfaction and the online support from family and friends who were kind enough to donate to my charity and will me on. A special thanks to them, as it makes a big difference. It's easy to call it a day when you're on your own and feeling like I did. But having that support held me to account, along with a mindset that I will finish the distance I set no matter what I feel like. Much love and thanks for reading...