Hey lovelies!
How is going your summer? I am sure wit a great plans ahead in the the season of the year,perfect to be outdoors and enjoy trying different sports that maybe you have done before like surfing ,which challenge yourself to get you stronger and defiantly have fun ,the most important thing always!.
So here I go with my first challenge of the summer (and more to come ) . The inspiration behind is always come from people around you or a great thing from Social media is and also see what another people do and get inspired from them,which I believe is great.
So, that’s why after see many running friends,which started their first marathon last year and now they are ultra-runners, I get inspired from them and I signed in for…RACE TO THE STONES 16.07.16!
For those whom doesn’t know, It is a ultra- run ,which the shortest distance to race is 50k or 100k !. Trail race across the English country side, running through a beautiful landscape,which the aim is more about enjoy the journey than race against each other.
I choose to run 50k ,because I saw how nice looks the race and technically,it looks an easy level,quiet plain ,which will make it easy to complete the distance .Other reason that I decided to do it ,it is no because I want to be focus on running over 42k ,but once done a marathon,I believe that a few more 8km over that distance is no too much distance with a little bit training to have fun with friends.
The Training Journey
In my opinion, a Race like this,you can complete in 2 ways : 100% running whole distance,depending of your pace for performance runners or walking it is completely fine if you need it,as distance like that makes a such bit impact in your joins for long time (4-6 h ) ,so as a intermediate level, I will recommend walk a few km if you need or you are on pain,especially if there are some accumulate elevation gain to reduce the injury risk.
As a part of the training journey, it is important to run a few sessions in similar surface and conditions, including the way to hydrate yourself during the race,really important,because if you don’t feel hungry or thirsty ,it is the fuel that your body need to keep yourself in perfect conditions.
For this reason,after completed a few half-marathons 2 months before, I joined to Wild_tr runners one month before the race ,my dear ultra-running girls for a pre-race session in Sevenoaks . A beautiful National Park 30min away from London, which is a really popular place for hiking a running with a elevated hills that push you to the limits but at the same time offer you a completely different view that the city.
All Green! no traffic,deep forest,trail paths, definitely a great way to escape from the city. 30 KM up and down the hills, carry on a running bag pack with 2 bottles of 50ml of water and 4 protein bars,which I started to take in small pieces at 12km point and also small shots of water every 3km from this point. I have to say that this is my personal experience and the best way that works for me,but always there are alternative ways like gels or different product that personally they no work for me,but they are perfect good for another.
After 4 hours of training across a lovely views ,we finished the route with a storm the last 4km! as we know,UK is like that,4 seasons in one,so it makes you to get ready for any change of the weather conditions any time but the great thing it was that we explore new places with the homework done for the race!
So team, find your summer challenge and go for it!
Have a great weekend 😉
Miss PTrainer