My first 6 hour endurance race and I loved it.
My aims of the day:
- Get to 50km (was short by 0.7km)
- Test my altras
- Test my fuelling plan
- No breaks
Lets start with the overall before what I achieved and what I would do next time.
So overall went well, the 25 degree heat in the sun was absolutely awful but the small 5.35km/3.3 mile loop was mixed terrain and it was such lovely little route to go round. When a friend told me I should enter one of these years ago I thought the same 5km loop would be very boring but I found this one quite pleasant. I thought a lot of it was going to be on road but was mistaken with quite a fair bit being on trail following the river around and back into the car park where we were stationed. Masham is such a nice little market town and me and the pit crew fancy going there at some point just to visit and have a mooch. Might even take my swimming costume if its hot again because the temptation to jump in the river whilst running just to cool off was super high!
Now to break down the aims:
No breaks – I aimed to have no breaks and just keep going lap after lap. As soon as I was in I was grabbing more water or electrolyte drink, maybe the few haribo and away I was again. Think this really helped to get my mindset fully into the game. If I had a break in that heat I don’t think I would’ve gotten back up again to do more. I also wanted to see what my ultra times truely were as in a normal ultra I would be carrying snacks etc with me.
Test my altras – Now I have only ever done an ultra in my hokas ATR’s and hoka torrent 2’s but haven’t taken my altras out on that sort of distance before. With my hokas I always found I got hip or knee pain but my altras gave me no hip pain or knee pain! Even recovery is going well that I feel like I can run again sooner than I thought. All I got was some shitty doms in my quads and a bit of hip tightness that has gone away with the massage gun and yoga.
Test my feulling plan – This went quite well. Literally lived off flapjacks and I’m adding haribo to my run pack for ultras now. Mountain feul raw endurance is now my all time drink for during runs now. I must admit though when I ran out and topped up with water I could’ve done with some electrolyte tablets as back up. As soon as I took it in I was sweating it all back out again! I’m also going to be looking at slow release energy foods that I can eat at the start (first 20km) that can be topped up with quicker release energy foods. Going to make my energy balls again that I used in karate competitions and hope they help aid me further.
Get to 50km – I must admit the last lap went over the 6 hour mark but I was only over by 6 mins. Though the last one shouldn’t of counted I was just happy I achieved the goal distance and I am back to where I was before my sprained ankle. I will explain the ankle thing soon but getting to the 6 hour threshold again at 7:30 km/min pace is what I really wanted to see if I could achieve again. I’m really hoping to play further on this and get the time down under 6 hours.
Though the day was great, I am recovering well and my mind is pretty clear of want I want to do next, I have looked at how to aid my training further. I’m going back to adding in another strength session in a week after going down to two and also adding interval sprints on either my tuesday or thursday run time. Listening to the podcasts that is sort of where everyone is heading in the ultra scene right now so I’m aiming to improve my 10km/half marathon times which I haven’t broken in a while despite breaking my 5km time in recession.
All good postives and definitly looking forward to my next ultra!
I really want a re do of the reservior dogs ultra which was my 2nd official ultra after dalby inferno and which the one that I couldn’t give it my all due to a freshly healed ankle. I am looking into more enduros in the future as I actually find them quite fun.
So heres to the next one and hopefully I shall be reporting some more improvements!
Me with my medal and sausage sandwich at the end of the run. That sausage sandwhich was just what I needed after all that.
LCW FITNESS 