There are
just ten days left until my first attempt at running foud marathons in four
days. Training has gone well, with me
running more miles in January than I can remember running in a month for years. I was laid low with a cold for a
couple of days last week, but that has pretty much cleared up now, no doubt the
result of upping my training mileage too quickly over the last couple of weeks
and not getting enough sleep. Overall I'm
feeling ready for the Quadzilla. Training
runs feel good, I'm running lightly and recovering quickly.
My only
real concern is for the weather. I don't
fancy 20 hours of running in freezing rain and gales (I've seen both already
this month). I know I can cope with the
fatigue and running on sore calves, ankles, feet, having done so on the Druids
Challenge Ridgeway Ultra back in November.
I have
clocked up 140 miles of running already this month, and should push this over
150 by Tuesday night, not least because I am setting the trail for City Hash
from Aldgate then. After Tuesday, I'll
be thinking about tapering, easing off on not just the running, but beer and
chocolate bars too!
I haven't
really been advertising my intention to run the Quadzilla, preferring to keep
it low key until after the event, because as always in these big runs, I'm
confident in my ability to give it a good shot, but know that I'll need to
judge it just right to avoid injury and anything can happen leading up to or
during the event.
On the plus
side, the course is flat, at least I hope so as it follows the edge of a
lake! So that shouldn't provide the
extra effort that the Ridgeway required, slipping along mud and trudging up
hills. On the downside, this one is 7
and a half laps of Caldecott Lake in Miton Keynes. I have mixed feelings about the laps. They can be great (I ran a PB on a 2 mile
lap) because they give you exact feedback on your performance during the race,
you know exactly what is coming up and the water stations are very evenly
spaced!
Of course,
all those laps have the potential to get a bit boring, especially on a flat
course and multipled by four days. But
I'm expecting a good atmosphere and although this will be my first Enigma
Running event, I've already heard plenty of good feedback about them.
Roll on
next Thursday.
