Back to Back Runs

This weekend, for the first time in ages (months) I have run on both Saturday and Sunday – so-called ‘back to back’ runs. This was partly because going into the weekend I was still quite well short of my 25 mile weekly target, but also because having now decided on my race events for the first half of the year I have finally settled on a training plan.

First, the race events. I have The Grizzly coming up in March, 19-20 miles of very varied off-road terrain including two lengthy stretches on shingle beaches, coastal footpaths, woody tracks with roots and stones to trip you up, lots of up (including one section on the coast path where the local mountain rescue team stand on guard in case anyone gets vertigo), lots of down, lots and lots of mud (potentially thigh deep in places) etc. Then, for April I have now finally gotten round to entering the Southampton Marathon, a race that I got my best ever marathon time in last year involving two laps including a back-and-forth run across the Itchen Bridge, a section through Southampton FC’s ground at St Mary’s and some other nice sections (although they have changed and reversed the route this year which has annoyed me a little). And then for June I have entered the 30 mile version of the Conquest of Avalon, an off-road ultramarathon in Somerset. All of which means that some proper training is needed…

Last year, when I ran a 50 mile route in May I followed a training plan from a website called ‘Ultraladies’. The plan seemed to me to be realistic and doable and, given that I got myself around a 52 mile route in under 12 hours, obviously worked. So, I am now following their 50km training plan. The key aspects of this plan are that I need to push the number of runs I do each week up to 5 (rest on Monday and Friday) and, most importantly, I need to start doing back-to-back runs on Saturday and Sunday. Everything I have read about distance training emphasises the importance of back-to-backs and so, this morning, I found myself constantly reminding myself that yes, of course I was tired, but that was the whole point and that this (the second run of the weekend) was where most of the training value comes from.

I ran 16 miles yesterday (Saturday) as per the training plan and was supposed to do 8 today but my other target of 25 miles minimum per week left me actually only needing to complete 3.4 miles. This meant that when I set out I had two numbers, 3.4 and 8, in mind and, for obvious reasons, quite a psychological pull towards the smaller one. And so I was absolutely delighted with myself when I steamed through the 3.4 mile point and just kept going. Training for long events is ALL about putting in the miles and now I am sitting here finally thinking that I am properly on my way, not just running quite a lot but running quite a lot with a purpose.