week five: one lap's worth

This morning I finished 12.5 kilometres. It took me almost three hours and I walked every step of it.

That makes it one lap’s worth of True Blue Ultra distance.

It also came at the end of another week in which very little training happened.

another quiet week

Monday was supposed to be a 20-minute recovery session. I managed a 10-minute walk. I was sore and stiff from the previous day’s 9.5 kilometres, so I counted the ten minutes anyway 😉

Wednesday disappeared under a combination of heavy rain and fatigue. Friday’s session was postponed until Friday evening and then did not happen at all.

I know from experience that postponing a session until the evening is rarely a good idea. By the time I have been through a day at work and made it home, watching the latest episode of Silo tends to be more appealing.

You can follow the full training plan on Runners Gateway, including my session notes and activity links.

out shortly after five

I was determined to get Sunday’s session done. I was up early, showered, applied all the anti-chafing protection and filled a bottle with water and electrolytes.

For the first time in a while, I wore a compression shirt under my running shirt as an extra layer against the cold. I was glad I did. It may have helped with the lower-back ache, although that could also be my body slowly getting used to the work.

The conditions were dry and pleasantly cool. I set off shortly after 5 am at a very leisurely pace, with no intention of pushing it.

thinking about other runners

Almost three hours leaves plenty of time for things to wander through my head.

Phil Gore had spent more than six days working on Project 168, attempting a backyard ultra lap every hour as he tried to reach seven full days. The fact that he had managed to get up and go again every hour helped keep me moving when my own walk became difficult.

My friend Michelle Brown was running the Sydney Marathon and raising money for Beyond Blue. Other people I know were over there running too, while Perth’s City to Surf was happening closer to home.

I spent a lot of the morning thinking about what all of them would be doing at around the same time.

one lap’s worth

The 12.5 kilometres were a jump from the 9.5-kilometre cutback session the week before. More importantly, 12.5 kilometres is one lap of the True Blue course.

The positive version is that I can now cover one lap’s worth of distance, with several months left to build from here.

The other version appeared as the walk became harder: for 50 kilometres, I would need to do another three of these.

Glass half full, glass half empty, or where’s my glass? 😆

Fifty kilometres remains the target. Whether 75 becomes possible is something I will have to wait and see.

completely over it

My feet were sore, but no worse than they have been over the past few weeks and possibly a little better overall. There were no blisters.

There is one particular sore area of thickened skin on the inside of my right foot, near the ball of my big toe. I have type 2 diabetes and some diabetic neuropathy, so it is something I need to keep watching. My feet sometimes tingle, stab with pain and then go partly numb.

My lower back was sore too, although not as badly as on some of the earlier walks.

For the final 1.5 to 2 kilometres, I was completely over it. The shortest way home was still on foot, unless I wanted to call an Uber at that time on a Sunday morning, so I kept going.

I am glad I finished it. I would also like week six to look a little more normal, with some activity during the week rather than very little followed by one big Sunday and a few days spent recovering.

For now, it is time for a lazy Sunday and some rest.