Back in at the deep end

So, after jumping up my weekly XL run from 5 to 10.5 miles in a week, it seemed fitting that I jump again the following Saturday to 15 miles, so that's exactly what I did. I didn't find it too much of a problem to be honest, and the first half of it was more uphill than down (there is an uphill that featured from 3.5 miles and it goes on until around 7 miles with very few flat sections). Don't get me wrong, that part was tiring, but overall it felt pretty good. I moved the running from 3 minutes run/walk to 4 minutes run and 3 minutes walk and my plan is to do 18 miles this Saturday on a 5:3 run/walk.

So, although the run went well, I found afterwards that I was absolutley shattered and I ended up having a whole 11 hours of sleep on Saturday night. I've been quite tired since too, which I suppose isn't surprising. I'm just glad my body remembers what it can do and hopefully with extra sleep and more food, the tiredness will soon subside! Sunday arrived and I did my deadlifts and started getting to grips with the heavy weighted walking (this time doing 2.25 miles wearing 12KG of weight... wow, it is quite tough going!) Yesterday I went to the gym for 6am and did an hour run on the treadmill. I wanted to walk from the moment I stepped on the machine but I dragged myself through the hour.

I HAVE to be motivated now though, as the race I've entered isn't exactly what you'd call easy... in fact, I think it will be the toughest race I have ever entered. I found out after I'd payed the fee that out of 44 people (last race) only 23 finished the race. I got an email from Shaun (after I'd emailed him and William to let them know that new found information) saying at least I knew what I was up against, and to be honest, he more or less told me to stop faffing about and just get on with it. :-)
And just to give you an idea... this is an extract from the "News" section on the website about last years race...

YORKSHIRE ULTRA- many hardy souls braved the freezing weather and snow and that was just getting to the start! This year the snow on the higher parts of the course was waist deep and as a result we had to resort to one of our many contingency plans and ultra runners had to run the marathon course twice - this did not mean that they did not race deep mud, snow, hard climbs and bitter conditions though. It also played horrible mind games with the thought of having to repeat the same gruelling bit of ground....

So, Graeme and I are going to Whitby at the end of November for the weekend, and I'm hoping to do most of the route over 2 days. I'm really looking forward to it.

So, tonight is intervals... my most dreaded session of the week. I hope I'm not as bad as last week and don't feel the need to throw up today. ;-)