Winter Virtual Ultra Run

In July I wrote a series of posts charting my progress as I took part in the Virtual Lakeland 50 event, running 50 miles in set stages over the course of 7 days. I enjoyed it so much (both the running and the on-line social side) that when another similar event was announced for December I immediately entered.

What I perhaps didn’t think through in my enthusiasm were the key differences between July and December. It was summer in July. It was mainly warm, there was a lot of sunshine and I could go out in daylight at 5am. It was also still very quiet on the roads after the end of the spring lockdown, so I had lots of options for running along pavementless roads that I would usually avoid.

There are also a couple of key differences between the events. This one is longer. I’ve opted for the half distance, but that’s still 89 miles to be covered over the course of 12 days (13 days really; it’s 12 days in terms of hours, but spread over 13 days. I started at 2pm on Day 0 and will finish before noon on Day 12). On the plus side, there are no set stages this time, so I can split the distances as I please (strictly I could have done this in July too, but I liked the idea of so many people running the same distances each day).

Then there’s the key difference in me: in July I was pretty fit. I’d run a lot in the first half of the year, including every day from mid-March to the end of May. My mileages suffered in August and September as focus turned to building Erica, then October saw me sidelined three times with non-running injuries. The miles picked up again in November, but then in late November/early December I had 11 days off whilst I was fettling the rental house (I had good intentions of doing full days of hard manual labour AND running too, but they went out of the window after Day 1).

Miles per month, illustrating that in July I was in good shape for 50 miles in 7 days and also illustrating that the same couldn't be said (much less 89 miles in 12 days) in early December.

 Illustrating the same point again with different data.

So, as I set out for my first run on Thursday it was with a low level of confidence that this would go well and with the knowledge that this is the most ill-advised physical challenge on which I’ve ever embarked.   

To be continued...