The last month has been very up and down. I started to make some small progress in my running, getting my long run up to 7km (woohoo lol). The rehab work has been coming along nicely and I’ve been maintaining the constant movement and walking.

That’s the ‘up’ parts. The down parts this month were mostly getting this or that virus and having to bunk down, each time for a few days in front of Netflix wearing my sheep slippers. I’ve no idea why I seem to get so many of these things that are going around but a friend of mine has said the same thing. So at least I have company.

Nonetheless, I’ve been bouncing back to fitness in between each bout of Netflix boredom and getting back to sporty like things.

Recently I feel a lot better (touch wood) but now I have a new friend, who is going to stop me running for the new few weeks. I’ve named my mate ‘Ant’ because it looks like an ant crawled across my right eyeball then died there or else went into permanent hibernation.

Unbeknownst to me a permanent floater whilst generally harmless can be extremely serious. I’d had Ant for a few weeks and did nothing about it as I really didn’t know this. Thankfully I finally stopped off at the opticians on Thursday and asked to see someone. When I told them what was up they said I needed to see someone with 24 hours as it can potentially cause retinal detachment. What now??

An appointment was set up at another place the next day. Needless to say my sleep was not great that night. The next morning I went along to get my eyeballs looked at. It was the first time for me getting the dilation drops. They are kind of fun aren’t they.

He said at the beginning that this is a sign of getting older and it’s called PVD (posterior vitreous detachment) and is mostly nothing to worry about. However, in 15% of cases it causes a tear in the retina and in a small number of people it causes full retina detachment. In those cases you need to get it fixed right away.

How come I never heard of this before? The PVD bit on its own happens to most of us eventually. I think its something like 75% of people over the age of 70 and a lot over the age of 50.

I found myself getting irritated by how long it was taking him to stare into his little machine turning a dial this way and that way; simply waiting to hear the words….. ‘yes its just PVD, you can go home now’. Instead at the end of the review, he said ‘hmmm’.

What does he mean, hmmm?.

That isn’t what I wanted to hear.

‘What’s up – is everything ok?”.

“I’m not sure” he says.

He went on to explain that I had some spots of blood at the back of my eye from a small haemorrhage and that he couldn’t rule out a tear because he couldn’t see all of my eye with his equipment.

So this was on the Friday and he referred me to the hospital to get it fully checked out on the Monday. This meant a less fun weekend of waiting to find out. I realise that even a tear is not a disaster. They simply laser it, maybe you get a cool eyepatch (I’m not sure – but I wanted one) and off you go. But its none the less not nice to be in limbo not knowing.

Thankfully on Monday after I went for a very cool test in which he stuck a small magnifying glass thing (with a small suction pad) on my eye, it was confirmed no tear. Hurrah. The mediocre bad news was that I shouldn’t lift weights or run for another 2 weeks as apparently in the early stages you are more prone to a tear. So fair enough then.

I got up on Tuesday morning and went to the gym to walk 4km on the treadmill and do all my rehab exercises; just without weights. It’s all good and I was in a great mood now I know what is going on. So thats when I named him. Ant, that is. Now he is harmless, he is allowed to be my friend.

Ant will not actually disappear but apparently my brain will eventually stop seeing him. For now he is keeping me company.

I’ve put my physio visit back two weeks and I’ve cancelled my big race for 2026 (because seriously that is just not happening now) but other than that life is good and I’m getting stronger and better at my single leg balancing exercises all the time. Maybe eventually I will be able to stand on the wobble board with one leg and juggle! I might have to learn to juggle first though.

In a few weeks I’ll be back running and finally able to build that up again and maybe even start planning some lovely longer runs.

In the meantime I can walk, so I’m walking as much as I can. I’d love to get over 40km this week – it’s nice to have a mini goal.

It’s nearly a month since I last put pen to paper; well fingers to iPad.

There has been a fair amount of improvement in the hip/thigh department. There is also a way to go. This tendinopathy thing is definitely a long term thing. I am not yet searching for Ultras to sign up for. Not even “short ones”.

The main upside of running less is that I’m spending a lot of time in the gym. Generally around 30 minutes, 6 days a week. I’ve noticed myself getting a lot stronger (as you would expect) and my husband has commented on my changing form (in a complimentary way I should add lol). Strength work is definitely good for toning up if you really put in the time and effort.

My workouts are deliberate, planned and specific (what else would you expect from a planaholic). I do leg and glute strength one day, chest and back another day, arms on a third day. I add in various ab work (tum) to these days. This then gets repeated to make a 6 day cycle. On top of this I do my rehab exercises. I’m noticing small improvements from doing these. It’s not fast but it’s there. Patience is definitely important.

In terms of running I’m only doing 10-12km over the whole week. This is very low mileage indeed. I won’t increase this until I next speak to the physio. I’m walking a lot though. I walk everywhere and also go for a potter most afternoons. I generally cover 30km a week. All in all I’m still doing as much sport as I did before, just a lot less running.

There are a number of differences I notice from doing more gym time and less cardio. Apart from a better body shape, the main one would be my appetite. I’ve gone from a quite hungry person to, I want to eat the contents of the fridge in a wrap now please. I crave protein like mad. Being a pescatarian this means I’m eating more fish than ever (not sure thats good but there you go). I’m also shovelling in lots of other high protein foods. This is not me following the latest trends. This is my body telling me to eat protein. It’s like when you are pregnant and you just know you need to eat crumpets and down it with a Guinness. When you know, you know.

Today I had a protein shake after my workout, alongside my breakfast. For lunch a salmon omelette with bagels. Mid afternoon a yoghurt with pumpkin seeds and granola. I finally feel satiated. Kind of.

I’m looking forward to seeing the physio on Monday. She said that once I reach the stage where nothing is hurting then I can start counting two weeks until my next step; namely the long awaited progression step.

I need to see her to ask what constitutes pain in this context. I no longer feel anything that would classify as a 1/10 pain. However, I have felt twinges, a dull sensation at the top of my thigh (where the pain used to be). I’ve also felt something more aligned to pain but it’s gone away after 10 seconds of standing still. Does this count? I need to check. It would be so nice to finally move to the next stage. I am missing the longer runs and I really really miss the hills.

In other news autumn is here. The fallen leaves in shades of sienna, ochre, green and gold are beautiful. On my outings, I enjoy the pleasure of kicking these whilst on a jog or walk. It’s the same joy as jumping into a puddle in your wellies.

I’m back running. Very short and gentle outings of 3-4km but it makes me sooo happy 😃.

I finally saw the physio at Runners hub, who was excellent. She listened and was very thorough. She checked length of legs, angle of pelvis, strength of many different muscles including smaller ones you don’t think about. She checked mobility.

The final conclusion: I have gluteal tendinopathy rather than hip bursitis (both sit within the term greater trochanter pain syndrome). So I was nearly right. Regardless, it was nice to not only get a diagnosis but further feedback on what I can and can’t do as well as a get back to ultra running program. In short if you’re a runner, I highly recommend her.

She said I can run but only every other day. On the day off I assess if there is any pain and it must be kept under 3/10. I can then increase or decrease volume in line with this. Once I’ve found my line I stick to this during the rehab period. So far I’ve barely experienced a 1/10 so am quite content.

I have a list of isometric exercises to do which I do at the gym with my other strength workouts. Isometrics are where you hold a move. For example lift one leg up and hold the outer thigh against the wall for 10 sec. The leg standing is the leg you are working (this one works the glute).

She confirmed some lordosis (tipping of the pelvis ) but said it wasn’t really bad. I have one glute stronger and the other side of my body is more mobile so my rehab is focussing on individual leg muscle strength or mobility exercises to even things up.

I’m feeling better all the time but it will take a little while. I’m going back for some treatment on a muscle in my back (the QL for those interested). Apparently it’s rock hard and keeps tightening up even when my body doesn’t need to utilise it.

So all looking good. She felt I could still do an Ultra in 2026. Just not sure if it will be the 268 mile race I’ve signed up for or something more palatable like a 60-70 miler (lol).

Although seeing a specialist is not cheap, neither is signing up to races you then can’t do. It feels very worth it.

We are now off on holiday so I’m looking forward to some nice walks and short runs in the sunshine. Plenty of swimming and hitting the hotel gym to do my rehab. Of course we will also be chilling, eating, drinking and inevitably reading lots of books.

It’s been an eventful few weeks. After stating in my last blog I was back running, I subsequently had to stop again. There were two main triggers. I went on a walk with my husband up a steep hill and I then went to get a sports massage a few days later. The former seemed to trigger tight glute muscles and the latter (after massage of my upper thigh/hip flexor) led to inflammation and pain.

I should add this doesn’t usually happen. I’ve been visiting the sports masseur for years and he is very good. Unfortunately it would appear he has stumbled on an injury neither of us was aware of. I’d had a 1/10 pain there for months and whilst I realised this wasn’t normal; I kept thinking well its just 1/10. How bad can it be?

The good news is that the flare up that followed (where the pain definitely moved to 5/10), combined with pain in my hip whilst sleeping on my side, did lead me to self conclude I have Greater Trochanter Pain Syndrome. I haven’t had this confirmed yet as I’m still waiting to see a second sports physio. I’ve now got an appointment in a weeks time. I’ll not mention my own thoughts and see what they say. I had to try and guess though as I needed to know what I should be doing and what I should be avoiding. If I’m right about my diagnosis, I need to reduce or stop running, reduce walking, avoid hills and stairs (where possible) and avoid squats in the gym. I also need to avoid sitting down for too long or lying on the side of the bad leg in bed.

After two weeks of doing/avoiding these things, it does appear to be getting better. I had a bit of a dip yesterday for no apparent reason, but otherwise on the whole I can now have large portions of the day without pain. That’s nice ;-).

Whilst all of this has been going on, we have finally (after quite a lot of faffage) moved house. It’s a lovely area, lovely house and I’m sure we will be really happy here. Moving, does involve a certain amount of going up and down stairs carrying boxes though. This hasn’t been ideal but hubby has done the bulk of that.

I would say at this point, it is extremely unlikely I will be doing the big race in 2026. There isn’t enough time to build up again and I’m not yet fully recovered to even begin. I’ve read some people have this condition for years so I do hope that is not me!

One night when I couldn’t sleep and I was thinking about not being able to run again, I started googling how people train up to swim the channel (as you do). Did you know that if you are slim’ish that they recommend you gain 2 stone?! It’s to help insulate you as the swim has to be done without a wetsuit and you need to minimise the risk of hypothermia. Got to say, that is more off putting to me than the jellyfish.

I saw a really good video explaining what Greater Trochanter Pain Syndrome (GTPS) is the other day. We have bursas around our body (little cushiony sacs) that are positioned between bones and soft tissues. This particular one I’m talking about is referring to the hip joint. When it’s working properly it helps prevent friction of the muscles/tendon going over the top of the thigh bone when you move. These can become inflamed and less effective leading to pain when you make repetitive movements.

Typical causes of it arising in the first place is increasing your running mileage too quickly (honestly don’t think I did) but also bad running form (yes probably). The latter in turn can be caused by all the things I’ve mentioned in previous blogs: weak core stability muscles, lordosis, hyper flexible hips and so on.

For now I just want a physio to tell me what is wrong (and if I’m right), what I should be doing and what I shouldn’t. My pain levels are fairly low so I might be able to do more than I think. I just don’t know. After that I hope to get a course of rehab strength work to help avoid this happening again in the future.

Unfortunately I had to part ways with the first physio as he didn’t spot any of this at all, and I really do think he should of. The next physio I’m seeing is a running specialist so I’m quite excited about that.

All the above has limited what I can do in the new home/new life. I had been looking forward to joining a runners group to make some new friends. I was also looking forward to exploring the trails and hills around here. All this will have to wait for now.

We’ve joined a gym over the road which is ace. It’s so close, I can go everyday for a short while. It keeps me out of mischief. I’ve also offered to help volunteer locally starting next week. We are of course also exploring the pubs here. You have to!

Moving the cat was stressful. He is the most anxious cat I’ve ever had. The actual moving in day was a nightmare but I’ll spare you the details. Since then he has settled quite well in terms of sniffing his way around the house and finding new places to curl up and sleep.

Yesterday we put in a cat flap. He has decided the lead I bought to take him around his new garden is evil and freaks out if I go near him with it. So we were left with no choice but to just open the door and just let him go out. He managed 5 minutes and came running back in again.

Today he managed another 5 minutes. He sat in a tree directly out the back and then sh** himself when a bird landed on the top of the tree. He promptly returned to safety and went up to recover on one of the beds. It’s a hard life!

To think I was worried about him running off and getting lost. Hah. He won’t move further than a foot from the house! I assume this will improve eventually.

For now my Facebook page will have to be Lorna gyms it and drinks coffee rather than Lorna runs but I’ll get there in the end.

So first of all I should say that 3 years ago today I was watching salmon jump upstream at the Falls of Shin near Lairg, just 5 days into John o Groats to Lands End run. Wow, how time flies. It truly seems like forever ago.

After a few weeks of rest following the mini Ultra of RAS I went to see a sports physio specialist. I’ve actually had two appointments now. So far I’ve been given a range of exercises to do. They are all mobility rather than strength based which has surprised me.

As well as finding out that I have tight muscles in my back, hypermobile hips, which can lead to instability and bad propreoception (will explain this one in a minute), I also have a bit of lordosis (pelvis tilted forwards) and I personally suspect gluteal tendinopathy (but thats a self diagnosis – more on that later).

So dealing with each of these in turn. The hypermobile hips (in my case) mean I can touch the floor with the flat of my hands without warming up. I’m not (thankfully in a way) hypermobile in the lateral direction. It’s generally caused by your ball (ball and socket joint in the hip) being a slightly different shape allowing the hip bone to move more. I don’t need to worry about increased risk of hip replacement as there is limited lateral movement. It does, however, mean that my body has learnt to do many movements without developing proper strength in my stomach, bum, thigh muscles.

I’ve done a lot of reading on it and for now it would appear to be safer for me to do more Pilates than Yoga. Although the latter can be very good for you, I have to be careful as I could push a stretch based on my mobile bones rather than my muscles.

Part of ‘getting stronger’ will involve me working on building strength in all the muscles surrounding the hip to stabilise things.

The second thing I mention above is propreoception. I hope I’ve spelt that right. If you are interested, google it. It’s fascinating stuff.

I’ve always been ‘wobbly’, fall over easily, bump into things and yes struggled to park the car. I’ve even found it incredibly difficult to pull out and put back my drinks bottle when on the bike. It turns out this is all very common for people with poor propreoception.

It’s basically the ability of your brain to know where your body is in a space (especially when moving). So yes, you know the table is there in the lounge but your brain is not giving an accurate picture of where your leg is in relation to it. So you clip it, leading to yet another bruise – to join all the other ones.

People with poor preoception can feel nervous descending and typically bump into things around the house without really knowing why they are apparently ‘clumsy’.

You can work on this and improve it. Largely it just involves doing more of the things you are bad at. So the more I cycle and run down technical hills, the better I will get at it. I may just take longer than the next person. It may also explain why I kick rocks all the time when I run on rocky terrain. 🤔

Whilst all the mobility exercises I’ve received from the first physio are interesting and I think are helping my back to loosen up, I don’t feel like we’ve nailed it yet. I’ve taken the big step of contacting a second sports injury physio (one I’ve seen in the past and who ‘fixed me’). Depending on the outcome I will choose one over the other.

The last two weeks I’ve been able to run again with no problems at all. I’m building up the distances very slowly and introducing elevation equally slowly. I was absolutely fine until this Friday when I got over excited and decided to walk up Chinley Churn with the hubs. I love this walk. It’s very steep and without poles hands occasionally get involved. It feels challenging and fun. It’s only 2.5km on the up and the rest of this walk is 3.5km downhill and then 3km flat.

It’s never bothered me before, but on this occasion I felt that familiar tightening in my glutes near the top of the climb. On the way down I could feel more muscles rebelling. Once home it wasn’t painful, but I had severe tightening in the butt muscles, which certainly isn’t comfortable. In the night, I then developed pain on the side of my hip.

This led to Saturday being a rest day and me having a mini meltdown. “Will I ever get back running or hiking…agh”.

Desperate to find out what was wrong I did my usual. Consult google. He’s an expert you know.

I discovered ‘gluteal tendinopathy’. A tendency to have a pain at the top of the thigh (yup), tight glutes (yup yup) and a pain on the side of the hip when you sleep (thrice yup). The advice surprised me though. As long as its mild (which mine is, as the pain is easily only 1 or 2 out of 10) then you can carry on running as long as its on the flat. It would seem that it is triggered by hills. Ahhhhh right then.

So I set off today on a flat 8km run down the canal. Not only did it feel fine but I think it actually made me feel better/looser. Mad huh.

I feel like I’m turning into a medic here. I have no particular desire for this. I just want to know what is going on with my body and be able to run easily and for longer without issues.

Having found this little nugget, I now need to determine if my self diagnosis is true or not. This is where the second physio comes in. I do feel the first one is good but he hasn’t ‘diagnosed’ anything. Most of the suggestions as to what is wrong have come from me. I’m even working on lower stomach strength exercises as I’ve read this is good for lordosis. This didn’t come from the physio/again just my own reading.

I want more direction from an expert really. I could be guessing all over the place and getting it wrong.

Despite all of this I have managed 28km of running/hiking combined last week and 32km of the same this week. I still don’t know if I will be able to do the big long race I’ve signed up for in June 2026 but I have until March to decide. For now I’m on track with my training plan. I just need a little help on how I can get back to climbing hills.

I love the hills. Once I’m better I’d ideally like to spend more and more time running/hiking up to places like Cracken Edge and enjoying the views – bliss.

A part of me thought I would never DNF a race. It’s all mindset I thought and I’m not one for giving in (or so I thought). Unless they kick me out I’m not leaving the race.

On the other hand I will admit this is the first race or adventure where I had a tendency to say ‘if I finish’. In all other races I’ve done, finishing was a certainty in my mind. So why the doubts? Did I set myself up to fail? I’ve reflected on this. I think the answer is no. I simply made a choice. To continue to suffer or to let the suffering end and I chose the latter.

A few weeks before the race across Scotland (RAS), feeling ill and with nothing to do but rest, I watched a video on mental mindset for running Ultras. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was very good. The guy talked about ‘first blood’ and that really resonated with me. The idea is that at some point in your race something will go wrong ‘first blood’. You have to know this will come, adapt, resolve it and move onwards. After that you may have second blood, third etc. Running an Ultra is akin to resolving a series of problems. Some you may have expected and some you may not.

With this in mind, I was happy that when something cropped up I would not lose my head and simply adapt.

Chris and I hired a camper van for the race, which he would live in for the 4 days I was to be racing. He would be my support ‘crew’, carrying all my spare clothes, snacks, and additional medical kit etc. I could also sleep in there as and when needed for an hour or two. (At most – given the continuous nature of the race).

Arriving in Portpatrick the evening before the race we parked up the van, got registered and set about getting ready for the race. As I went to charge up my watches and phone, I discovered that the power chargers we’d meant to bring with us were in fact still at home. Furthermore the two new Garmin cables I’d brought with me were in fact rubbish. First blood already?!

Chris fiddled with the stupid Garmin cable prongs (notoriously useless actually) and managed to get one working for one watch and the other one working for the second watch. Hallelujah. We went for dinner and as we sat eating, Chris suggested he drive to Stranraer the next day to buy new power chargers. Not ideal and not a place he wanted to go to but it was simply necessary.

Initial issues resolved, I felt calm and ready for a good nights sleep before the race.

Ha ha. Did I say good nights sleep?

The wind gusts were 36mph. Apparently parking a camper van up by the sea in strong winds does not make for an ideal sleeping environment. Who knew?

Chris (of course) slept like a baby. He found the van wobbling back and forth like a boat ‘comforting’. Personally I found it anxiety inducing. I managed to sleep from 9pm till midnight (hazaah to 3 hours sleep) but woke up to the sounds of the winds and the feeling that the van may topple over. This kept me up the rest of the night but in any case the alarm went off at 4am. Ah well. Second blood.

After a breakfast of a cheese sandwich (turns out you can’t plug in a toaster on a camper van when you don’t have electric hookup (I feel so stupid lol), I went off to the start to collect my tracker and hand in my drop bags for checkpoints 4, 7 and 11.

Chris agreed to come over in a bit to take my sweatshirt off me and also apply some KT tape to my back.This is a roll of tape that runners use on their skin. It helps prevent chafing when you run.

It got to 5.45am, the race was due to start at 6am and I still hadn’t seen Chris. Starting to panic I dived into the ladies and asked the first person I saw to apply the tape to my back. Luckily for me she was an expert at this and her friend nodded sagely that she was otherwise known as ‘tape lady’.

Shortly after I heard Chris call my name and with some relief handed over my sweatshirt and said goodbye till later. I would not see him now until 73km at checkpoint 3. The support teams were not allowed to stop earlier.

The director came over and ushered us all into the starting pen. The bagpipe player piped out some beautiful Scottish tunes as the sun rose in the sky and we all looked at each other with apprehension and excitement.

I started at the back, only for more people to come forth and stand behind me. I was fairly far back which suited me well. I wanted to start off slowly.

I jokingly turned to the lady next to me and suggested we watch our hats as the wind on top of the cliff tops was picking up. I was already holding mine down.

We all saw the drone fly above and suddenly we were off.

With an excited jog forwards we all came to a screaming halt as we then climbed out of the harbour up the steep steps to the top of the first cliff. Everyone walked and I found my place in the queue upwards. As I reached the crest my hat laughingly blew off and over a nearby wall. Ah. Third blood then. Crikey I haven’t even run a kilometre yet.

The first 5km of the race follows the coast northwards. It’s hilly with a few climbs down to a beach, then up some steps to the top again. None the less I found the pace of the group I was in, very comfortable and settled into my race.

When we reached the lighthouse we turned right inland to start the crossing of the country to the east coast. A few miles of tarmac followed and I enjoyed the easiness of it. Everyone was very chatty at this point. One person would pull up and ask me questions and then I would pull up to someone else and ask them questions. They were all of a similar vein. Did you sleep last night? Have you done this race before? I was surprised at how many were having a second or even third go at it. Surely it wasn’t that hard??

A few kilometres later and I met a lady with whom I ran for the next 20km. We had a similar race pace and the conversation flowed easily. We would walk the hills and run the rest.

The terrain was very varied. Once on the trails, it was incredibly uneven at times, which made it slower going, but the views were stunning and it was an absolute joy to be out there with people who felt the same way about these challenges as I did.

After just 21km Virginie and I came into CP1 (checkpoint) smiling happily. This was fun. I grabbed a few tiny sandwiches and some boiled potatoes and topped up my bottles with water and cola. Up until this point I’d done well at keeping on top of my nutrition with proper food (I prefer to eat sandwiches, buttermilk pancakes, malt loaf). Unfortunately I had nearly run out and the food at the aid station was mostly tiny pretzels, crisps, sweets and biscuits. The next stage would be just 14km so I didn’t think this should be a problem.

Another 10km flew by as I ran with my new running friend, finding out about her life and fascinating career as a surgeon.

A few kilometres before CP2, I ran out of energy. I had no food and no water left and found myself bonking (going energy wise in the red). Oh dear this was not good. I let Virginie head off ahead and walked for a bit.

Although I highly recommend this race and the organisation and volunteers are exceptional, I would however, say that these early checkpoints did disappoint in terms of food. In future I would personally carry more of my own. I like/need to eat real food with decent calories. I don’t get along with sugary drinks and snacks. There were virtually no sandwiches left, so I grabbed some boiled potatoes and ginger biscuits. I was looking down at this tiny bag of food and wondering how I was supposed to run 42km hilly trails to CP3 on a few hundred calories. Hmm.

Before CP2 we’d also encountered some bogs, so paying attention to everyone who had previously DNF’d and advised that ‘looking after your feet is key’ I sat down at the side of the road to sort them out. Tootsies cleaned and dried, I donned a lovely pair of dry socks. I set off again feeling smug that I’d done the right thing. With hindsight I actually needed several pairs of dry socks in my rucksack as I’d only taken one with me. Chris had the remaining pairs in the van but that was another 36km away.

Setting off I started to feel better after a few salty potatoes and water so managed to get back to a jog. A kilometre on, I found myself on very uneven fields with boggy bits. The kind where they amusingly put in these short wooden bridges even though you step off them directly into another bog anyway. This preceded a long stretch of wet Bogland and my feet were wet through again. Feet issues aside I’d now been suffering from a bad back and tight glutes since as early as 12km into the race. At this point, I was starting to notice the pain and tightness extend down my leg. I found myself going ever slower and people started to pass me.

It was just 7km to the Beehive Bothy. Utterly beautiful trails all the way, glorious sunshine (also far too hot and muggy mind you) and it should have been enjoyable. Sadly I was no longer having fun at this point.

The pain in my leg travelled down the outside tendon, tightening and locking evermore. My run turned into a jog, turned into a walk, turned into a hobble. I could also start to feel a blister developing under one of my toenails, which I was fairly sure was now being forced off (yes this does hurt). Losing toenails when you’ve kicked something, they simply turn black and 3 months later they fall off….that doesn’t hurt at all. When they get forced off immediately by a blister, it definitely does.

Arriving at the Bothy I decided to take some time out. I sat down inside and tried to do my best to attend to my blister. It was difficult to pop so in the end I gave up, covered it with a plaster and threw my wet socks back on as I didn’t have another dry pair on me. I met a hiker there. He had just started walking the South Upland Way and was going to camp down at the Bothy for the night. I envied him in that moment. Gosh imagine just staying here, cooking up some camping food, maybe reading a book. Boy did that sound good.

1km further on I saw the race director up ahead taking photographs of the runners as they crossed the field towards him. Now it was my turn. I felt obliged to break into a run for the picture, even if in my head I was thinking ‘ow ow ow’. He gave me some more water and let me know they’d put on an additional pop up point at someone’s house another 7km on. Yes! I got some motivation from that and picked up my walking speed a little, despite the pain. This didn’t last long.

I cannot express how long that 7km took. I kept looking at my watch and the distance didn’t seem to change. I started shaking my watch. Surely it wasn’t working!

I’d also now reached an 8/10 on the pain score. Higher if I tried to go downhill. This was not good so early in the race!

A thousand years later (or so it felt) and after a number of climbs over or under fallen trees I reached the pop up point. A lady was kindly sat at a table outside her own house. There was squash and cola, boxes full of sandwiches (proper big ones) and crisps. I took some butties and drinks, said thank you and carried on down the lane. I was just thinking of calling Chris when my phone rang. How’s it going? He said.

“Not good. I’m thinking of DNF’ing.” I could almost hear the surprise down the phone.

We chatted for a while and Chris persuaded me to carry on for now and see how I felt later. Of course this was the job I had given him to do. “Do not let me give up” I had clearly stated before the race.

He said he would not be able to come and get me on these narrow lanes so I had to make it to CP3 either way. I could just see how I was, when I got there.

I can’t lie. I felt disappointed. I knew in my heart I needed to stop. It’s hard to say if this mental or physical. I think it was both. I am (sadly) familiar with a tight IT band having suffered from this during my 55km race (9 weeks out from RAS) and the 100km hike (6 weeks out from RAS). In both cases I was able to finish the race, but it took 2-3 days for the hobble to abate.

I might be able to take a 1-2 hours break at CP3 but certainly not 2-3 days. Without this, I knew my hobble pace would get progressively slower and I was already down to 2km an hour. I could probably knock out 3km on the flat (laughably), but on a downhill it would reduce to 1km an hour as I tried to swing my right leg out and around as the knee simply wouldn’t bend fully.

From then on Chris rang every hour. “How are you doing?”. I knew he needed to be sure that I was certain of my decision. I also knew that I was. On one of the calls I made it clear I was definitely pulling out. There was simply no point as I would not make later cut offs in the race at this pace. Reassured of my decision he suggested he could drive to the end of the road from Glentrool to pick me up. This would save me the last 5km, making my run 68km today instead of 73km. I was in no doubt. “Yes please”.

It was shortly after this that I left a road onto a hill, plateau and subsequent downhill which contained the boggiest bogs of the race so far. In some ways this didn’t matter. I didn’t have far to go, so who cares if my feet are wet. However, the very uneven ground was causing such severe pain in my right knee I was wincing and simultaneously turning the air blue.

Pausing to take a breath from the pain, a young runner from the USA caught up with me. “Are you ok? Did you sprain something?”. I didn’t want to explain the details so simply said yes. She offered to stay with me but I insisted she continued.

“I can manage onwards no problem and my husband is picking me up shortly before CP3. You go ahead.”

We said goodbye and off she went into the distance.

A few kilometres of challenging terrain later I finally made it to a small country lane. Standing there wondering briefly which way to go the young woman caught up with me. I wasn’t sure how she had come to be behind me again but she did mention getting lost. As I could now walk a little better on the road we continued on together chatting as we went.

Around the corner we came across a large herd of cows with their calves. There is an understanding for hikers/runners and generally anyone crossing the countryside. Never come between a cow and its calf. They can be aggressive (understandably) as they protect their young. In reality we couldn’t go around them as they were covering the whole width of the road. Several cows stood in front with the calves behind them and they started walking towards us. I’ve seen many cows walk towards me over the years. Normally its because they think you have food. Generally they are harmless. This is the first time I had thought, they are protecting their young and mean business. There was a real sense of aggression in their eyes, which seemed to say “get away now”.

My new running friend started to bang her poles together as someone had told her to do this to warn off cows. It was not working and in any case I felt this may antagonise them so I asked her to stop. She then suggested we hop over the barbed wire fence into another field so we could bypass them altogether.

Agreeing to this was one thing. Executing it was another. My right leg did not want to bend properly and the barbed wire came right up to my crotch. Thankfully Rita helped me across the fence and we both reached the other side unscathed.

The cows must of decided we were no longer a threat as they then continued to walk up the hill in the direction we had come from, although they kept their eyes locked on ours the whole time. In the end we had to stare at the ground to get them to keep moving away from us. At this point, it seemed easiest to just cross back over onto the road. A hop, a swing, and we were back where we had started.

Shortly after Rita turned left onto a trail that would take her to Glentrool whilst I continued on the road to meet Chris.

Once in the van, it was officially over. There was no going back now.

Arriving at CP3, I approached one of the volunteers to tell them I was DNF’ing. “Are you sure?” He asked. “Yes” I said, pointing back at the car. “In any case I just got a lift so its too late”.

I handed in my race number and tracker and thanked the volunteers who said I should come back another year and try again. Maybe. 🤔

Thankfully, as we had a camper van anyway, we spent the rest of the week having a mini holiday, travelling around Scotland and the Lake District. It gave me a chance to recover and reflect on what had just happened.

So what went wrong? This is a question I don’t yet fully know the answer to. I do know, however, that my muscles are currently very ‘triggered’. After only 10km I am experiencing tightening of the glute muscles and back pain. From there, the tightness extends around to my hip muscles, thighs and ultimately the tendon down the side of my leg/around my knee. As it has now happened a few times, I know once I feel the first tightening sensations that its only a matter of time before I will be left hobbling. It started for the first time during my 55km race. Did I go too fast then?

There are so many possible causes for this ‘faulty car alarm system’ I currently have going on. The following are all things I will look at in turn:

• Shoes. I’ve been running in a high heel to toe drop for years (due to previous issues with Achilles injuries). This is the difference in millimetres between the height of your heel and toe. A higher drop gives more cushioning to your calves and heels. It can also, however, give rise to issues down the front of your leg, knees, and IT band problems. I may experiment, therefore, with a lower heel to toe drop shoe. This will need to be done incrementally and slowly so as not to cause other issues.
• Too many ultras before the main race. I’m certain of this one being a contributing factor. If you forget the JOGLE run or the coast to coast run, I have only done one race Ultra before and never run further than 58km before this year. In the space of 3 weeks I ran a 55km and walked a 100km race. They were both hilly. There were only 6 weeks after the long race before RAS. On reflection this was too much. It might have been fine for someone that runs 100km a week but I only run/walk 50km a week in total.
• Biomechanics. I’ve had a ‘sticky out bottom’ for as long as I can remember. The first time it was commented on was during a ballet exam when I was a little girl. “She needs to tuck her tail in” I would get on my final report. When I was in my 20’s and living in Germany I was affectionately nicknamed ‘duck bottom’ by my gym mates. Until now its never been an issue. For running a really long way however, the tilt in the pelvis is not ideal. It leads to tight hip muscles and lower back pain. On the other hand I ran JOGLE with none of these issues and presumably had the same duck bottom then! So this is a contributory factor perhaps, but it can’t be the overriding reason.
• Muscle imbalances. Similarly to the above but more easily changed. I have weaknesses in my my left glutes and probably some other areas. I tried to work on this a lot before the race, doing single leg squats and band exercises at the gym. To no avail however. Have I simply not done enough yet or is this not the reason?
• Lack of experience on the appropriate terrain. Although we do hike and run in the Peak District and locally, I realise that the ground is not madly uneven as I experienced in the race. I’ve also realised that my training has not incorporated as much elevation as it probably should of done. Going forwards this is something I need to work on more. Perhaps more quality over quantity. Lower mileage but trickier runs might be the order of the day.
• Last but definitely not least….. my favourite armchair. I took early retirement in March and have swapped time in an office chair for more time in my recliner. Of course, I am on the go during the day but I do sit in my beloved chair over breakfast, lunch and most of the evening. Maybe this is leading to tight/shortened hip flexors?

Currently I’m signed up to a race in 2026 which is longer, hillier and harder than RAS. I’m left with uncertainty as to whether its doable for me in the time. I’m going to take a little break from running, find a good sports physio and take it from there. Fingers crossed. 🤞

Time has just disappeared like the grains running through the hour glass when you are pensively watching.

The Race Across Scotland (RAS) is 215 miles (344 kilometres) with 9,500m of elevation (15,200 feet). It follows the South Upland Way from Portpatrick in the West to Cockburnspath in the East. It actually goes all the way to the East coast and then turns back inland for a kilometre to the finish line. It passes through (not a full list) St John’s Town of Dalry, Sanquhar, Beattock, Traquair, Lauder (where people warn there are many cows in the fields….).

The DNF (do not finish) rate for women in 2024 was 15 did not finish out of 29. So a little over half. For the men, it is easier to state it the other way around. Only 49 finished out of 137. Of those (to be fair) 13 did not start (assume illness or injury), which means 75 were DNF. In total for the race, therefore, there was a DNF rate of 58%. That’s quite unnerving. Watching you tube clips I’ve seen many quit due to bad feet. If you run through a lot of bogs and your feet are wet for too long, this can turn into a real problem. I’ll be making sure I check my beloved tootsies every 25km, changing socks whenever I can (and shoes on occasion). I’ll also be using copious amounts of tape on my toes to stop the nails from falling off. I’ve currently already got 3 black nails and lost two recently. Not great. I’m quite sure they secretly hate me.

My training for the event has been a little shy of the mark. Yes, yes, I’ve done a lot of running and definitely a whole lot of gym work. However, my starting point back in February was always a little too close to the race (6 months) to build up a proper solid base. I couldn’t follow any of the online 100 mile training plans (the recommended plans for training for continuous races) as they started at 50km of running in the first week. Back in February I was recovering from a long bout of illness, a decent bout of stress and had fallen back to just 15km a week. So I knew this year would be a tough ask.

Despite all of that I did the best I could with the time I had. If I could do it all again I probably wouldn’t do a 55km race and a 100km hike so close to the event. I’ve lost a lot of time recovering. The flip side of this is that I learnt a lot about myself from both races and that knowledge is invaluable. So in the longer term it’s probably worthwhile that I did those races. Nonetheless I wont make this mistake next year.

Speaking of the longer term….I’ve signed up to the infamous (in trail running circles) Spine race in 2026. It’s a little longer than RAS, follows the Pennine Way, is a decent amount hillier and a fair bit more technical. I’ll explain more about that in a future post. I’m content that I’ve now finally reached the 50km a week level though, so can push on from there next year and follow the 100mile plan I would have liked to do this year. As always I’ll flex and adjust it to suit my own known weaknesses.

Back to RAS. After nearly recovering from the 100km hike I managed two back to back 15km runs last weekend. I still felt a tweak in my hip flexor (a residual effect of the race unfortunately) but otherwise it seemed manageable. I was quite looking forward to going out and doing my last long run this weekend with the full mandatory kit (and new poles – I’ve discovered through RSI in my right wrist that the old ones were just too short).

However….. I started to feel ill this Tuesday. I spent a lot of the day in bed. No idea what was wrong. I didn’t have a runny nose or anything. I was just wiped out, felt slightly light headed and felt heavy/achy. A bit like when you get flu only it couldn’t have been. Wednesday and Thursday was more of the same. Watch tv, lie about, sleep a lot.

It’s now Friday and I finally feel better. Thank goodness for that. The sitting around for days has made my muscles tighter (sitting is the worst thing known to mankind) but I’ve been for a walk today and already feel an improvement from it.

I don’t yet know whether I will do my really long run this Sunday or not. Today is the first day I’ve felt really well again. I’ll see. I do know that I watched an awful lot of tv this week. From that I can give you all a recommendation.

Jaws!

Yup. You heard me. I started watching it, thinking, this will be terrible, but I’m poorly so who cares. It was actually really good. There was a decent amount of story and the main characters were interesting. Ok, so yes, there is a shark that seems dead set on coming back over and over to attack everyone. You have to kind of forget any sense of reality. Still, give it a go. It could be your answer tonight when you are bored and sipping your G&T with Pringles.

You’re welcome 😉

Where to start? Of all the challenges/races I’ve done this is definitely up there as one of the hardest and most rewarding.

Before we began our race hike, I did wonder how I would cope with the no jogging/running rule. Any jogging could lead to instant disqualification. Walking was going to take longer and so might be mentally more demanding even if theoretically its physically easier. Having now completed the race I can definitely say it’s not easier on the body but more on that later.

After a lovely warm up with a lady who took us through some basic aerobic class style moves we all set off on our hike, starting in the Bakewell show ground.

The best way to deal with any race is to break it down into parts and only think about the next bit you have to cope with. Most races have feed stations and so it’s easiest to just think about the next stop where you will get food/drink and a sit down if you are so inclined.

We had to do the challenge within 24 hours to get the medal and felt that we could meet this deadline.

In the beginning there was a lot of slow walking. We set off with people doing different challenges at the same time. There were some doing a 25km run, some doing the 100km continuous race (where you are allowed to run if you so wish – although they all appeared to be walking), some doing the first half of the race etc. We actually lost count of how many different coloured bibs we saw indicating different methods/types of races.

All of this alongside some narrow paths for the first 10km led to an easy beginning with perhaps a tad of frustration at not being able to move a little faster. If we could get past we needed to speed up the walking pace and find away around together.

After the first 11km we came into the first feed station. We agreed to get in and out SAS style. Looking at the results I think we achieved this stopping only for a few minutes and managing to refill water bottles, get food and visit facilities.

Before the race I’d been very concerned about the weather forecast. It was supposed to be incredibly hot all day and I know how much I suffer in this kind of heat. It’s not just energy levels but the inevitable impact on my sweat levels and subsequent chafing that results. Thankfully there was a strong breeze and although unbeknownst to be at the time I was still chafing badly, I couldn’t feel it and we both felt comfortable.

We passed a lot of people in the first half of the race. Hiking at speed with poles clicking on the ground on the ascents, we both feel strong going uphill. On reflection (after the race) we went too fast and paid the price of this later on. This is a useful lesson for the upcoming Race Across Scotland though. I enjoy striding uphill but need to curtail this urge and the desire to maximise my energy resources so early on.

This can ultimately impact your speed later down the line.

We stopped a little longer at the next aid station, having a sit down and some much needed sandwiches. We both prefer savoury to sweet and found that a lot of the food stops included a lot of sugary treats. Despite this we did both enjoy some cans of cola. This always helps with endurance. It’s an easy way to digest calories for energy.

Somewhere around this time I looked at the live trail app and saw that we were 12th/13th and I was 3rd female in the race. I was suffering quite early on with pain in my right hand from overuse of the hiking pole and tight glutes but reading this gave me a massive lift. It turns out there were only 12 women in that race but I didnt know that at the time and I felt this sudden determination to find and pass numbers 1 and 2. Chris was more sensibly saying lets just finish. I wish I’d listened.

Shortly after I saw two women wearing our coloured bibs and passed them as they were taking a selfie. It occurred to me that overtaking them would mean I was first. That would be amazing! For about 10-15km I threw the gauntlet down and went at full tilt through this very hot valley. Chris later said it had probably added to his foot pain. Sorry hun. It almost certainly made my later IT band pain worse too. You live and learn. At least I hope I do.

Finally we found ourselves nearing the Bakewell show ground after 53km, the half (ish) point of the race. We had already decided to take more time here and do a complete change of clothes, have the free dinner offered there and check feet.

Mentally I found myself on a real downer just before coming into the showground. If Chris had said I don’t feel like going on, I think I would of happily stopped. I’m normally extremely motivated. Giving up is simply not an option, so I was very surprised at myself and how I was feeling. Thankfully he had no intention of giving up and this motivated me also to continue on. He was always supporting me. This was my time/turn to pull out the stops and support him.

After some fries and veggie chilli we changed at the car and treated each others feet. Eek – not a pretty site. Multiple blisters and white trench foot like appearance on the heels. A few blisters were popped, some were simply covered in plasters and we taped everything else up as best we could. I changed into my hiking boots and new socks (big mistake as this made my feet too hot later on). Chris stayed in his hiking boots. Unbeknownst to us his insoles were wearing thin. This contributed to his foot pain in the last 30km. Again another lesson for us!

The second half should ‘only’ be 47km and would go through the night with an expected finishing time early on Sunday morning.

Setting off, we knew the first feed station was just 9km away so this motivated us onwards. As the evening wore on the breeze dropped and it got surprisingly muggier. None the less I donned a long sleeved top as by now I was feeling the deep welts under my arms where my sports bra had not only dug in but cut into me. The downside of being a salty sweater. Think sandpaper and skin and you’ll get the idea.

The second half saw me slow down considerably. Chris continued doing well but I started to hold him up on the downhills. My right IT band had now completely locked up and I can only describe trying to descend a hill as eye wateringly painful.

In endurance you get used to pain and suffering. It sounds mad but its true. Your feet will hurt. You may get chafing. You will almost certainly get blisters and possibly lose some toenails. Everything can hurt a fair amount but it’s usually manageable as a 5/10 kind of existence you try to park at the back of your mind.

The sharp pains in the side of my knee caused by above mentioned tendon tightening would be a 9, then a 5 then a 9.5 and so on. This made me quite vocal. It must of also been difficult for Chris to listen to. I would gasp in pain or just try to breathe in and out slowly through it. I ended up taking ibuprofen even though I hate the stuff and it’s an incredibly bad idea when you are doing long distance races.

Despite all the difficulties, there was still some joy. Walking through the night was really special. It never got too dark although we were wearing head torches and the organisers put out glow sticks everywhere so that helped a lot obviously. The people at the feed stations were all going through the same thing. You kind of bond in the experience and end up chatting and supporting each other.

It was the first long race that Chris and I have done together. I’d never walked or run further than 60km and Chris never more than 30km. Hats off to him as thats quite some jump up in distance.

In the last 9km we found ourselves thankfully on flat ground but we had lost a few places due to my downhill hobbling and we saw a number of people with our coloured bibs move ahead of us (including 4 women). I didn’t have the ability to pass them again. It would of been too painful. At this point we were both just happy to finish within the 24 hour cut off. In fact we completed in 23 hours and surprisingly 4 hours of that was downtime at feed stations. I thought we were being quite efficient but turns out we obviously did stop a little too long after all. Another lesson for me for RAS.

Its now exactly one week later. Chris has recovered 95%. He had some major issues with his feet and had to see a podiatrist. He is now a lot better and managed a short walk today (without the hobble he’d had all week).

I’m getting there still. My IT band is still slightly tight but its significantly better and I have tendinitis on top of my left foot (extensor tendinitis). I managed a walk yesterday but am not sure if it made it worse. Today was swimming which was fine. I’ll get there but I’m realising that 100km is a big deal and recovery takes a while. Only 5 weeks to RAS so not optimal but I’ll try and get back to running by the end of this week.

Now for some more resting. There has been a lot of sleeping this week and I’m now thinking I’ll sleep for a solid month after RAS 😂.

How time flies. I’ve just looked back at my last blog and realised it was written some time ago, before the Ultra. I’ll write a separate blog on that race and upload later.

Since the Ultra there was a short period of recovery (mainly to deal with a broken big toe nail/underlying blister situation), then an intense period of increased running, hiking and gym time.

This week I’ve reduced the efforts again and am taking it a easier before the upcoming crazy walking weekend.

Chris and I signed up some time ago to this 100km march. Running/jogging are forbidden. This would result in disqualification. It starts and finishes in Bakewell (just like the Ultra) so I expect to recognise some of the route, although not all. The elevation is decent enough to provide interest and some views but less (relatively speaking) than the Ultra and what we are used to in general.

I had originally thought I would maybe drop out at 75km. The course appeared to be 4 loops of 25km each finishing and then restarting in Bakewell. I need to ensure my muscles and toes are all still good for RAS (race across Scotland) which is now only 6 weeks away (eek). However, it turns out that the 100km route is two different loops of 50km instead of the 25km loops I was expecting. I will therefore, attempt to finish the whole thing with Chris who is aiming and will no doubt carry on till the end.

Recovery from the Ultra only took a few days so I’m hoping that this will be the same. It’s longer but should be less intense obviously being a walk.

I’m really looking forward to the nighttime part. It’s the main reason for signing up to this particular race. I’ve run at nighttime on my own before but only over Werneth Low, which I know like the back of my hand. It will be different carrying on hour after hour following a route card and the purple lines on our watches in unfamiliar territory.

Will the kilometres seem to go faster or slower at night? Will it cool down much? The forecast is for hot weather (too hot for me honestly). Will we be able to see really well with the headtorches? So many questions to be answered. A true adventure – woohoo.

Best of all; if I can keep up with Chris in the latter half, we will finish a race together. This will be a first and I’m looking forward to sharing that feeling of elation you get when you cross the line with my other half.

The en route picnic is also very appealing honestly. There are food stations every 15km or so but also a hot meal is provided 2-3 times throughout finishing with breakfast near the end. Nom.

Apparently I can put a link up for people to follow us via tracking if they wish. I haven’t yet managed to work out how to do this on the app I’ve downloaded so I’ll keep you posted. It may only be possible once I register tomorrow and can speak to someone about it. If I get the link I’ll put it up on Lorna runs on facebook.

I finally got in one longer run of 30km the week before last and although slow I managed to include some decent elevation and had no hip flexor or knee pain. Hurrah. See link below for my first attempt at videoing whilst running. (It’s a w.i.p.).

https://youtu.be/C4XiWUPUv8U?si=IRYRkwCAS8sBOsBv

This last week I’ve been taking it easier (sort of). I’ve only done 10 hours of training this week compared to 13 last week and 15 the week before that.

Hiking:

On the one hand my hiking mileage has been crazy for weeks so I wanted to reduce that:

Running:

My running has been sliding off the planet over the last month as I was resting my hip flexor / this co-incided with our hiking holiday so I didn’t want to do too much of both.

Strength:

I’ve been fairly consistent about this. The main change was adding in lots of specialised single leg/ single arm work to help balance out weaknesses and work on stability around the pelvis when running. I’m really enjoying this type of gym work and spend ages on instagram scrolling for ideas of new and crazier things to do. It keeps it interesting.

I’ve also started to work on being able to do a pull up. I’m not sure I will ever be able to do this at my current weight. The women I see doing this are generally pretty tiny but its fun working on the process of trying to get there. These are the steps I’ve seen on instagram to build up the strength for this:

I) Practice ‘hangs’. Find a high bar that is taller than you. Hang on to it with your hands (palms forward). You have to try and build up to hang for 30 seconds x 3 times. I’m currently up to 21 seconds (lol).

2) Start doing scapula pull ups. Basically you are hanging on the bar but now you are doing a mini ‘shrug’. It’s a tiny movement (like the start of a pull up).

3) Pull ups lying on the ground. Lie on your back and find a bar at knee height or a bit higher. Lift yourself up whilst holding onto the bar. Initially you keep most of the body on the ground. Build up to lifting your bum off (kind of like an inverted plank).

4) Hang a long band in a loop around the high bar and put your knees into it. Use this for assistance to do your pull up.

5) Do pull ups!

I’m currently doing 1, 2 and 3 at different times. I’m a long way from 4 though.

Here was my weight training schedule recently.

The Ultra:

I’ve already worked out I could be the last person in next week’s Ultra. My average pace on the last 30km is the same as the person who was last in the Ultra last year. Oops lol. I was also intending to video a lot of the run (for people who like to see a course before signing up – I do this). This will make me a little slower also. So I’m a bit torn between the need to speed up ever so slightly as I kind of don’t want to be last in and not overdo it as I don’t want to actually race at all. In fact the Ultra is just a training run for me. During a training run you should keep your heart rate low. My ultimate goal is RAS and everything else is just training towards it. So I need to be calm and collected and not do anything stupid to risk injury or burnout. Fingers crossed also that its not too hot. I think I’ve written enough on that by now you all know how much that disagrees with me.

The Peak Challenge 100km:

I’m going to be real here. I am already thinking I may not do the whole 100km. Chris fully intends to finish. I have the opportunity to duck out at 50km or 75km as its done in 25km loops. The problem I have, is that longgggg distance is a mental game. You will inevitably reach a point where everything aches and you are exhausted and you want to stop. If this was my last race for the foreseeable future; I could push myself through the pain and finish. The difficulty I have. is that it isn’t my final race and its also not my ‘A’ race. Again it’s a training hike. I picked it as we will be walking through the night – something I wanted to practice.

I therefore, have to be sure I finish it with the ability to get back to training a week later without any injuries.

When I’m out there in the night after 65km and everything hurts…how will I know if I should go on because its just ‘a bit of aching and tiredness’ or if I should stop because ‘there is potential to ruin training for the next few weeks’. I’m already thinking I won’t know the difference. So I think Chris and I have in mind that I might stop before 100km already. However, we will see. Either way I’ll be there at the end to clap my husband through the finish line.

RAS:

Ah RAS. I’m excited by this but also very nervous that I’ll be undertrained. I know it must seem like I’m always doing ‘loads’ but when I look at online training plans I do far far less than the recommended amount. I also read Ultra groups posts on Facebook and do about half the mileage they do. So sometimes I wonder if I’m undercooking it. That said. I can only do what I can do and it’s better to get to the starting line than miss it due to overtraining. Still its scary not knowing how my body will cope with the continuous style of event where you go from day to night over and over with barely any sleep. How will I cope running/hiking 80-100km a day? It’s a complete unknown how my body will react and if I’m even capable and thats nerve wracking. It’s also very exciting. I guess doing events you ‘know’ you can do is no longer as thrilling. There needs to be an element of ‘can I?’.

In other news I really need to nail my nutrition. I seem to be gaining weight monthly and although I know why, I find it hard to curb my bad habits (multiple lattes, cake, booze on the weekends etc). One of these days I’ll get the same willpower for eating healthily that I possess for training. It would really make those pull ups easier…