Tuesday 6 February 2018

From ultra to sofa and back again

Wow its been a couple of years since my last post?! Time really does move pretty quick eh?!

Trying to do some sort of catch up post seems to be a little void at this point so instead I`ll focus on why I`m posting again - My next ultra!
That`s right! Hopefully I`ve got all my injuries out of the way now after a bit of a tough year last year.
I`ve been running more regularly over the last month and I`m now up to 4 -5 times a week, up to runs of 13 miles.....so looking pretty good so far!
I`m still in my trusty Luna sandals and yes....using socks to try and preserve my feet as I build back up again. On the nutrition side, I had basically completely fallen off the wagon and had spent the last 6 months just eating rubbish and packing on my *cough cough* "winter insulation". By the end of last year I was actually starting to feel a little sick whenever I ate meat. To be fair I had been eating loads over Christmas so I figured that perhaps it was just a case of overindulgence so I backed off the meat for a few days. I had something a few days later and still felt a little acidic so again I returned to not eating meat. It was at this point that I realised that actually I hadn't really missed eating meat.
Nearly a month later and I still havn`t had any meat. I`m not making any big song and dance about it, I`m just eating tasty food that happens to be vegetables.
Honestly I don`t really know how long I will keep it up but for now I`m enjoying my food and I`m not getting any energy dips so its not getting in the way of my training.
I cant say overall I`m eating any healthier but I feel a little different. Lighter maybe? The numbers on the scales are the same, its just a feeling, like my body is coping with the digestion cycle a little easier. This is quiet a big thing for me really as I have IBS so not everything works so well with my system. This, for now at least seems to be working.
Back to the training......
After taking nearly a year out due to injury, getting back into training was actually harder than I first thought. Its not just the muscles in the body that are effected, its the mind. The thought of getting off my butt and going to the gym or even going for a run had gone. I had no drive, no focus, I couldn't really be bothered and wasn't really fussed about it either.
This obviously was not good and I needed it to change. The only thing I could think of to get my butt in gear again was to book something ridiculous. Something scary and challenging enough that I HAD to get out of the house or I was going to fail...HARD. Obviously no one likes to fail.
So I had a search around and booked myself a place at the Spitfire Scramble 24 hour race! 5.75 miles loops for 24 hours.....solo.
You don`t have to do this solo by the way, you can actually do this in teams of up to 8. I`ve thought about maybe doing that way before and use it almost like a running festival. Get a bunch of friends together and go and run a bunch of miles, perhaps throw some beer in the mix...sounds like a party!
Maybe next year.
This year however I have some business to attend to. My goal of completing a 100 mile run has eluded me a couple of times now, maybe this year is the one to do it?
Who knows?! Right now I`m going to just keep my head down and keep training.
The Spitfire Scramble is the 14th - 15th July so the countdown is already on!
I shall also be trying to keep a nice blog of my lead up to this one in the hope of keeping myself focused. I hope you guys will enjoy reading my journey from ultra to sofa and back again.

Thanks for reading
Cardiosaurus