Gladder Brook, had a nice trail along it but it dead ended

Actually ran in the sun and saw the sunrise during a run for the first time in a very long time! I’m ready for it. The mornings have been tough to motivate for lately so I’ve been taking advantage of the hour or so I have between work and getting kids from school. I can usually sneak in 6 miles, likely could get 7, but I’d be pushing it. Running in Worcester is pretty boring but lately it’s been nice to sleep in a bit. Been trying to figure out a run commute option. It’s an easy way to build miles but this time I’m looking at it from a save diesel perspective. The price of gas is crazy right now and my commute is 12 miles one way. I’d love to run the entire distance but that’s not feasible time wise. I’m trying to figure out a place to park further away from work, saving a few miles driving. For perspective, fuel here has always been significantly higher than the US, I believe normally it’s about $6.50 a gallon, currently it’s about $9.50! It’s sold in liters here so had to convert. If you’re in the UK, US prices are about $4.00 a gallon (£0.76/liter), normally $2.00. Man, all those conversions were really confusing, I hope they’re correct! 

River Severn, Worcester

Official training for UTMB doesn’t start until mid April but I’d like to be ready to go when it’s time. Still trying to wrap my head around HOW I will train for such a huge mountain race without mountains. I don’t want to give in and just make do. I’d like to train appropriately. Options include traveling up to 2 hours to the Brecon Beacons to get  some decent climbs in, this is ideal, but time consuming. An hour to Church Stretton and the Long Mynd is another option for actual hills. I’m tempted to commit the money to a NordicTrack Incline treadmill. They’re expensive though, I’d definitely buy used, but probably be the most effective option. Otherwise I’m stuck going up and down a small hill 30-50 times. Less than ideal, there’s  a bit of badassery about it, but damn boring! So I’ll see what happens. As with all of this working around “life” is the tough part. Lately, just been trying to get in 30 mile weeks for now. Also have ramped up my body weight strength training again which I enjoy. Managed to put on 5 pounds likely lost during so much running focused training. Definitely added more specific leg work in anticipation of UTMB too. Strength sessions take 25 minutes to get a really productive routine in for my needs, no reason not to a few times per week. Do it first thing and it’s done. Simple session: 3 x 10 - 20 push-ups, 3 x 20 sit-ups, 3 x 5 - 10 pull ups, 50 single leg step ups (each leg), 50 rear lunges (each leg), 5 x 10 burpees. The leg exercises are specific to running. Burpees are a killer but have huge benefit. 

Severn Way, Stourport

I have long contemplated adding in some real speed work in to my training but have always been worried about getting hurt. My one failure to my running technique is I don’t run fast in training or racing. This habit of slow running has put limits on my running economy and efficiency. My brain doesn’t allow the effective movements because I never do it. I’ve been working on running drills to retrain the movements but running faster I naturally create them as well. Part of my job is teaching people running technique and proper running posture. So we are always learning how to help customers by using ourselves as test monkeys. 

New footpath I explored in Ribbesford 

Well, the other day I successfully did a set of 8 400’s around my estimated potential 5km pace. I haven’t ran a 5km in years so assumed I could run a 17:30 at least! It went well and I was able to run faster than I thought, felt good, and I’m looking forward to it again next week! I was going to do them at the Stourport track but early morning was supposed to be near freezing so I didn’t want to run on a slippery track, instead I found a section of wide path on my old commute to work that ended up being a near perfect 400. It wasn’t too busy either so just ran back and forth until I ran out of time and had to get home to get the kids! 

Ribbesford Wood, Bewdley

Post Arc of Attrition I’ve been trying to focus on Jeet Kune Do a bit more, especially before running becomes all consuming again. I’ve got my second degree black belt grading coming up tentatively next month. It’s going well but there are aspects you really do need a partner to effectively train, particularly the combat submission wrestling portion. There’s only so much visualization one can do to remember this stuff, it’s not the same as many of the punching and weapons drills that can be done alone. I’ve been trying to find an affordable floor mat or mats that fold up I can take to my friend Steve’s house. We practice a decent amount outside of class together but we’re not to into throwing each other around on the grass! 

Hugely anticipating the daylight savings time change coming up. I absolutely love running early morning but winter and the darkness is tough!