Its always at this point in the training/taper that I go into melt down, worry, panic and anything else you can think of, all of which are quite normal. Thankfully I have a marvellous friend who knows I do this so rings me up and stops me jumping off the nearest bridge!
This time is no different. The training is done, although because of my niggling knee I’m feel that the last couple of weeks didn’t go as I had wanted but that’s life so I need to forget that and move on; hopefully my other races, Double GUCR and Colorado will stand me in good stead. Thankfully the knee is feeling so much better after my 5/6 days of no running and constant rubbing in of Emu Oil (great stuff by the way) together with my Nordic Oil has all helped to reduce the swelling and recovery has gone well.
Training for something like the Spartathlon isn’t just about the physical side it’s also important to be mentally prepared – 153 miles is a LONG way. So over the last few weeks I have been looking at photographs of the race, reading race reports, looking at YouTube footage and spending time visualising me running along the route and kissing the foot of King Leonidas in Sparta so when I have a bad patch I have something to push me through.
I am under no illusions of the enormity of the challenge I have taken on, running the Spartathlon is tough enough with all the pressure of the cut-offs but to then run back ….. perhaps mad but if I don’t try I will never know whether I’m capable of achieving it.
Running this week has been good but low mileage as I’m on taper. Most people seem to hate taper time, I love it as I can spend more time catching up with friends, doing things at home that I keep putting off and just relaxing with HWMBO, everyone needs to give their body time to recover from all the hard training so hopefully everything will feel great on race day; tapering is just as important as the training.
My tracker is up under “News” so you can follow my progress during the race. My tracker is a phone which I will carry with me in my bumbag; hopefully the battery will last for the duration of the event, if it doesn’t and you suddenly see me going very fast its because the phone is in the car with my crew being charged! You can also follow me during the race on http://www.spartathlon.gr/participants.html
We have a fantastic British Team going out to Athens this year and I’m very excited to be a part of it – GO THE BRITS!
Happy Training
