Ultrarunning Annus Horribilis

Nope, that’s not my latest running injury. It’s an assessment of the miserable year I’ve had in terms of ultrarunning training, racing and running ‘mojo’. It’s no surprise I’ve not blogged since May…

Not to dwell upon it, but I had a DNF at the Thames Path 100, a DNF at the Highland Fling and then lost interest through most of the summer. I had hoped to get back to it for the Kennet and Avon Canal Race and got a few 17/18 milers in beforehand, but in the end I had a DNS.
I think the two DNF’s, early on in the season pulled me into a slump and caused me to lose the mojo. I spent the summer doing a few runs per week, but not really on any training or distance – just lost interest really…
This was coupled with pain in my glutes on every run, which the osteopath think is Piriformis Syndrome – so that didn’t help with the motivation. The thought of running for hours with pain on every step didn’t really appeal for some reason…

On the positive side, (not really ultrarunning, but…) I did smash my half marathon PB a couple of weeks after the Thames Path 100 – I think this was me cleansing the DNF from my system.

Moving on, I seem to have strung a few weeks of reasonable running together now and am starting to get back into ultrarunning. I’ve found that if I can suffer the glute pain for 10 minutes at the start of a run it eases a bit for the rest of it.
I feel a new resolve to get out running again and it feels good !! I’ve been taking it easy for a bit and trying to build things up. A 12 miler a few days ago tells me I still a bit of endurance and some sub 7 minute miles recently make me think things are going to be okay.

Planning another couple of weeks of steady running before starting to up the mileage, with a view to getting a good block of training in before the 2014 Thames Path 100.

Here’s hoping for a good end to the year…