Whether its lots of little ones around my hometown - like the 10m I did last night running up or down every nearly every road-hill...
Or the bigger ones in the Wolds, further flung Yorkshire countryside and even the Lakes....
If I think hill, run hill, I will get through this years super hilly event schedule. The rough plan to get me to and through the UTMB is....
- Until March - 40-80m weeks incorporatinmg at least one hilly weekend run, ideally two, and plenty of hills during weeknight runs.
- Hardmoors 55 - Visiting the hilliest and highest part of the North York Moors. Mostly good paths and tracks.
- Coast-to-Coast - over 5 days - some of the best countryside in England awaits me, therefore...hills, big and small.
- Yorkshire Three Peaks race - only 20'odd miles, but three big climbs.
- The Fellsman - Rougher ground, lots of big hills and navigation, sublime.
- Lakeland 100 (Ultra Tour Lake District) - Back for more, mixed quality of underfoot, many walk-all-the-way climbs and lots of distance.
- Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc - Similar distance to Lakeland but with bigger climbs and some hour long descents! I'm hoping all of the above can give me enough strength and resilience to survive these quad-killers!! Only consolation is the paths may be generally more runnable than UTLD and certainly Fellsman.
Go careful and don't overdo it. Those weekly mileages are looking a bit hardcore. You need to be strong yet not overtrained for L100 and UTMB. (But who am I to talk? I'll probably be undertrained ;-)
ReplyDeleteCheers Nick, I value all opinions and will be looking to keep the right side of the training/overtraining line. I probably won't be up much on last years mileage - afterall there are still on 25 hours in a day. So I'll be working on the quality bit.
ReplyDeleteThat's an impressive hit list. I toyed with UTMB, but put it off for another year.
ReplyDeletewalk in the park for you these days that lot ;-)
ReplyDeleteCheers Debbie and UC. I've gone in feet first with UTMB. This worked ok for UTLD so just need to do the same again, but train a bit harder and smarter I figure. Nutrition and management of legs on descents will be the key I think. Bl**dy big park UC! Maybe even bigger the national park you have to train in.
ReplyDeletePretty jealous of your race schedule!! How easy was it to get into UTMB? was it a ballot? I've got the points necessary to enter in 2012 but wondered how certain entry is? I will be keeping a close eye on your training this year and be taking notes. Agreed with Nick about the high weekly mileage.... but everyone is different and if you've got the time to run that much than take full advantage of it! Good luck!!
ReplyDeleteHi Discostu. For UTMB I just entered online, put in my qualifying events and went into ballot. I think it was only about a 65% chance of getting in this year, further reduced for me as I entered as part of a two-man team, which works on all in or nobody is basis. But we got through so can't complain. Hopefully mileage will take care of itself once I've done Hardmoors as each event is training for next. I've found the last few months hard as constantly 40-70, and those lower weeks were the bad weather ones or involved some hard-paced races.
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