29/7/12 - Where has the time gone? (A Pre-Devil update)

Starting with the usual "It's been so long", I am writing this post in high spirits looking ahead to next weekend's Devil race. My training certainly hasn't been as good as it was in previous years (I only started to build it up mid June), which I can only attribute to practicality issues. Living in the south east of England has been the biggest Achilles heel to my running this past year. Whilst there are real benefits to living here (i.e. the weather is undoubtedly much better than Glasgow), I do feel it has knocked my training off and I don't know if I'm coping well with all this fe*king flatness (as Father Jack might say). This here is the best typical run that I do midweek, and one which I add to for long runs:

Given the y axis is in feet you can see it isn't really a patch on the elevation I have done up until just now. My only saving grace is that I generally travel away from Cambridge for my long runs, so those have at least provided a bit more of a challenge. My longest run in preparation for the Devil has been a 26miler which I did in the Peak District, which was a fantastic trip away. This run below was terrific, with over 1800ft of ascent, which I felt gave me a good challenge, and which I ran in about 5hours 30, including about 45mins of breaks (mostly getting lost/map reading/eating):

Another longer run which I did was down in Surrey, up one of the highest peaks in the south east, Leith Hill. This was about 18miles of undulating terrain which was quite difficult to run on (I was with 2 mountain bikers, and the tracks were very much for them more than me as a mere runner!):

Those, plus a couple of 10-15milers have been the main long run training I've done for the Devil. My shorter runs have been flat and fast, plus I have done A LOT of spinning. I only do 2 spin classes a week, but they are 1 hour of flat out effort (if you do them properly), so I count those as better cardio training than my runs. Plus I don't really have time for much more at this point. Another thing which stilted my training slightly was becoming ill at the end of June. I came down with a virus (quite similar to May) which had me exhausted. I am still feeling the effects of it, I am still really tired but am trying to get on with my runs, as I feel they lift my spirits enormously. Hence the reason I still want to do the Devil. I have the trip all planned, staying in Tyndrum on Friday night with my support crew and very much looking forward to the day. I don't have definite goals in mind (if I can get under 9 hours I would be very happy indeed) other than to try and enjoy it and stay healthy/eat throughout. One of the biggest lessons I've learned living down here is that I should enjoy every chance I get to run at home in Scotland...I know I will move back again within the near future but in the meantime these trips are golden opportunities to enjoy myself up there!