Rosedawn Ramblings

My big goal for 2020 is the 100km ultramarathon Race to the Castle in June. My training plan is geared around building up my miles over the next five months to be able to complete distance. It's not about time, it's about getting to the finish in however long it takes. But alongside that big, very scary goal, I've got a few more manageable bitesize challenges to help me get there. Some are about long runs or weekly mileage targets. Some relate to races or race strategy. Some relate to how I want to feel mid-run or at the end when it's only over. Today was one of those days, the Essar Four Villages Half Marathon. I wanted it to be more than just a training run. I wanted to test my speed, my endurance, my racing strategy and my mental strength. I've been working hard in training with interval sessions, hill reps and tempo runs. So I set mini goals (just for me) for the time I wanted to reach the half way point, my average mile pace, the consistency of my...

‘How do you run 33 miles?’ That's a question I've been asked a lot recently (along with the more obvious, why?) and my answer is always the same... One step at a time, one mile at a time. As I stood on the start line of the D33 Ultra Marathon on a damp and drizzly morning in Duthie Park in Aberdeen, I tried to think about the challenge ahead in small manageable segments, one step at a time, one mile at a time, one snack at a time, one checkpoint at a time. My goal, to do my best (inspired by a quote from Cheryl Strayed, one of my favourite writers). With a final good luck of encouragement from Liz S, very sadly unable to run due to injury, I was underway and following a trail of runners out of the park and up onto the Deeside Way - a old rail trail running inland from Aberdeen. There was a temptation to start off too quickly - the terrain was easy underfoot, the rain not too heavy and everyone around me seemed to be speeding up as we left the park - but I resisted and tr...