Boom and half a year has slipped away.
So what’s happened? I would say a decent amount. I started this quarter with 1 race under my 2022 belt, I now have 6, so April, May and June have been busy – April especially:
I’ve been very satisfied by the progress this year.
Reading Half was a race that I took with one eye on Brighton Marathon only a week later. So I took that easier than I could have done and so was really pleased to get a 1:30 time.
Brighton Marathon was ace. I really wanted sub 3:30. I had in mind sub 3:15 (to beat my treadmill marathon PB from 2020), and given how well I was running, I had a bit of a dream that I might get close, or just sneak under, 3Hr. I didn’t quite make that but it was close – still comfortably a BQ time (!!!).
The IOW ultra has been bounced from year to year due to COVID and I was finally so pleased to take it on. A great race, some fabulous scenery and a lot of hills! A 6th place finish was very satisfactory.
The Hampshire Hoppit – a replacement for the cancelled Race To The Castle. A changed route to the now I ran in 2019, but still tough. Big hills, steep downhills and again, stunning scenery. Finishing 19th was better than expected.
Race To The Tower – This was amazing. The Cotswold Way is beautiful. Views go on for miles. The route is very challenging with hills a plenty. Some of the downhills are so tough they are harder to get down than some of the ups! Combining that with a nasty fall at around 20 miles, a 7th place finish and sub 10Hr for a double marathon was more than I dreamt of. That race is an instant winner in my book.
And that is the quarters events covered. The rest of the time training has continued following the Krissy Moehl guide I have used for a couple of years now. The mileage has been steady, but as we enter quarter 3, the mileage is going to grow towards the 100mile/week mark. Things are going to get tough.
The rest of 2022 has more races in the schedule. Most excitingly for me though is a return to Cornwall for some South West Coast Path running. My spiritual running home. The target of taking part in the 2023 Arc of Attrition means taking on some of the hardest hills I’ve ever run, over 100+ miles. So some time on the path this summer is going to be key to my training and conditioning for this challenge.
I also need to tackle some training with poles. I feel they are important to taking on the Arc. But not without practice. I have some cool Leki carbon fibre poles and a Salomon Quiver to hold them, so there’s no holding me back now.
One final thing for 2022. Nutrition. A lot more practice and research needed to fine tune my nutrition package for those long endurance events. I have good food options for mid distance ultra’s but long tough 20 hour plus races I need to work on. I have just started to look into Supernatural fuels so will report back on those. Im continuing to enjoy Veloforte gels/bars and have found Mountain Fuel a good addition to this, along with their night and morning fuel pouches.
So here’s to another 6 months of training and putting in the work to get me to the Arc start line in. January 2023. It’s going to be a real journey.
Ridgeway Runner 