Freak out

This week I had my first real freak out about the upcoming Glasshouse 100. In the past I have had nightmares about upcoming races that were particularly important to me. For some of my Ironman races I would have recurring nightmares like arriving in transition to find my bike or shoes missing or sleeping in and missing the start of the race. I guess this was my subconscious's way of expressing the nerves that I had kept dormant and tried not to think about.

I was still struggling to get back into a normal sleeping routine following my nightshifts and on Wednesday I lay in bed at midnight unable to sleep. I had been stressing over the miler all day. There was not a specific reason for my concern, more a general uneasiness and combination of issues.

During the taper phase of training it is commonly accepted that as our bodies begin to recover we are more susceptible to little niggles and pick up colds more easily. I'm no exercise scientist and don't know why this happens but I have read from various sources that this is a relatively common phenomenon. I have been having some lower leg issues recently and they were beginning to worry me. Over the last week or so I had been having very tight and swollen calfs for the first couple of kilometres of my runs. Also the right side of my knee had been feeling tight recently which I could feel when getting up in the morning, walking around the house as well as when running. I tried to analyse the cause of these problems and tried a variety of solutions. As mentioned in previous posts I had bought a pair of skins and some calf-guards which I was going to wear on race day. However, I found that whenever I wore them my legs felt heavy, tired and tight. I don't know if it is a psychological reaction or just that I am not used to running with compression clothing. I tried stretching for longer, using the massage stick and changing my shoes. I just couldn't account for why this was happening on some days and not others and this was adding further to my anxiety.

So with the change in my sleeping patterns, recovery from a head cold, extra rest, less running and little niggles/injury concerns I was feeling particularly vulnerable. I had also been reading a lot of posts on the Coolrunning forums about various races including Ultra Trail du Mt Blanc and Glasshouse100, as well as posts on footwear choices and inparticular for wet and muddy conditions. Due to the high rainfall over the last week I turned my attention towards the state of the course. The Glasshouse race director, Ian Javes, has mentioned on the site that this years course has been changed from previous years due to weather damage etc. Although the course will dry out somewhat over the next week I was concerned that any additional rain will increase the difficulty of the race exponentially. These concerns led me to visualise the race over various course conditions. This in turn led to a moment of clarity and the enormity of what I was about to undertake hit home. It hit home with a bang. I am Jack's surprised conscious mind. I started thinking about how tired I will be feeling, how sore my feet and legs will be and far 161.7 kilometres really is.

The next morning, after a restless dream-clogged sleep, I made the assertive decision to develop a race plan for the variables that I could control and to prepare strategies to cope with and minimise the variables that I could not. Firstly I visited the race website and downloaded the maps and course description together with other important race information including the distance between check-points. This is very important because it allows me to plan what I put in my drop-bags such as food, clothing, head-lamp, spare batteries etc. For a race of this length over variable terrain I need to determine at what point I pick up my head-lamp, when to use and what I put in my back-pack, when to change clothes, socks or even shoes. Having a plan has allowed me to totally change my mind-set and instead of expending nervous negative energy worrying about everything that might go wrong, I now have the confidence to start the race and trust that I have done sufficient training and have the ability to cope with any obstacle or challenge that may present itself and I can now visualise myself crossing the finish line and achieving my goal of finishing a 100 mile ultramarathon.

This week my training has been quite relaxed with a lower volume of running and extra rest days. Thankfully Wednesday was the only run this week where I suffered from heavy and tight leg muscles, and I really enjoyed my other runs.

Monday - Rest day
Tuesday - Rest day
Wednesday - 15.05km - 1hr 15mins 36secs - undulating run
Thursday - 12.05km - 58mins 42secs - flattish run with the group
Friday - Rest day
Saturday - 25.25km - 2hrs 04mins 22secs - mainly flat run with group
Sunday - 13.41km - 1hr 05mins 11secs - flat group run

Weekly totals - 65.76km - 5hrs 23mins 52secs

I have some last minute supplies to get tomorrow, finish my packing list and throw in a couple of short runs this week before driving down on Thursday or Friday. If I get a chance I will publish a pre-race post but I'm not promising anything. I also plan to drop a few updates on Facebook during the race but I only pick up my phone at a checkpoint around 87km so don't expect anything before then.

All the hard work has been done, it's now time to pack and fine-tune the mental training. I'm really excited now and am really looking forward to starting this challenging adventure. Stay tuned.

Keep running.