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One of the training strategies suggested during the training weekend, to help prepare for the Brathay 10 marathons in 10 days challenge, was to rehearse the 10 in 10 schedule by completing 10 consecutive days of running over gradually increasing distances each time you repeat a block of 10 days.
Therefore, 10 days ago I began my first block of 10 in 10, aiming to complete 10k or more every day for 10 days. As well as getting my body used to running for consecutive days, it would also allow me to experiment with different recovery techniques, fuelling methods and mental strategies to deal with any barriers I might encounter during the real event.
As I said, this first 'mini' journey began 10 days ago and was successfully completed today - relatively unscathed but certainly with lessons learned!
- Covered an average of just over 7 miles per day (4,8,12,6,6,7,6,6,10,8), generally felt good with only minor niggles and minimal soreness.
- Snow and ice were an obvious issue to contend with, wearing trail shoes for extra grip and layering appropriately (tights, shorts, merino base layer, mid-layer top, hat, gloves and buff) served me well.
- Definitely felt a difference when completed a good warm-up and cool-down, though found it challenging to fit these into the time available. To overcome this in future I'm going to devise a short warm-up and cool-down routine to follow as a minimum expectation (5-10mins each) and cut intended runs slightly shorter if time is an issue. I'll also put together an 'ideal' warm-up and cool-down routine for when I have more time available.
- As I was running every day I did neglect my 'prehab' work somewhat, and felt it on the last couple of days as my lower leg and ankle begin to stiffen, especially when incorporating hills into my running. Again, to help overcome this for future 10in10 blocks, I'm going to devise a few different 10min prehab movement blocks (so I don't get bored repeating the exact same routine) that can be done at home, in the morning, at work or whenever I get a 10 minute window of opportunity.
- Sleep is under-rated! Felt a significant difference when only able to manage 5-6 hours of sleep rather than my usual 7-8. This is an area I am going to look into in more detail, revisiting Nick Littlehales book & website
- High running volume is not an excuse to eat junk food! A couple of times I fell in to the trap of grabbing convenient, but low quality, foods to manage my hunger. Unfortunately, I found that for me, this generally only served to make me feel worse rather than better, particularly from a digestion point of view! The energy demands to successfully complete the full 10 in 10 will inevitably mean that I'll be unable to fuel & recover completely on real foods and will need to rely on some supplementation, but as much as possible, naturally-occuring, whole foods will be my focus e.g. meat, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruits with the addition of high-quality supplements where necessary (I'll discuss my approach to supplements in a future blog!).
- There were days when I didn't really feel like running, especially late on a cold evening, but through a few mind-games and conversations with myself I did always manage to get out! For example, reminding myself of how fortunate I am to actually have the choice; that I nearly always feel better after I've run and the fact that I've got to get myself prepared for a much tougher challenge in a few months time!
Overall, I'm happy with where I'm currently at in terms of endurance and recoverability (is that even a word?) so will now focus on 'prehab' and strengthening work for the next couple of weeks, alongside some running of course, before moving on to the next block of 10 miles + per day for 10 consecutive days.
Stay tuned for updates and I'll post more about my war,m-up, cool-down and prehab routines soon ...
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