Many of us keep asking the same question, why? I used to think I knew, why, but now I just feel or think its just because.  I don't think there is necessarily one reason for doing the running, and running ridiculous amounts of miles.  All I know is, this is now who I am and what I like to do.  I realised I can go a bit further than what was considered a normal long distance and I'm now aiming to achieve 160 miles in one go.  That's more than 6 marathons back to back over the hills.  This is something I never thought I'd be doing, and to be fair I didn't even know people did lol!  The achievement of something like this is very addictive and a strong motivator.  The problem with hitting these sort of distances and time schedules is the training.  Looking back at what I've done in the past for training and achieving 50, 60 and even 110 miles, I don't actually think I did that much.  What I did manage to do though was structure it so the build up to the main race showed progressive increase in distance.  The difference now, knowing what I know and having unfinished business on this race with not finishing it twice is, there is no compromise on training miles.  The advantage I have now for actually completing the race is massive, in comparison to what I thought was enough or adequate before to now is huge.  My confidence is sky high for distance, my ability to run a bit quicker is much greater and my knowledge of the route and my weak areas is much greater.  I now have to keep focused on my training and keeping the miles up and not getting injured.  The nutritional side of things is now where my attention needs to go and gain some discipline for eating and drinking on the go.  I am mainly going to give this more attention slightly nearer the event and set a routine where it is just going to be habit from the word go.  This will likely be something along the lines of every 30 mins and try and do a rough estimate of the amount of calories I will need to replace.  This will involve small snacks which will become musts, not options and small meals to keep me fuelled.  I actually think in the last two attempts I have got the fluids right so I will use the same method for that which is keeping water for constant sipping and then switching between a recovery drink and an electrolyte drink at checkpoints.

What other areas can I work on?  I am happy with my training so far and overall mileage but currently not getting much hill work in so I need to have a focus period on that shortly once the restrictions change for Covid.  I will also be looking to do some sections of the actual course where I feel I need to not necessarily learn the route as this is now in my makeup and etched in my brain, but it's more to do with confidence and knowledge on certain sections.  Such as, leaving Saltburn I now know this is a long uphill slog, not particular Everest like but after you've done 100 miles I remember it draining me. I will be looking to push on through here even though I know I will be exhausted but I will have the goal of getting to Slapeworth where I will get more fuel but more important I'll be having a sleep here providing the rest of the race has gone to plan. I intend to get 15 mins sleep before heading through Guisborough woods up to High Cliff Nab and on to Roseberry Topping.  Last time I broke down here, my body was shutting down, negativity had developed from a seed to a race ending blockage in my thoughts.  I will not let this happen this time!  The recce will be to determine at what pace I can go before I have to push myself beyond, and to explore where on the route I need to run just to keep my average time up.  The goal here is to just get it done without losing too much time.  Normally 10 miles I would 2-2.5 hours but after 100 miles and its all up hill its a different story.  In this instance 2 miles an hour, even though it sounds mega slow, is actually a safe bet.  The question is, for how long before I just have to increase that to 3 miles an hour.  The work I will put in at the start of the race is for this exact reason, I will be making up time on the cut-offs to bank extra time for this section and for the hill up to Osmotherly Square Corner which will be another section I will dissect and have a strategy for because this might be the crucial moment between finishing the race and being timed out.  I need to know how much time I will need to do these sections. Remembering I will be broken by this point so all positive thoughts and focuses will be needed rather than negative thoughts about how hard it is.  If you can fill your thoughts with aims and targets then there is no room for the negative doom and gloom!

Happy training folks, small targets large goals!!