5. Sickness & Recovery

Welcome to the Fifth Newsletter!

Usually, these are released on a Monday, but this time around there’s been a bit of a pause in the schedule. At first, the pause was because I had nothing to talk about! Training has been derailed by some sort of chest infection, meaning I can’t run without coughing up a lung, so I haven’t exactly been in the mood to write newsletters.

Recovery and Injury Prevention

But then I realized—even when I’m sick, I’m still active, just in a different way! When I’m unwell, I tend to review where I’m at and plan what I’ll do once I’m better. Anyone following the newsletter knows I’ve been pretty rigid with my training plan. After all, I only have a short period before my first ultra, so I have to stay focused. However, I’ve been neglecting some other important areas.

My usual routine is to look at my plan and just start running. But with the volume of training I’m doing, that’s not enough, and it’s easy to injure myself. So, while I’ve been ill this week, I took steps to ensure that when I’m back at it, I don’t get sidelined by injury.

What have I done? A couple of things:

Firstly, I’ve started using an app called Pliability for mobility drills. These aren’t specifically running-focused, but they’re great for general flexibility. There’s really no downside to this, and it can help massively with the niggles I tend to get when my training volume increases—especially in my lower back and shoulders. I’ve committed to 15 minutes of daily mobility drills, outside of my running program.

The second change has been my diet. I’ve been pretty sloppy during the start of my training, partly because the increased training volume has led to a much larger daily calorie budget—so I’ve been filling that gap with pizza more often than I’d like to admit. I want to make sure I’m not just eating, well, junk. I’ve started logging my meals in MyFitnessPal (MFP), sticking to a calorie goal, and adjusting for exercise. I’m not cutting out foods I enjoy (that’s a sure-fire way to fail), but I’m staying more mindful and raising my awareness about what I’m eating.

Lastly, I’ve added proper stretching to my routine before runs. It only takes 5-10 minutes, so I have no idea why I’ve been skipping it. It’s easy to get injured if you set off cold, so I’ve made a promise to myself to warm up before every run, no matter how short. I’m using Pliability again for this, as they offer running warm-up drills in the app.

Back at It

After a week off, I jumped back into training yesterday, on the 17th of September. Unfortunately, I picked up where I left off—which meant a grueling 13k at an easy pace after a week of no training. It was supposed to be non-stop, but due to the lack of recent training, I decided to switch to intervals: 3.5k running, then 500m walking, until the 13k was done. I finished in about 1 hour and 20 minutes, which, all things considered, isn’t too bad.

Thursday and Friday this week are much shorter runs before a big 19k on Sunday, so hopefully, I’ll be back up to speed by then!

Last but not least—of course, I didn’t forget—here’s the JustGiving page: