4. Week 4 & 5 Ultra!

Welcome back to the fourth and fifth newsletter, all rolled into one!

First things first. The Ultra marathon! here's As usual front and center is the JustGiving page.

BIG NEWS! the goal has been well and truly smashed. I set it to £1000 and it surpassed that and is currently sitting at £1295 so thank-you so much to everyone who has donated to make this possible.

And to everyone who is still yet to donate, thanks in advance!

There's been no updates to tempered strength in the last 2 weeks as I have been away on holiday in Spain, but the training has continued.

Ultra Training Week 4 & 5

I'm currently on week 5 of my 16 - 18 week training plan. Week four was a recovery week and pretty chilled out so I'm going to hop straight over that week and chat about week 5!

I have to start with a confession, my training is 4 days a week. I missed the third session of the fifth week (My Friday run). With returning from Spain I had a day of coaches, flights and traveling and I simply couldn't be arsed. So I knocked it on the head had a dominoes and classed it as a well needed, additional rest day. But with that being said, week 5 was pretty grueling regardless.

This week’s training included four three runs:

• Easy 7.5k - This was my first day in Spain, I went from running in 15 to running in 30 degrees, so i took it early, but it was extremely hard.

• 10.5k mountain climb (literally) - This was quite literally a mountain climb, If you look at the stats you will see the elevation is 3 - 4 times more than usual. I literally saw a mo0utnain from the balcony and said that's where I'm going today.

• 12k Rolling Hill Run - The final run of the week, (and back in the UK) my longer Sunday run. This has been the longest run of training so far, and i wore all my new gear which i will mention below and it felt goooood.

Week Two Stats:

• Weekly Distance: 36.9k

• Weekly RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) Average: 7.3/10

• Weekly Average VO2 Max: 51

• Weekly Elevation Gain: 1249 meters

• Weekly Average Heart Rate: 153 bpm

Vo2 max is on a trend of flying upwards which is always nice.

All the gear no idea

I finally checked off some of the bigger purchases I'm going to need as a part of the final 50k. I needed to get it done sooner rather than later.

• Shoes. I went to my local Up & Running and they did all the usual record you running see how you run and recommend some shoes, so I now have a lovely new, bright blue pair of ASICS.

• Socks. I got a medium and high density marathon sock and I am going to start wearing them in training for anything over 10k to get a feel for which pair will be best

• Rundawear. who wants to chafe for 50k?

• Running Vest. Now my runs are getting to be more commonly over 10k I grabbed a decent hydration vest from decathlon.

I wore all this gear for my 12 run and I cant lie the shoes and socks combo was elite. I got zero rub in my usual hot spots and my feet felt much fresher than normal after a run. So fingers crossed I have found the pair for the 50k.

Stay tuned for next weeks updates where i will be sharing the full confirmed dates and route!