A New Ultra

I know I said the other day that maybe I wasn’t going to sign up for any more races for a while, maybe I’d take a break from running seriously, and try and figure out how to enjoy it and have a healthy relationship with it again. But then yesterday I went for a run and loved it, I felt strong and smooth the whole way, despite having no right to after the amount of food I’ve eaten and the lack of training I’ve done. So I started looking at the list of UTMB qualifying races, and found a perfect little 50km in September with a few hills but nothing nuts, and it looked really tempting… and there was only 6 spaces left. So obviously I’m now signed up for the Eden Valley Ultra Trail on September 11th.

I’m pretty excited. If I can do the North Down’s Way Marathon on Sunday then I’ll have no problems with Eden Valley. The time between the two races isn’t enough for a full periodised training block, but it is enough to build a decent amount of fitness. While I have struggled to train since being in London, I think it’s only going to get easier - I am coming to understand how fragile my routine is and how important it is that I stick to it, and once I embody that a little more, getting out and running regularly can go back to being something I enjoy doing, rather than a chore.