This Is It...

This week's training:

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 10 mile run

Monday: 4 mile run

Tuesday: 3 mile run

Wednesday: 2 mile run

Thursday: Rest day

Friday: 1 hour swim session

This is it, it's finally here... G-Day. Gatliff weekend. My First Ultra. I couldn't have asked for a better week in the run up to this. It's been busy enough to keep my mind distracted from getting too anxious but one or two things got cancelled which gave me enough time to avoid panicking about all the things I had to do. 

After getting a bit of a boost from Ira  Rainey and Mark Kleanthous at the Running Show I went out in the pouring rain for a 10 mile easy trail run on Sunday and actually really enjoyed it. I even took some pictures! It helped me to make some kit decisions and gave me a real confidence boost. I had my friend's lad over for the afternoon for making and baking; the cheesecake and pizza tasted all the more delicious for those wet miles.

The 4-3-2 mile taper runs have left my legs feeling fairly energetic. I know that by the time Sunday rolls around I'll be raring to go. All my kit is together ready for the journey to my parent's tomorrow (I've packed two of almost everything) and although I've got a proper race vest now I'm still taking my camelbak just in case I have a change of heart. I don't know why. There have been a few not-entirely-reassuring mentions of the quality of the route instructions but I figure I've got a compass, foil blanket, whistle and my phone and as long as I'm not on my own at any point I'll be fine... And of course the all important snacks have been purchased (pasties, satsumas, gels and bars).

As I'm saving my legs now I'm taking the opportunity to marshal at my local parkrun tomorrow and then to meet up with a friend for lunch and a gentle stroll. This marks the start of lots of lovely socialising in the next couple of weeks as the focus shifts from Gatliff-intensity training to being a bit more relaxed with time for Christmas outings and gigs. See how I'm still distracting myself from those 30 miles by the though of lovely things still to come?

In other news I did my first swim session in ages today. I've got the good vibes from having exercised before breakfast but it was pretty demanding and demoralising for someone who struggles to swim more than 2 lengths front crawl in one go. On a more positive note I got my current assignment done and dusted so that's another weight off my mind, all be it one that will be replaced by the prospect of leading my first RunFitUK session next week. Actually that's pretty exciting!

So I end this post with two requests. One: it's going to be a long day on Sunday so any texts or tweets to break things up would be fab, especially in the afternoon. Two: the reason I'm doing this in the first place is to raise money for charity so if you can spare a couple of quid please sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/VikkiRunning or by texting  VRUN86 £5 to70070. Thank you, you're all marvellous. 

Whatever your challenges are this weekend - go smash them!