It is May 2022. While I have had some performances at races that I am very pleased about – the canals in 2018 and centurion grandslam in 2017 – my races since then have not been so great. I’ve enjoyed them, but I didn’t perform as well as I wanted to.
And it has been worse….. I’ve been DNFing races and it’s been going to pot. I’ve even struggled with training – finding it too easy to flunk out on sessions, not pushing on hard sessions, and finding excuses come too easy.
Too many injuries. Too many reasons. Too little training.
I’m Phil (47), and I have realised the fact is that I spend more time eating food than I do training in a given week, and more time finding excuses not to train than training itself.
I’ve let things go to such an extent that I’ve gained too many pounds (45 precisely!) and I have been feeling increasingly detached from the idea that I am someone who runs.
My most recent “defeat” is pulling out of a 24 hour race at Crawley track after 20-odd miles. Not great – and to be honest I am not sure why I entered because what I have discovered is that I love running for the adventure and seeing new things.
Something needs to change. But what will I do? And how will I get to the level of performance and fitness I need to by the time of my next race in 48 days time. The Warwickshire Ring canal race.
Follow the journey as it unfolds, along with the challenges and successes along the way.
How have you rebooted your running? What books have you read? Podcasts? Changes to your mindset and training approach? Put your comments below.
The Untraining Ultrarunner 
Great to see this blog back! Found your insights helpful for my own ultra training. (Attempting Liverpool-Leeds Canal rave this year). Best of luck with it!
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Oooh excellent. I love the LLCR. Beautiful race. Even when it peed it down for about half the time! ☂️ we are crewing a friend on it plus the other canals. How is your training going?
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That’s good to know! Not too bad thanks! Managed to do London 2 Brighton 100k on Saturday which has given me confidence that LLCR is within the realms of possibility (maybe!).
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What did you learn from that? And did you enjoy it?
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Yeah was actually really great and managed to get it done a bit quicker than expected (did 11 hours 29 mins in the end). Think the main learning was around fueling – despite taking on what I thought was more than enough calories/sodium through using Tailwind and stuff on offer at each checkpoint, I was still pretty dehydrated by the end. Probably could’ve done with trying to take on a wee bit more solid food as well. Walking the hills was another big one (though I think that’s less of a concern for LLCR).
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Did you use gels at any point? Or mostly tailwind and some solid food? I find it quite hard to drink enough sometimes but I’ve settled with just taking water in my bottles and using other things (Mountain Dew or coke) at aid stations or crew points. On the canal you’ll want to think about walk breaks because you’ll find that with few natural breaks (apart from crossing the odd bridge) you’ll find that you’ve run a long way without having a break
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Yeah I did make use of a few SIS gels as well (though stupidly left quite a lot in near inaccessible parts of my bag!) so only ended up having 3 and then coke/hydration drinks at aid stations. Think I’m going to try and build in a certain amount of walking per hour for LLCR pretty much from the start given the distance (maybe 5-10 mins walking per hour but still trying to work it out). Have a friend doing GUCR this weekend so will see if I can get some further tips from him as well!
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