Race to the Stones Blog 5: Ultra running Zero to Hero

Dan from the Profeet Run Lab is taking on the 100km ultramarathon Race To The Stones in July.  This is his fifth update on his journey from ultra running ‘zero to hero’.

Time for a massage
Here we go again. Steady long run and good short speedy 4km before going in to the tough tempo run. The tempo intervals were real hard and I struggled to hit my pace time this week, not feeling good.

Time for a good massage.
I originally planned for a full leg massage, but in the end we decided just to focus on my quads.  After intensive soft tissue work on Rectus Femoris and Sartorius, I saw my knee flexion range improve by 30 degrees with hip extended.

I’m lucky that as a Sport Rehab therapist I can self-diagnose or treat my body as and when I need to.

Upping the mileage
My planned mileage went up this week with long runs going from 1 to 1.5 hrs. My other runs stay the same, shorter tempo runs as I still need the speed for my upcoming sprint triathlon.

My training focus is still for Race to the Stones and one way to help motivation and get ideas is using Strava, where I can track my training and see what others are doing.

I am part of the Profeet Strava club, which is public, and contains some high level ultra runners.  As a novice it’s an eye-opener to see what the ‘Pros’ are doing in terms of mileage and speed.

Hitting the wall
BANG!!  One long run and a hard working tempo and I’ve had it.  Recovery time needed before my next update!