An ultra marathon is any race longer than a marathon, longer than 42.2 km.

Last year, after running the Barcelona marathon, I felt I could run a bit further. How much further, I don’t know yet… But I am now training for a 33 miles (53km) ultra marathon, from Aberdeen (North east of Scotland) to Banchory and back, along the River Dee. It’s actually near where my Mum lives.

Training has been tough, but rewarding. The difference between training for an ultra marathon and training for a marathon is that I am running two long runs at the weekend instead of just one. It allows me to practice the whole distance of the ultra marathon, but over two days instead of just one. My latest weekend had me running to Haarlem and back on Saturday and falling asleep on the sofa on Saturday afternoon in front of rugby 6 nations on the TV, early home from a party on Saturday night and then 2 hours of running in the Amsterdamse Bos on Sunday.

It was the first time I have woken up on a Sunday and had convince myself to get out of bed and get ready for another run. I have one more weekend of long runs including a 40km run before I start a 3 week taper. This means I gradually reduce the amount of running I do so that my body is fresh for the big day.

I expected to be really tired throughout this working week but actually I have felt pretty fresh and able to motivate my clients even at 06:30 in the morning!

Believe it or not I have also been working with a Personal Trainer (as I know how important it is to have one ;) ) and he has made sure I am getting stronger and stronger to help with my preparation. Some people are surprised to hear that I need a Personal Trainer but someone else can always push you to go that bit further. It has also been an interesting experience seeing training from the client’s point of view.

As part of the training I ran the race Groet Uit Schoorl – 30km run – 2 weeks ago and ran it faster than last year.

I am very grateful for my Biomechanics Coaching knowledge, I have been able to stay injury free by making sure my body moves well. Taking the time to do exercises has paid off.

In addition to the proper training, a little luck never hurt, so keep your fingers crossed for me on the 14th of March :)

 

 

Author: Lorna Wilson

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06 460 377 74 / lorna@wilsonsworkouts.nl