Training month 1

I'm now a month into my preparations for my ultramarathon in September. I haven't updated progress since the first week, so thought I would jot down some thoughts here.

Things feel like they're taking a bit of a dip at the moment. I've missed 2 runs in the first month and a couple of strength and conditioning sessions. However, it's my knee that is concerning me the most. Initially, the easier runs and structured plan seemed to be helping. but with the mileage stepping up and some more speedwork starting to come into the plan, it's really starting to get sore.

I've also had my second covid jab in that period, so that knocked me off a couple of sessions.

Yesterday I completed the Lakeland Trails Ambleside 23k run. This was a fantastic day out, and with more restrictions being lifted since my last event (and better weather) I got to enjoy some post-race entertainment and make more of a day/night out of it. I wasn't best pleased with my time, but there were some very tough climbs and a lot of single-track paths where passing was tough.

By the end my knee was in a lot of pain, I struggled a lot on the descents. it's just got me thinking if it struggled over 23k how is it going to manage 3x round that. I know there's a lot of time on feet left in my training, but that's still not going to give my knee any rest. if I do rest if, I feel like I'll be under-prepared.

I'm going to continue for now with the plan, maybe swapping some faster runs out if the knee isn't good with easier ones, but I'm definitely considering looking to try and defer my entry until next year. My current thinking is to try and hit 1000 miles for the year and then give myself a good rest to try and sort the knee out.