Readers’ Blog: Inside an ultra runners head

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As I write this, the sun is starting to set. Soon it will be night and when I wake up tomorrow it will be just a few days until race day. That race is 100km. Running. On a 400m athletics track. I’ll spare you having to do the maths – it’s 250 laps.

Now, I know what you are thinking, because everyone I have mentioned this race to has had the same question - How are you going to mange the boredom? As soon as they hear that it’s on a track, they forget about the physical challenge of having to run 100km and focus on the psychological elements of this endeavour.

There is no doubt that you need to have but in the hours of physical training to prepare for a race of this distance but how do you prepare mentally and deal with the psychological aspects of this kind of race? These are the answers I am looking for.

On most races such as point-to-point, out-and-back, single loop you have the incentive, even though you are tiring, that you still have to get to the finish somehow; so you might as well keep going! Multiple-lap courses offer more of a psychological challenge; the scenery changes less, you get bored of seeing the same things, you have to keep running through the start/finish area and start another lap.

The smaller the lap, the worse the torture, in my opinion. So why am I doing this?

Well, having progressed over the last few years from marathons, to 50km and then 80km ultras, I decided that this year I would attempt my first 100km. I was lucky enough to gain selection for the GB 100km team for the European Championships in the spring of this year and then unlucky enough to sustain my first ever stress injury – a stress reaction to the cuboid bone – which meant I had to pull out of the team.

The spring/summer of this year was spent recovering form the injury and building my fitness back up. I hate to miss out on my goals, so I still wanted to attempt a 100km this year and having looked at my options, this race, which takes place in Mallorca on November tenth was about the best option. I’ll be aiming to run the kind of time that will give me a chance of selection for next year’s GB team so I was looking for a flat course. Can’t get much flatter!

So how have I prepared for this race? Long, long runs. Several between 40-55km, a 61km and a 76km. These really long runs have been generally spaced 2-3 weeks apart and the rest of the time, my training has been similar to what I would do if I was training for a marathon; plenty of easy running, some tempo runs, hills and interval training. In addition, there had been weekly strength training, drills and core work.

As part of the 76km run, I did 27km of it on an athletics track. Was I bored? Oh yes. There was just me and the track. I coped with it by splitting into chunks based on number of laps until I was next scheduled to take on some food. I had some cake with me so counting down to ‘cake time’ was my motivation.

I’ve had to train myself to be able to eat solid food such as fruit cake and flapjack as I will need to do this in the early part of the race to maximise my calorie intake and to stop me feeling hungry. I will also be taking on energy gels, energy drinks, Cola, dried fruit and water. All of which I’ve practiced taking on my training runs to make sure my stomach can handle them.

Those long training runs were tough and yet I know they will pale into insignificance once I’m into the latter stages of this 100km. As I’m now tapering down my training, my attention is turning to psychological preparation.

I often use visualisation prior to important races. Visualising running the course, feeling strong, handling mid-race problems and finishing in the time I want. For this race, course visualisation is simple. Unfortunately, it’s not immediately a positive image because I start to get bored just imagining running those laps.

So what to do? Instead I’ll be visualising one small section of the course - the start/finish of each lap. I will be visualising that I complete each lap in my target time. Over and over again.

I will also visualise potential problems and how I will overcome them. I find it very useful to imagine the pain that I might feel towards the end of the race and visualise myself running strong despite the increasing pain and fatigue.

I will plan my nutrition strategy and go over this a number of times. It’s very tempting on a small lap race to take on too much food as it is so close at hand, every lap. And I love my food, so this is a real challenge!

After the race is over, I really want to be able to have answers to the questions that people will ask and that I will no doubt ask of myself. How did I cope with it mentally and what did I think a bout for all those hours? With this in mind I intend to enlist the help of my partner, Riel. He is going to be there to support me, passing me food and drinks. I’m also going to tell him what I’m thinking about as I run, so he can make a note for future analysis and so I can report back and tell you want really does go through the mid of an ultra-distance runner.

Helen Taranowski, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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