Beyond Endurance - Rhys Harries

Finished my last big milage week yesterday and reached a 103miles, good enough for me.

Looking back, what's been interesting is the fact that mentally I seem to have got familiar to the big milage (maybe not 50) - Suddenly doing 8 miles yesterday, felt like a day off!! It's as if I've trained the brain as much as my body to become accustome to big milage.

Going back to yesterday I ran 8 miles on the Taff trail, heading out towards Castell Coch but turning around a little sooner because I'd reached the 100mile. What was very nice to see was that it was far from hilly, (on this part anywey, maybe not so over the Beacons!) not flat but nothing like the Pembs coastal path. The run ended up being a decent fartlek session as I kept having a go at chasing down runners and cyclists aswell as having to run away from dogs!! I even had to do one of my turn around and chase the dog to scare it off waving my arms like some mad man as the owner just sat looking....keep your dog on a lead!

Around my course I also managed to fit in a sports massage, which was brutal but very needed, I should get these more often.

I'm going to take it easy until Sunday, maybe x train only, might even try and get to a squat rack. From Sunday will give me two weeks exactly before the ultra so next week I'm going to drop to about 50 miles and get at least two fast sessions in just to feel a bit sharper again. One of them will be my time trial and the other might be 1k repeats, the rest I'll wing it just keeping a cap on the milage. I'll probably x train more this week to keep active recovery but a rest from the running motion.

The final week will be horrible, I'll probably have to start cleaning or something to keep me busy, but like I once got told 'the taper is as much a part of the discipline as the running itself'