A lot of people challenge themselves with their running, but this is another level altogether – how do you anticipate you’ll cope physically?
Thankfully I’ve done similar things before – I once did a 9 week challenge, so I know what my body is going to go through. I know what’s coming, but the problem is I know what’s coming!
I’ll be comfortable in the first week. By week 2, my body starts to fight back. I call this phase ‘the terrible two’s’. As I said, I’ve done these challenges before and my body follows a similar pattern. I use the adventure as part of my training.
With the challenges being so long and so heavy, I train and then use the first 2 weeks as extra training. By week 3-4 the adaption has kicked in and the body starts to work. What happens in my mind and body play together.
In weeks 5,6 and 7 it becomes routine. My body is OK, then it’s a question of holding on.
Here though, it’s monotonous and the mental side kicks in. You feel like the only one who has put their life on hold!
Last 1-2 weeks you can see the end in sight so it becomes more fun, but then it’s scary because you can see the end and wonder what’s going to happen after this? The physical and mental side have to be as strong as each other.
I need a strong team who will understand what I’m going through and will support me. It’s emotional, it’s physically demanding, I’ll get stressed, I’ll fall down and I need people to get up and force you to take the next steps.
It makes you reflective – you think “I’ve survived, so I can do it again”.