The Road to 100 #003
This month’s recap has come around quicker than I’d like.
Time moves strangely when most of your non-working hours are poured into a single focus. Days blur, weeks fold into each other, and suddenly another month of training is behind you.
July was about rebuilding, restoring habits and rhythms after June’s recovery. August marked the first true step into the building phase. By and large, it went to plan. But more than mileage or sessions, it reminded me that training for an ultra is less about perfect execution and more about balance: effort and rest, discipline and flexibility, focus and the life that continues outside of running.
The Plan
The Reality
Week 1
Momentum carried me from July into the first week, with my longest run of the block so far. Crossing beyond the marathon distance felt like a quiet milestone, but not one that weighed heavily. I’ve come to look forward to these long efforts, and they no longer feel intimidating. Using the car as an aid station every 14km mirrors the rhythm of race day, but it also anchors me in a steady cycle, small loops within a larger journey. There’s reassurance in that repetition, as though progress isn’t measured only in distance, but in patience.
Week 2
This week flowed well, though I had to shift my long run to Sunday because our running club took over the local parkrun at Craigavon Lakes. It meant carrying a little more fatigue into the next week, but it was worth it. Watching the club come together to give back reminded me why I run with others in the first place. Running is often solitary, but community gives it meaning. It transforms personal effort into shared experience. It makes the sport feel larger than the individual miles we each log.
Week 3
By the middle of this week, the weight of training began to show. My legs were heavy, and tightness lingered longer than I’d like. I had already planned to attend Hilden Beer Festival, an annual fixture in my calendar, so I let the weekend be a period of de-loading. If I’m honest, it was more rest than I’d intended, and stepping back from the rhythm made me restless, but it was necessary. Training is like a long relationship: it asks for commitment, but it also asks for space. To ignore that is to risk losing both balance and joy.
Week 4
Coming off the break, I was eager to regain momentum.
With race day in mind, I opted for a route I thought would be more runnable, only to find the elevation quietly building beneath me. It was a reminder that races, like life, rarely unfold as expected. The terrain asks for patience, especially when it feels easiest to push. The discipline to hold back early is the same discipline required in the quiet, everyday moments of training, restraint now for resilience later, a lesson that will be essential on race day.
This run also moved to Sunday to accommodate our club’s half marathon, another great morning that was worth the compromise. I’ve learnt that life doesn’t run parallel to training—it weaves through it. Discipline isn’t about rigidity, but about adapting so that both can coexist.S till, I’ll need to tread carefully into the coming week, balancing the strain of a long run with a day less recovery than I’d prefer.
Looking Ahead
September looms as the hardest training block I’ve ever faced. The mileage will climb, the sessions will bite, and I’ll be asked to give more than I’ve ever given before. Strength work has slipped away under the strain, though I’ve kept hold of my near-nightly yoga routine.
I’ve come to see ultra training less as a battle with distance and numbers, and more as an ongoing conversation with myself. Each week asks the same question: Are you willing to do what it takes, and still carry the rest of your life alongside it?
If I can answer that honestly, then I know I’ll stand on the start line ready. In the end, training is about fulfilling the promises you set for yourself. Tick those boxes, and you don’t find certainty, but something better…
Belief.
The kind of belief that lets you face the beast you’ve chosen, and meet it on your own terms.
