completed in an average time of 3:57.02

50 Marathons in 50 Days
17 July –  4 September

“Unreal! First off, I admire you greatly for taking on this formidable challenge“
Dean Karnazes

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inners

Always good to keep/assess old shoe inner soles. I can see from these [all being equal] that I am running nicely on my midsole and toes; as this is where the most wear is.

Old inner soles make good [with some small DIY] thin, lightweight flip flops or ultra-run ‘time off’ walk arounds. Or replacements for shoes that are still functional apart from the inners. I also recycle the laces more often than not.

Today back to the early morning jogs. Just 2 miles in my new Under Armour shoes.

266 miles [BGR day 59/441]

new shoes

New shoes! Bought a couple of pairs for £25 each instead of £65 each. Look cool; knitted, light, comfy. What brand? Can’t remember. Now to see how they run? Out of interest I will log their mileage.

Start of third block of training. Haven’t quite been hitting the marks yet, so time to get going.

264 miles [BGR day 57/443]

block II done

Month TWO
Regular [most days] running
At least 160 miles
At least FOUR mile time trials [7.15]
At least THREE stairs sessions [100 flts]
At least TWO 16+ mile runs
Drop 4lbs in weight

Those were my second months goals. Only got 100 miles, but with lots more days without running compared to last month [13 days missed rather than only 6 days]. The 1 mile time trials are only cherry on the cake, so I’m not overly concerned. Only one stairs session but also a hill reps session. Two runs in the 16+ range. Gained weight? Not great, but closer to where I have to be.

Starting tomorrow, the next block I need to get right, as I need to be secure in my running at the end of the foundation stage in 2 weeks time.

Month THREE
Regular [most days] running
At least 200 miles
At least FOUR mile time trials [7.00]
At least FOUR stairs sessions [150 flts]
At least TWO 20 mile runs
Drop 4lbs in weight

Today, just a lazy lunchtime jog and a little walk after. Rather depressed my weight is apparently still 13ST 4lbs! This is 2lb more than 3 weeks ago? Must be muscle.

264 miles [BGR day 56/444]

bees

These are the runners that ‘impress’ me. No way of mirroring these models; they have been ultra runners for decades. But we can all make our own goals and challenges.

Just a couple of little sightseeing jogs today between some beekeeping. Needed a shorter day after first 50 mile week in months. Still aim to hit similar mileage this week.

259 miles [BGR day 55/445]

last beer

A good week. The first time I have hit 50+ miles in a week for 9 months! And with a day off! The pace doesn’t matter. More weekly miles than I have run for most of my running years [now over 35 years; a few weeks till my 35 years a marathoner celebration] but much less than I became used to in the years more recently [nearly 100 miles a week in 2016, and about 11 miles a day average over 10,000 days 2014-2016].

Hard to find a good compromise now that my next challenge requires more of strength and hill training than mileage outright; and lots of ‘up training’ necessarily means less miles covered.

Ran into town with the guys today for our last free beer at the New Balance Runaway pop-up pub. 16 mile total day.

255 miles [BGR day 54/446]

books

I had the time to speedread a couple of books whilst back in Jersey. I seem to be less and less impressed by running books.

First was Rob Young’s Marathon Man. Obviously interested in this as it was along the lines of my last big challenge i.e. running lots of multiday marathons. Setting aside the controversy since he was apparently caught cheating on his run across the USA record attempt [and then subsequent disappearance from the running scene], I just found the narrative boring. Yes he can run. Yes he had a shitty, bad childhood, but this is not enough to make an interesting running book.

Next was Kilian Jornet’s Run or Die. Obviously interesting to me as this is the guy that just broke the Bob Graham Round record; my next big challenge [not for any record I might add]. A bit better. Some interesting runner insights and philosophy. Some snippets of information I never knew before; Western States Ultra runners get ‘pacers’ on the last miles?

The difference between the books was not their achievements nor that one runner is an international level runner and the other is an ‘average’ charity runner, no the difference was the ‘tone’. Rob Young’s book in my opinion focussed too much on the tough childhood and not enough on the running. There seemed to be a sniff of ‘I had it hard so what I am doing is extraordinary’? Perhaps, having had a tough childhood myself I am simply less ‘impressed’ by this angle?

Returned to London; with my super stone [and organic ‘stone’]. Seem to be all fired up again and having to find ‘excuses’ to not run. You are allowed a ‘day off’, especially on just returning to regular running. Longer run tomorrow however.

239 miles [BGR day 53/447]

relax

A relaxing 5 miler. Doing some chores. Racing the ‘train’ along the seafront. Sitting on the beach. Sometimes it’s nice to simply go with the flow and just enjoy the surroundings.

I always aim to find a new beach stone when I go back home. A real beauty this time. Never seen anything so perfectly circular and smooth. Also another that looks organic?

239 miles [BGR day 52/448]