Starts In Cumbria On Friday 13^th May

The most daunting endurance run in the world, the Brathay Windermere 10 in 10, is set to start in Ambleside on Friday 13^th May. And participants in the 262 mile challenge, that manifests itself in the form of 10 marathons over 10 consecutive days, are sure to gain the respect of more than just the running community as they pound the pavements and roads around Windermere, arguably the most picturesque marathon course in Europe, in order to raise much needed funds for charity.

Well, my trial is nearly up! It’s been quite an unusual week for me, including lots of sleeping early in the week, and then a drop in mileage at the end of the week (46 miles was my total, compared to a recent average of 56) – and a very late Saturday night!

The last three days, the calorie counting has gone out the window, but my average consumption is between 2,700 and 3,000. Here’s what I burned over the last week:

Somebody said today, “Oh, I’ve seen someone wearing that, but he add it on his ankle!’ And someone else said, “Oh that looks good!”…. (I’m not sure why!)… So my armband continues to evoke reaction. The first four days of the trial have seen me sleep more than I have  in weeks. This is because my usual routine was slightly changed as my running partner was away, and so I was running later in the morning – and, I was knackered! I’m quite surprised at how many calories I do consume – and burn. I’ve been a bit hectic and taken to rounding them up. In fact, I created a food called ’rounded up’ as I didn’t have time to input all the individual foods. There is an option to just enter a daily estimate and I think once you’ve done three days of detailed counting, you’ve got a fair idea of what you’re having… yesterday I had less than the day before, but as it included two glasses of wine, and a bag of McCoys in the evening, I still managed to consume 2,500 cals… however. My weight, is staying stable around 8st 10 to 12lb. I’ve been lighter than this when I’m up to regular 70 mile weeks, but this is fine for now.

My ki-fit caused much amusement (Fiona “the experiment”) and questions were asked in the pub last night after our running club session. And as I supped back my bottle of Budweiser and snacked on chips, I was happy to tell them that I had a room for both – and my mammoth 800 calorie run meant it didn’t matter!

As I said in the intro, I put my Ki-Fit armband on at 1pm today. I had done a circuits class at 6am, followed by a two hour run on the Downs with Julia. It was hot! We sweated – a lot! So I think today’s readings will be a bit squiffy as they won’t include that quite considerable amount of exercise.