Okay, maybe it’s a bit naive to spontaneously decide to run an ultra, but the thing is I want to have another 50 kilometer in my legs before I run the Dolomiti Extreme Trail. So here is my race plan for the Brabantse Ultra Run.
I know you should try new things on race day, but this race is a training at the same time. I mean my legs are still heavy from the Mighty Marathon of last week, I can’t expect too much of this race. That’s why my race plan includes a lot of try-outs. The first one has to do with food. My belly and ultra runs aren’t a good combination so far, so let’s try something new.
Running on focaccia
Sugar bread, focaccia and ginger tea is what’s on the menu tomorrow. I’ll take one soft flask with ginger tea and one with Isostar. It prevents getting an overload of sugar in the beginning of the race. To make sure I have enough electrolytes I have my salt tablets with me.
Okay sugar bread has a lot of sugar, but it’s easily digestible. I made a focaccia with some extra salt and I will put some peanut butter on it. That will give me extra energy. I am taking one Holyfat gel with me. That’s a salty one. I am taking only two energy bars with me, so in total I will eat less on this trail than on my previous ones.
The ultra runner Dani O’Sullivan told me she is eating less than recommended and that keeps her belly happy. I think it’s always finding the right balance between eating enough energy to keep going and keeping your belly happy.
New personal record
I would like to run fast. Fast for me, which is slow for a lot of runners. But I hope to run every kilometer within 7 minutes. That would mean a new personal record on the trail marathon and on the 50 kilometers. Okay, these are not big achievements as I have only run 50k once in my life and this is only the fourth time I’m going to run further than marathon distance. Plus the trail is flat, that makes it easy.
For the rest I am curious how I am going to handle this ultra mentally. The last time I ran in this part of Brabant I was doing a trail half marathon and got bored after 20 kilometers. The last 3 were a drag.
Painful legs
I am also curious how I will handle running with legs that are still sore from last week. I mean I’m dreaming of running a multi stage trail, but how does it feel to start a race without fresh legs?
I think that’s it. My race plan is not a wild plan; just some things to try out. For the rest I’m just looking forward to this run. It’s going to be a nice test and with a bit of luck I’ll see Jeroen Stoof at the start. He’s running the 100 kilometers in preparation for The Great Escape, a 160 kilometers trail run in the Ardennes in September this year. Tuesday I am going to visit him for an interview for this blog. But it’s nice to see him run already tomorrow.
That’s it. Bedtime. The race starts at 7 am, so I am getting up at 5.30 am. That’s another good preparation for the Dolomiti Extreme Trail; starting an ultra without breakfast.
