Can I Actually Run 250km? (Doubting Myself…)

I’m under 3 weeks out from attempting to run 250km/155 miles from Edinburgh to Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the UK) and I must admit – I’m starting to doubt myself…

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Hello good morning and welcome to Glenco I am here for two days of big volume training Rey Logistics planning everything ahead of my 250 km ultramarathon in one go from Edinburgh to Ben Nevis at the end of March yesterday I had 31k from inveran to bridge of Ori and that video is already

Live so you can look for it on the screen just here today I’ve got about 26k from bridge of Ori to King’s house lots of elevation lots of getting used to the terrain for the team for the camera crew and everything logistically we’re trying to figure out the best way

To approach a number of things but mainly this is just specific training for me and I will admit at this point I’m intimidated my big training Focus over the summer was strongman and speed workor at the track training for a sub five minute mile strongman competitions and heavy deadlifts and I’m now going

Right the way back to the other end of the spectrum to a 250 km Ultra probably aiming to be under 48 hours in total so all things considered this is intimidating but that is the point and in today’s video I’m going to break down all of the reasons why I’m scared how

I’m going to be approaching them whether psychologically or practically and ultimately how I’m preparing for such a big intimidating endurance event taking a lot of lessons I’ve learned from the double bruel extreme Triathlon in 2022 for example if you want to see that video then look on the screen just here

But we’re entering the Realms of sleep deprivation multiple nights in the dark fueling pain suffering misery but some good times along the way so we are going to get in the car head to the start point and then I’m going to be running back up this way and we’ll take you

Through the rest of the day I’m Okay so the first thing that I’m obviously quite concerned about with a winter 250 km run in Scotland is the weather and there’s no better way of contextualizing that than right now as it’s snowing it’s 0° C and I’m about to head off for 3 and 1/ half hours on my

Own up that way pretty inaccessible via Road and again a huge part of the wcky for the past couple of days has been just getting used to where I can get access where I’m going to need a support Runner but it’s hard hard not to feel

Intimidated by this cuz I’ve got all the kit that I’ll ever need I’ve got all the experience that I’ll ever need but when fatigue sleep deprivation everything kicks in it’s going to be something that’s just going to make me feel like I don’t have it in me or oh have you done

Enough work have you done enough prep have you got what’s required for this it just feeds into that self-doubt that will go on and will happen inevitably with with any endurance event I take on obviously it’s been increasing scale over the years but days like today I’m

Confident if I get through it and get through 3 and a half hours of work about 26 27 K today I’ll be in a much better place where there won’t be many doubts around the weather in my head because yesterday and today the combination of is probably about as bad as the weather

Could be at the end of March in this area so I’m now better prepared and feeling a little bit more confident for the event itself dealing with that sort of first intimidation point which is Scottish weather nope right let’s bloody go Probably is a bit of a byproduct of rushing to get out of the car and get started I’ve left my GoPro down at the car so this is being filmed on my phone not sure what audio quality is going to be like but hopefully suitable oh just

Running bit here so the second thing that’s really intimidating me is sleep deprivation cuz that is inevitably going to be a huge part of this event I’ve experienced it before I’ve got a fair amount of experience with it I know how to manage it in terms of being sensible with caffeine really really

Understanding how much of an impact the light coming up will be so it’s knowing that the two night shifts are the absolute key and that’s where things are going to be really tough so just making sure that in terms of support mechanisms in terms of mental strategies in terms

Of to some degree visualization and sort of planning ahead of time anticipating how I’m going to feel and trying to work around that or get strategies in place to cope with it that’s all going to be really important so the second thing that’s very intimidating and is making

Me just find myself a little bit doubtful day today which is good is sleep deprivation cuz it’s a bit of an unknown Frontier hallucinations will kick in pretty aggressively it’ll get weird but in a strange way I’m kind of looking forward to that but yeah it’s an intimidating concept and in settings

Like this one I’ve got to make sure that I’m still focused I’ve got to make sure that I’m putting my feet down in the right place so not to snap my up just got to be careful got to anticipate it but that’s the second thing that’s making me down myself day Today GoPro has been reclaimed which is good news means I can provide higher quality not iPhone shot content again which is excellent second thing to consider and I’ve really been reflecting on just there is loneliness during the double Bruth I was surprised at how downtrodden and lonely I felt at points

Even though there were sort of people around me in the darkness especially but felt a bit lonely setting off there just cuz you know we’ve had a good couple of days strategy business wise in a house up in the highlands working to late Etc and kind of felt a bit somber walking

Off but coming down that Hill there familiar territory where I actually supported a friend doing the West Highland Way in one go himself few years ago so I knew where I was I enjoyed the downhill and I’ve come down feeling elated buzzing to see the guys GoPro

Back online but just a great reminder of the es and flows of events like this and how important it is to reinforce that in training you’re going to be high you’re going to be low but no one feeling lasts forever and that’s what’s really important to remind myself at this phase

Of the training process when doubts do start to creep in right now I feel great might speak to you again soon feel terrible Goodbye Oh I call it just finishing off a nice relaxing but partially frozen squares bar and just took a second to reflect on the environment I’m in and just feel overwhelmingly privileged and happy to be out here on my own I haven’t seen the soul other than the team all day today

Which is incredible this is amazing as a calibration point for me personally amidst the things that I was just discussing this is so valuable and why getting outside and not being confined to indoor training is such a massive thing in my opinion it’s where hybrid training for me has been phenomenal

Because single discipline training forces me to not find myself doing work on a C2 bike or in a what bike amidst this that and the other and forcing myself indoors single discipline stuff gets me out in environments like this and the value of that goes Way Beyond being jacked metrics from a performance

Point of view it’s just incredible if there’s a real takeaway from this video is that we should all try and spend more time in settings like this one because not only is it good for us Fitness wise but it’s good for the soul as our squares Bars Long steady incline at the moment I thought I would touch on the third thing that is causing me some doubt at the moment and that is the training Runway I have left alongside everything else that’s going on at the moment so we’ve got a couple highes out at the moment

With Omnia we’ve got ongoing building works and sort of things being developed in the office there’s a huge amount of change huge amount of restructure huge amount of really exciting things happening which means more than ever I’m finding it really difficult to just objectively prioritize training as I normally would because I’m finding

Myself drawn to my desk I’m finding myself de prioritizing in training first thing the morning so that I can just get straight to work and feel like I can box off a few things and Johnny and I even had a very Frank conversation last week about whether I even wanted to still

Commit to this event so I’m very much still in but the fact that those doubts have being presented tells me that the reward that will come from getting to the start line of this event amidst the challenge of the remaining 5 and a half weeks I’ve got and the challenge that

Comes with prioritizing everything and making it happen no matter what is where the value in events like this really lies because I’ll be a different person when I come out the back end of this having gone through the process of getting to the start line the finish

Line is a bonus I view the the real wind being working through the the demands and the challenges of the process of training for the goal itself rather than the uh the outcome so that’s something else that’s playing on my mind so I thought we quickly review my whip data

So you can understand how I actually interpret it and what that actually means for the rest of my day work up with 35% recovery score HRV a little bit lower than normal sleep was solid I made sure to actually sleep in this morning a lot longer than I normally would because

We ended up in bed I ended up in bed we as a collective ended up in our beds later than we anticipated cuz we were working on laptop still quite late cuz this was kind of a business strategy couple of days as well as training so

Made sure to just get as much sleep as I could within the context of the training days here and whoop had my score for sleep at 89% short of 9 hours and 1550 minutes that was needed but my data was all positive something I would look out

For is my breathing rate where when I’ve done a big aerobic exertion especially if I’m staying in my not my own bed because my aspa can sometimes flare up but that was all solid and strain at the end of the day yesterday was 20.4 so all

In all slight drop off an HRV which would be expected as a result of the exertion so the main thing will be when I get home tonight to go to bed as early as I can not be digesting too late on to maximize the quality of my sleep because

If I stack big aerobic days with compromised sleep or later to bed than I normally would be then that will actually compound and start to affect my training recovery cognitive ability etc etc so I use this at as part of a broader ecosystem of considerations like how I’m feeling patterns in the

Day-to-day week to week that I know have an impact on me and use that to inform what to do next and if you want to do the same you can use a link in the description down below to get your first month free you can try it for free up to

30 days and see if it’s for you and if you do so you’re helping out the channel and getting yourself a great way of managing your data as well back to the trails weather is much improved and I have a steady incline which means I

Thought I’d check in with G so the next thing that’s front of mine for me in terms of concerns doubts is the logistics of the whole bloody thing because it’s a very difficult route to film on cuz it’s all off-road for the most part but the past couple of days

Has given me a lot of confidence that whil I’m still going to be thinking about it from a I guess a quality control/ attachment point of view I’ve got total faith in Johnny and The Wider team to pull it off so that I can just get my head down and focus on covering

The distance and I think the lesson there is really having a reliable support network whatever is intim getting you whatever your concerns whatever your doubts are actually tapping into them asking for help when you need it being open and honest about the struggles that you’re facing is the

Best way to keep moving forwards so something I’ll be wrestling with for the next couple of weeks for sure but I think ultimately I can rest assure that the team has got It Um GPS isn’t quite what we expected maybe what I was seeing as a landmark here is different on the map but anyway job done data on the screen for you just here and the fifth and final thing to consider is failure which is kind of an obvious one but I’m essentially on a

Mission to find the point where I ring the bell because I can honestly say that I have never once in any events in the past quit whereby I’ve made a conscious decision that no I’m not enjoying this I’m out whenever I fallen short it’s been because something snapped there’s

Been an injury or I just haven’t actually had the ability to do it and I think that in many ways means I can be much more comfortable with my own ego going into this whereby I am essentially on a mission to discover at what point I

Ring the bell and I think this is going to be quite a good exercise in that I’m confident that I won’t but I’m excited to sort of ride that roller coaster and see where I end up so yeah it’s easy for me online fitness YouTube account everything going on to pretend that Ur

Ra solid got everything under control at all times but that’s just isn’t it that’s not how life goes anyone that pretends they’ve got everything together at all times and they’re not intimidated by things is a liar and I think it’s always important with the channel to

Bring you back down to earth on that and make it seem that I am not just somebody that always unequivocally gets things done without any challenge that’s not the case but I’m scared I’m intimidated the past couple of days been very confidence building but it’s reaffirmed

A lot of things I am concerned about and therefore need to reflect on over the next 5 and a half weeks but I hope You’ enjoyed the video essentially those are those are the five things at the front of Mind in terms of doubts at the moment

Reminder to like the video if if this video gets 2,000 likes I will chin a pint of Guinness at the Ben everon the second I finished this event so 2 likes and you can watch me very exhaustedly and probably unwillingly t a p again so there you are

Bear that in mind obviously hit subscribe if you haven’t already drop your comments thoughts feelings suggestions or anything in between and don’t forget to check out the link in the description so that you can get your first month of whoop for free you can

Try it for free for 30 days if you like it you then get your first oneth for free and you’re helping out the channel in doing so so please do all of the admin things thank you very much for watching I’m going to get myself back

Down the road to Edinburgh for a hearty mail this evening goodbye