Outmilers

A few laps in to the saltire 12hr ultra and the confidence started to build. By hour 7 Fiona was stronger than hour 5.

Take a bow Fiona on a wonderfully executed race, her longest and furthest she’d ever run. Especially as this was not the typical ultra build.

Fiona’s A race this year was a marathon PB (which oh my she nailed with a 36mins PB) so the priority was that, then we had a short turnaround for this 12hr race.

Race day came and she knew when to walk and when to run. She didn’t get carried away at the start and was strong the whole race.

Her fuelling was brilliantly executed too and this was without much ultra fuelling practice behind her. The traffic light system meant when food felt hard she had a simple decision making framework rather than a panic

Also her mind was stronger than she thought it was, like waaaay stronger.

Fiona said: ‘I’m not sure where to begin but you took the brief of marathon PB and first ultra (12hr) 6 weeks after and helped me smash it. I am not in anyway the same runner that I was before I started coaching with you and I cannot wait to see where the second half of the year takes us.

DM METHOD if you’re done crossing finish lines thinking thank f**k that’s over and ready to cross them thinking holy s**t I can’t believe I just did that.

One of the many things running gives you beyond the distances and the times you chase.

It’s the people that come into your world through this wonderful sport.

If someone came to mind, send them this 🧡

Saltire 24 wow what a race 🤩

I’ve been to a lot of races, but the atmosphere at Saltire 24 was unlike any other race I’ve ever been at and I didn’t even run it, that’s just from standing at the sidelines watching.

Running ultras is hard, really f**king hard, and the atmosphere can make or break your race.

But Alice McAra , , all the marshals, volunteers and all the runners, they made the atmosphere top tier.

Such a relaxed, happy, uplifting, upbeat race for the entire duration. That is pretty special.

If you’ve never been to an ultra where you watch ordinary people doing extraordinary things, it’s a pretty cool thing to witness. Personally I feel it’s always an absolute joy to watch runners do something they once thought was impossible, and this one was something else.

If you’re looking for a race that feels like the running community is at its best you need to put Saltire on your list.

Well done to everyone at Saltire, organisers, marshals, volunteers, and all the runners, you are outstanding humans.

I’ll do more posts on the Outmilers runners who took on Saltire soon. 👀

Proof you don’t need a perfect training block to get a PB.

Amanda, take a bow 🤩👊

5 minutes PB at Manchester Half Marathon. Very well deserved through a rough training block.

Her block didn’t have the fanciest looking sessions.

She didn’t hit the distances that we planned on her long runs.

She didn’t get to do all the harder sessions we originally planned and I know she would have been game for doing.

But she had consistency in training, in this block and in every block before it.

Training plans are like GPS. They map the best route at the time.

But the best route isn’t always the one you end up taking and you can still get where you’re going.

Sometimes the safer more mundane route is the smarter one.

Amanda’s block was built around managing niggles, getting her to the start line, and keeping her running after it.

When race week came, a PB was absolutely on the cards. So she took her chance and had one of those races where the stars aligned and she ran even faster than she thought she could.

If you want to learn how to push when it counts and dial it back when it matters DM me METHOD and I’ll show you how because once you learn this you will start making progress even through the messy parts of training.

Marathons and ultras don’t owe you anything.

But turning up to race day having followed a realistic plan one that’s not too rigid, built on your data and you know exactly what to do when the race gets hard…

That changes everything.