Training for a 200 miler

The 40 day experiment

Generally, a 200 mile training block should last at least 6 months.

Mine has not.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve been battling a nasty case of chronic fatigue, a lovely physiological response I’ve dealt with for many years stemming from my C-PTSD diagnosis. Over simulation in my day to day life can turn into months of lethargy, piercing ringing in my ears, a body that feels like concrete and a general anti-stoke for anything major in regards to physical pursuits. Most days during these down periods, crawling out of bed and keeping my eyes open for more than 15 minutes at a time are a win for me.

I’ve been very close to pulling the plug and as the days to race day have counted down, I felt the opportunity to have a go at this slowly fading into the darkness.

Today that changed.

I am 45 days out from race day. On my shake out run today, my body and my mind shook hands and made a decision: we are going to absolutely redline the next month, and see what it leads to. Can a human take a solid base and turning it into 200 mile fitness in a month? I want to find out. So I will.

I am not fast on foot. I weigh 220lbs and many days don’t really feel like running. But what I do have, is a quietly held ability to endure physical suffering that rivals any human being on earth. I very seldom flip that switch on, but when I do, scary things happen…and scary things are about to happen.

I write this mostly to commit myself to the pain ahead. Saying the words out loud provide a level of accountability that will get me out the door when things start getting heavy and the fatigue creeps back in to try and win the day.

On Monday, we begin.

I’ll be posting a fair amount of the day to day training on my Instagram so follow along if you want to see either an impressive feat of human endurance or one of the larger implosions of my athletic career. Either will be entertaining and maybe you’ll learn a few things.

I just want to find out what happens, if I don’t quit.

Onward, Always.