Thoughts and happenings from a life on Malta

2011 CCC Mont Blanc winner Emmanuel Gault explains how trail running is just as much about challenging yourself as it is about challenging nature.

Seventeen weeks have run by, another seventeen weeks to go. I have trained through 50% of a 34-week build-up but I'm only feeling 15% prepared. No, it isn't false modesty. The past few weeks have been simply horrid - lost training days, plethora of aches and pains and now the hills I have run up countless times are feeling harder.

It wasn't the original purpose of this page for it to become an outlet for my moaning and whining. So for today, bye.

Does the title of this week's post seem uninspired, seeing that it's almost the same as last week's? The reality is that this has been the poorest 7-day period to date. Having completed only two sessions is bad enough but even worse is my failure to do any of the key workouts: hills, speed and long run. Admittedly I was feeling poorly with flu-like symptoms siphoning off my energy supply. As any of you athletes know, the temptation to force a reluctant body into action is always there but a recurring elevated resting heart rate confirmed my physical sensations; going head to head with common sense would have been counter-productive. At least I now know why week 14 was so disappointing - the body was already busy trying to fight off the virus.
Unfortunately these let downs are par for the course but thankfully there is still plenty of time to get back into stride for the 0 - 3000metres Etna marathon challenge since I'm not quite half-way there yet. And to cheer me up, I concluded the week with the proverbial silver lining -  a 15km trail run taking me to the cliff edge of Ras il-Wahx.

Training hours: 4 / Weight: 70.9kgs / Body fat: 12.4% / Muscle mass: 69.4% / Water: 57.6% / Bone mass: 3.0 / Resting heart rate: 50