The Heat is On - Kenny Loggins

Not only for us but for lots of our ULTRA-running friends and contacts it seems right now... As the 27th Marathon des Sables rumbles towards us like a slow moving juggernaut of an event, Jenny and I are attacking the training schedule in very different ways.

I think Jenny would just like to live at Merthyr Mawr in her own bespoke Sand Castle! I reckon she has worn a trench tearing round the dunes with her pack on, huffing and puffing her way thru the very deep sand along the shore. I've been a couple of times but I am also clocking in the marathons and power-hours in the gym which is so hot, it is doubling up as heat-chamber work too - boy do I sweat.

It's funny how ULTRA-running is putting that huge amount of pressure on people to perform and how a very simple act of running for a long distance is pushing people well beyond their limits  of human endurance. This week alone we are seeing, entry level runners, MdeS wannabes and yet another JOGLER 2012 coming to stay for two days so that she can run a couple of 60 milers back-to-back... it's jolly busy.

Let's hope that the 'Joy of running' is kept foresmost in our minds and we can enjoy our running experiences rather than be a slave to it...