Trail Running in Madeira, part 2​

After my 32K on Sunday, I was excited to see on Monday morning how well my body was already recovered. It is amazing to see that when you nourish your body well and also take good care of it, of how much you are capable. 

 

However, due to some personal stress, things turned out that week slightly different…

Stress is a no-go

This is super important for everyone to understand that stress really affects your body. Stress is not only something mentally, but also physically noticeable. 


I  am not gonna go too much into the details about what cause my rising stress levels, but I can tell you that all of a sudden my energy levels were super low and also the mental toughness to push through tough sessions was simply gone… 

 

So I looked for a solution of what caused my stress and, although I am not 100% stress free, I can literally feel the difference in my energy levels and also in my training performance. 

 

Run run runnnnn

On Friday it was time to head out to the trails again and we did an amazing route of 20K starting in Machiko. The uphill was tough and especially that right after started the downhill for the second uphill, but damn those views from there. 

 

My dad was running behind me, but he always got closer and closer. So the competition feeling took over and we started chasing each other a bit, doing some flatter parts at an average pace of 5:10min/K. Oops… 

 

But we also took plenty of time to enjoy the views, because they were worth it. 

The day after, we were reminded with an amazing sunrise so you know what they say: then it has to be a good day. 

And so it was, at least for me. My dad was still a little bit tired of the day before and also with the heat he had troubles. Luckily I have gotten a bit used to training in the heat during the summer in Barcelona, but still a refreshing dive in the sea after this training was much needed. 

The training itself was another beautiful route, but quite challenging with steep uphills and downhills. I wouldn’t recommend this one to beginning trail runners ☺️

Afterwards we reminded ourselves with the local delicacy ‘bola do caco’ with is garlic bread and some grilled squid for extra proteins. After this meal we had enough energy again to watch the sunset from Pico Ruivo. 

So what’s the problem then? 

My legs are feeling great, my fuelling is getting better and better but I still don’t feel ready for my ultra next Saturday. 

 

I can’t shake the feeling that something isn’t 100% in my body. I hope it’s not illness and just some side-effect of the stress I wrote about earlier or simply some pre-competition stress… 

 

Lets see next Saturday. Now first things first: seeing that I survive this tapering week. 

You can find back the (trail) running routes that we did on my Komoot account

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