The West Highland Way ultra – A Training Journey (part 7)

This post relates to week 6 of training (13th - 19th January). Enjoy!

Week 6 of training has been my most sociable so far! A good friend ran most of a dark, chilly and damp Tuesday pre-7am effort with me – that’s friendship right there! Following that, Susan, the other half of Green Strides Fitness, joined me for a Friday stroll.

Why do I feel this is blog-worthy news (aside from it being my training journey so I’ll ramble if I want to 😂)? Well, it’s because I am someone who likes to run alone for the most part. Whilst I gain several benefits from running solo, one of the less obvious ones is that when I DO run with someone else I really notice it!

Here’s an analogy to explain what I mean. One of my favourite books is called Goodbye, Things, by Fumio Sasaki. In one chapter, he mentions using a washcloth as his main bath towel. This, he does from a minimalist perspective, as he feels better when his world feels less cluttered. A washcloth is just easier to manage than a bath sheet.

Because of this, whenever he stays somewhere else (e.g., a hotel), he really notices and enjoys the luxury of a nice thick cozy towel. If he had that all the time, there would be no contrast and he probably wouldn’t even notice the towel.

And so it is with me and running with others. 95% (maybe more!) of my runs are solo jaunts, so the occasional company of a runner friend is an experience I value dearly. These moments help keep me going over a long-haul training plan. Speaking of, let’s get to what I did this week.

Time on feet (running!)

Overall distance: 83 miles/133.6km
Running distance: 53 miles/85.3km
Percentage of distance spent running: 64%

These numbers are all down from week 5 training, and there’s a very simple explanation for this. If you recall from part 6 of this West Highland Way ultra training blog, my plan was to run 58-61 miles/93-98km this week. However, I missed my 8-miler/13km on Thursday!

I think this is the first run I have planned but failed to do (or at least shuffle around in my week). I’d simply had a very tiring week and decided that extra sleep was far more beneficial for me than my morning run. Granted, I did decide this when I was tucked up in a warm bed, lights out, dogs snuggled in, and it was January outside 🤣.

I am pretty adept at listening to my body, so there’s no beating myself up for this. Plus, I did go to the gym for an (upper) strength and conditioning workout later that morning, so progress just came in a different guise that day.

Runs for week 6

The ‘ticking over’ runs

Let’s forget about the missed Thursday. It’s in the past and in the bin. The rest of the week went pretty well! Monday was a planned rest day. As I mentioned earlier, I did most of my Tuesday 8-mile run with a good friend. We toddled around at a chatty pace and when we split, I pressed on at an increased pace to test the legs on some ascent and descent for the last few miles.

My Friday run was a short 5-mile jaunt with Susan, but worth mentioning that we included the local Parkrun route (which contains 3 loops) well known for ‘that hill’ 😂.

Hill work

My hill work session was scheduled for Wednesday. I started with good intentions. I used a hill I’d used before knowing that my intervals were shorter in time and believing the hill was long enough in distance. Again, it wasn’t 😂. I don’t know what I need to happen to get it through my head that this particular hill just doesn’t cut it!

On the 2nd interval, I was already crossing the brow of the hill. That’s where I bumped into a friend and her dog. I’m not one to stop and chat when I am running, especially doing interval work, but I made an exception. It WAS ‘Sociable Shari’ week, after all 😂. 5 minutes of gassing later,

I restarted my watch and made a not-overly-enthusiastic effort to do another interval and a half before I just quit on trying to find more ‘up’ than was available. I switched to a meander around the area, clawing as much elevation from as varied terrain as I could. This probably got me more overall ascent than my intended intervals on the single hill I had been working on.

I stopped after 10 miles and wandered back to the car satisfied with my mornings work. Ultra run training can cope with ditching the odd interval session here and there, thankfully!

Longer efforts

Lomond Hills

Saturday was long run day, clocking 20 miles of trails around the Lomond Hills. I have included the map image below. I know this area well but haven’t been up there properly (read: for a long run) in a while. So it was nice to don the Altra Lone Peak 6’s (note: Altra may no longer be fully vegan, although this model is) and head out.

Lomond Hills contains West Lomond, the highest point in Fife at 522 metres / 1712.6ft above sea level. It is usually ‘blowing a hoolie’ (very windy, for the non-Scots) up there, with this run being particularly blustery. I’m quite small in stature so staying upright to push against the wind to get up was tough enough. But not as hard as avoiding being blown off the narrow loose rock and dirt path and hurtling to my death (dramatic, much?) on the way down. Full body workout achieved 💪😅. Great fun with 1,017 metres /3,336.6ft of running (and hiking) to boot!

Lugging my hydration pack (finally)

On top of this, it was my first run wearing my hydration pack in this training programme. Yes, I know I’ve done runs up to and including 20 miles before this point! But I very much enjoy running free of ‘things’ so it really does take me until high mileage (and a bit of pestering to ‘take a phone, just in case’ 🙄) to succumb to the sensible pack-wearing decision.

Over that hump, I can now proceed training carrying a pack for the lengthy days out. I may be required to carry kit (more than the mandatory foil blanket and mobile phone) during the West Highland Way Ultra. And since I have a dodgy shoulder (or two…) it is particularly important I train with the pack on to get my upper body ready for the extra weight. Besides, it’s good to remind myself ahead of time of all the bits that needs battened down and/or anti-chafe balmed in advance😅.

Lomond Hills leg burner 👇

Sunday Saunter

It was back to street running early on Sunday for 10 miles. My legs were a little fatigued from Saturdays effort, but felt good enough that I was seeking out elevation. I managed to grab another 290 metres /951ft of climb over the run and be back home in time to go Fife Vegfest later that morning.

Gaining Elevation

My ‘ticking over’ runs were around the local (hilly) streets. My (partial) interval session was hill focused. And of course my longer weekend runs were off into the hills proper. Needless to say I gained plenty of running elevation over the course of the week, a total of 1859 metres /6,099ft. I forgot to take a screenshot of my breakdown over the week, so I’ve listed it instead:

Monday: REST
Tuesday: 173 metres /567.6ft
Wednesday: 245 metres/ 803.8ft
Thursday: REST
Friday: 134 metres/ 439.6ft
Saturday: 1,017 metres / 3,336.6ft
Sunday: 290 metres /951ft

Garmin Endurance Score

I forgot to screen grab my Garmin Endurance Score at the end of this week again! Life is hard…

This time, then, I have provided a red X in the area roughly coinciding with the end of the week (19th January) on my 12-week endurance score graph. It is definitely higher than the previous week, happy days!

Endurance Score (end of week 6) 👇

Garmin Hill Score

I must admit, the Garmin Hill Score is my favourite stat (alongside my weekly elevation). If you’ve read to this point you will know this week has been hill focused, regardless of the type of run session I was undertaking on any given day.

Garmin has kindly acknowledged this with a jump in my Hill Score. You can see in the images below that my score has moved from 82 (Skilled) to 85 (Expert) 😃. My VO2Max (predictably) has not increased, but my hill strength and hill endurance scores have, and this is what has driven my overall score up. Can I possibly sneak into the pink section of Garmin’s colour gauge before the West Highland Way ultra race day 🤔?

If you want to know more about how Garmin calculates the Hill Score, have a read of part 4 of this blog series.

Hill Score (end of week 5 v end of week 6) 👇

Week 7 West Highland Way ultra training

This coming week sees block 2 of my training build to it’s crescendo whilst spending the weekend away in Birmingham at The National Running Show. This trip away may prove challenging, not least because we drive down through the night, then drive back up straight after the show finishes on Sunday evening. Tiredness may play it’s part!

In a perfect world though, my plan is to continue collecting elevation over most run sessions. The area around the NEC in Birmingham is flat so that won’t contribute anything! I have my eye on a different hill for my midweek intervals! It’s longer and not too far from me. I have ran it plenty of times before so familiarity of what’s to come will be a nice contrast to the life-questioning number of times I have to run up it for extended periods of time 😅.

Week 7 should see me hit around 60-63 miles/97-101km. Moving into triple km figures with a 3 day trip thrown in? Let’s see…

Follow along with my West Highland Way ultra training!

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I’d love to have you share my West Highland Way Ultra 2025 training journey! Curious about something I’ve said (or not said) or want me to dive into certain training areas in future West Highland Way ultra training blog posts? Let me know in the comments!

Shari 💚