 Week 8 of UTMB training was, well, let's call it a rest week. Having successfully completed the North Downsway 100 with Victoria at the end of week 7, I had been hoping to complete at least a few miles in week 8. Maybe up to 50k, something like that. As it was, I did hardly anything. Here is my mileage for week 8, and we're not even going to look at it in any great detail at all. It's just not worth it. 14km of basically easy running. But what we are going to talk about are the consequences of me running the North Downsway 100. What are the consequences for my training? What does it mean for UTMB? I've completed 15 100 miles as well. 17 in total, but 15 official 100 mile races. And I still make the mistake of underestimating just how much it takes out of your body to run that distance. And it's definitely a combination of physical damage, sleep deprivation and mental fatigue that causes the problems. Quite often I'll find that these things hit me later on in the week. You might have noticed that last week's episode was filmed in and around London. And it was a long day walking around London that day. And I was absolutely wiped out for the rest of the week. I'd planned to do park run on Saturday morning. Didn't get out of bed. I'd planned to do a long run with some friends on Sunday morning. Didn't get out of bed. So if you're planning to run 100 miles, do not underestimate how much this is going to take out of you. And for me, well, why is this a bad thing for UTMB? Well, two reasons. Just to say, if you are enjoying the video, if you're finding it useful or interesting, then please do hit the subscribe button and click like as well. Really want to try and get a few more thousand subscribers on the channel before the end of the year. And I'd really appreciate your support. Thank you. Firstly, whilst you can make up the sleep deprivation and you can get yourself back in the game mentally, physically it's a different story. Thankfully I managed to stay injury free, but that's another thing. I could have got injured. And physically, your body is damaged for much more than just a week. Sometimes it can take me well over a month to fully recover and get my training back on track after a 100-miler. Secondly, training blocks are all about consistency. So performance gains, improvements in fitness, they are all made and maintained by consistent, regular, ongoing training. That's how we get better. That's how we get faster. That's how we get stronger. Sticking a 100-mile race in five weeks before my A race and then having a week of doing virtually nothing at all is not good for your training schedule. But I totally get it. You're sitting looking at the screen thinking, so Stephen, why did you stick a 100-mile race in five weeks before UTMB? For that, we have to ask why we run. You know, we have to ask the question, what's more important to you? Performance and results or the enjoyment and the fun of it? And for me, whilst results are important, it's the fun of it that gets me. So I do 100-milers because I want to, because I like it, believe it or not, and not necessarily because I want to perform really well. That is a secondary consideration for me. If you are more focused on results, then absolutely do not do 100 miles five weeks before your A race. It's important to point out, of course, that rest weeks or recovery weeks are a really legitimate part. And in fact, some people would say a vital part of your training block, a 16-week training block, could be divided up into four-week blocks where you run really hard and work hard for three weeks and then you have a recovery week or a rest week every fourth week. But I'd really be stretching and I couldn't in all good conscience claim that last week was a planned recovery week. The end of week eight leaves us with three weeks to go before the big dance in Chamonix. I'm getting really excited and a touch nervous, which is a good thing. Week nine, we're going to increase the mileage to between 50 and 80K, but more importantly, we're going to increase the elevation. We're going to stick around 4,000 metres of elevation gain into week nine, which will then leave us two weeks of taper before the race. If you'd like to watch my recap of the North Downsway 100, then click that link right there. In the meantime, have a great week, whatever you're going to do, and we will see you on the start line for week nine of UTMB training next time. Take care, everyone. Bye-bye.