Doubling the challenge accidentally deliberately

I need to buy a book on discipline and general health and how to murder unscrupulous landladies.

This month so far, I had an argument over my electric bills and so the lovely landlady changed my locks on my flat, with all my stuff in it. As a foreigner in the 3rd world i think being ripped off is seen as fair play here, which is crap but ill use it as motivation for running. Challenges can always be used positively-  The removal guys decided to put most of my stuff i need for running into storage instead of my new flat. I still have the cold after 2 weeks, and i havent ran any meaningful distance for 2 weeks, so...win win, i've automaticaly made my life and training twice as hard!

But fear not running fiends, in my head im still an Ultramarathon star, and thats half the battle right? Ok, its zero degrees so raining snow every day, its dark most of the time, and slippy, and i go to USA on monday for ten days. But at this eleventh hour, i think its the time when guys like me actually begin to function (ie when its pretty much too late) Im sure im not the only guy who thinks 'shit she may dump me i'd better buy her flowers' or 'yeah isnt it that Maths exam tomorrow? better get a look at those books then'. You could, if you were an optimist use the view that im simply 'training efficiently' ie training just almost enough and no more.

Realising i have just over 4 months to become a superathlete from a currently chubby slob, ill do another 10km tonight with a backpack on. I have moved temporarily to Kopli, so there is a 80% of being relieved of my backpack by some Russian gentlemen, so maybe just stones in there could be the answer, or lighterfluid for the muggers to drink. Sunday i plan to move to an 'as long as i can do it' run with a backpack on, to see how far i can actually go without feeling tired. This may be 500metres.

However it has hit me now that 'backpack is king' for this particular race - its actually no big deal if i can knock out 80km in x time, becuase ill be running in 50 degrees heat with a heavy pack on - if i can run with ski clothes and a heavy pack, for 40+km at a time then actually getting a decent time will just be a bonus and reward from my good training.

Ok more later in the month, im not thinking about the fact that we are about to hit snow and minus temperatures. It could be perfect desert training. At least it will be too cold for muggers. (Kopli in fact isnt that bad, but i feel that its both good fun and tasteful to poke fun of poor areas)