Long time since last post; the main news of the past fortnight is that Andy has completed a successful Bob Graham, despite going through 'a bad patch' for most of the last 7 hours. His report, which is much better in his own words, is here: http://tickinghills.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/report-of-bob-graham-round.html
For my own benefit rather than for anyone else's, here's my training for the past two-ish weeks:
Thursday 22 March: Hidden Valley at Hamsterley, approximately 9 miles overall, with 4 reps up the long grassy hill. 2:43, 2:40, 2:35, 2:28. I think the first one was a bit cautious, but on the last one I wanted to beat 2:30 so Andy paced me on the way up, to good effect. Every time I caught him he increased the pace, which I realise was for my benefit rather than to annoy me. It worked a treat.
Friday 23 March: Rest
Saturday 24 March: An hour's swim in the morning, including 10 x 100m in 1:31, 1:31, 1:33, 1:33, 1:32, 1:30, 1:32, 1:31, 1:30 and 1:28. Quite pleased. Went up to my mum's in the afternoon then 11.7 miles of running from Ingram in the Cheviots. Beautiful beautiful day - warm and sunny and definitely shorts and t-shirt weather. I did the Brough Law fell race route twice, once as a warm up, then 3 miles high intensity, finishing up a brutish hill, then 3 miles jog back to the car to warm down.
Sunday 25 March: 75 miles of cycling from my mum's in Longframlington with David. Longframlington - Netherwitton - Elsdon - Alwinton - 25 miles on what the map describes as a dead-end road* to the Roman camps after Barrowburn - Alwinton - Netherton - Rothbury - Longframlington. Another brilliant day. We took it steady and stopped every 20ish miles for some food, but it was just brilliant to be out in such good weather.
* it turns out that when they're not shooting in the firing range, you can follow the road - albeit up a very steep hill - to Byrness and come out on the A68. One for the future.
Monday 26 March: 60 minutes of swimming. Steadyish.
Tuesday 27 March: hill reps up Roseberry Topping, plus one extra on the hill next to it. This was fairly ridiculous: I went straight from work, in broad daylight in glorious weather. I got out of the car and started my jog on the track that leads to the base of the hill. Unfortunately I got sidetracked by a fat man with no top on, getting quite angry that just because it was sunny he thought it was acceptable to bare his repugnant torso, and then, because I wasn't watching where I was going, I fell face first, like a primary school child, and massively scuffed my left knee and right arm. The offending man came over to ask if I was okay, so I managed to be polite and assure him that I was, thinking (but thoughtfully not saying) that if he'd only been wearing a t-shirt none of this sorry business would have happened, then jogged on for my warm up and hill reps. It was only later I realised I'd done a proper scuff and there was blood down my leg. It's still sore now, a week later. Farcical. Anyway, I did one run from the car park to the top of Roseberry Topping, which took 11 minutes 26, which wasn't quite as quick as I'd hoped, then 3 from the saddle up the grass, then one up the adjoining hill, just for fun.
Wednesday 28 March: Should have been 90 minutes of swimming but I appeared to have hurt my arm in my primary school fall, so got out after 70, having not acquitted myself very well. I couldn't do breaststroke because I couldn't bend my left knee properly, then couldn't do crawl because of my arm. I did kick for a while then got out.
Thursday 29 March: Brilliant morning run. I was on a course in the afternoon so went up to Hamsterley in the morning - more amazing weather - did a 4.5 mile warm up, then 4 x 0.95 mile loops in 5:46, 5:42, 5:43, 5:42. Hard work and not quite as fast as last time. Bit of a warm down made it 10 miles overall.
Friday 30 March: Rest. Off to Keswick to prepare for Andy's BG.
Saturday 31 March: The day of the BG attempt! Set off at 6am and I ran leg 1, coming in at about 9:33ish I think, 3 good hills, about 1800m of ascent.
Sunday 1 April: This doesn't really count but at about 4:25am I set off with Andy down the road stretch from Newlands to Keswick. It wasn't a run as such; more of a shuffle, but we arrived at Keswick at 5:36am.
Monday 2 April: An hour's swim, some reps, but mostly at 70ish% due to slightly fatigued post-BG pacing legs.
Et voila. Now we're on holiday so theoretically I should be making the most of the long days and lovely weather... but it's now snowing. Heading up to Crook track for some track training then a swim, which I admit holds little appeal given the sight of horizontal snow out of the window, but then again, it's not being fit that's hard, it's being hard that's hard...
Tuesday 3 April 2012
Wednesday 21 March 2012
Lad's Leap...
And so the day came to pass: Saturday was Lad's Leap, my first English Championship fell race. As mentioned at length in previous posts, I didn't quite feel prepared, but thought I'd give it a bash anyway, to get some idea of how I'm running.
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Don't remember this; think it must have been fine.
Tuesday - parents' evening, so had to run at 5:30am to get a bit of a jog in. Just 45 minutes of steady jogging on Cockfield fell. For some reason Andy declined to join me. Nice morning, actually. It left me feeling overly hyperactive for the day ahead. And unable to form a sentence fully by about 3pm, which wasn't ideal on a parents' evening day.
Wednesday - supposed to be swimming, but the sore throat/cold made something of a reappearance so I thought better of it given that I'd be racing at the weekend.
Thursday - 50ish minutes of jogging in a rather mince-y manner round Hamsterley while everyone else did hill reps, taking it easy before the race.
Friday - drove to Glossop to stay with Andy's parents. Ate lots of beef stew, mash, fruit and cake. I love a taper week and a pre-race meal.
Saturday - the race. 6.2 miles, 518m of ascent. 2 big climbs. 3rd at top of first hill, then a horrendous stretch through heather (really, I mean HORRENDOUS. It didn't suit me at all. Just deep heather and peat bogs, which is arduously energy sapping) and a vile descent, where I lost too much ground (in terms of the race: I didn't actually lose any ground). I need more terrain practice, and more descending practice. I have the speed on the ascent - although as always I think I can get faster - but I haven't done sufficient miles on rough terrain and in descent to be fully competitive overall. I simply haven't run enough: I need my running sessions to be more specifically focussed. Since January I feel like I've been fighting to keep 'basic' (in my sense of the word) fitness around work, dark nights and other weekend activities, running on average just 3 times a week, and not always of the right quality. Still, I was 9th overall and initially I'd said I'd be happy with top ten, so I can't be too disappointed. The thing that bothers me is having the fitness for the ascent and not enough of the rest at the moment. If I was 9th to the top of the first hill and 9th overall I don't think I'd be so bothered.
Sunday - 60 minutes of easy running on a lovely spring morning from Glossop, up a hill, where there were some quite quirky sheep with, frankly, RIDICULOUS fringes and wool patterns (some white, which I believe is standard, some brown and white, and some black and white, like Friesian sheep), and then back again to cook lunch for Andy's mum. Beef florentine and Queen of Puddings. Mmmm.
Monday - NO TRAINING due to parents' evening (giving a frightening number of days in 2012 where I've done no exercise, but I missed swimming and thought I might starve to death if I went straight after parents' evening at 8:30pm)
Tuesday - an hour on the North York Moors with some reps: 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute, 2 minute then 1 minute rep. Not particularly fast or long but I was at work until late-ish and my legs were still tired after Saturday, so it was better than nothing.
Et voila. Now I know what I need to focus on I want to gear up better for Coledale in April, so I need to reconsider my training to optimise my race readiness in the next month. In the meantime Andy potentially has a BG to run at the end of March...
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Don't remember this; think it must have been fine.
Tuesday - parents' evening, so had to run at 5:30am to get a bit of a jog in. Just 45 minutes of steady jogging on Cockfield fell. For some reason Andy declined to join me. Nice morning, actually. It left me feeling overly hyperactive for the day ahead. And unable to form a sentence fully by about 3pm, which wasn't ideal on a parents' evening day.
Wednesday - supposed to be swimming, but the sore throat/cold made something of a reappearance so I thought better of it given that I'd be racing at the weekend.
Thursday - 50ish minutes of jogging in a rather mince-y manner round Hamsterley while everyone else did hill reps, taking it easy before the race.
Friday - drove to Glossop to stay with Andy's parents. Ate lots of beef stew, mash, fruit and cake. I love a taper week and a pre-race meal.
Saturday - the race. 6.2 miles, 518m of ascent. 2 big climbs. 3rd at top of first hill, then a horrendous stretch through heather (really, I mean HORRENDOUS. It didn't suit me at all. Just deep heather and peat bogs, which is arduously energy sapping) and a vile descent, where I lost too much ground (in terms of the race: I didn't actually lose any ground). I need more terrain practice, and more descending practice. I have the speed on the ascent - although as always I think I can get faster - but I haven't done sufficient miles on rough terrain and in descent to be fully competitive overall. I simply haven't run enough: I need my running sessions to be more specifically focussed. Since January I feel like I've been fighting to keep 'basic' (in my sense of the word) fitness around work, dark nights and other weekend activities, running on average just 3 times a week, and not always of the right quality. Still, I was 9th overall and initially I'd said I'd be happy with top ten, so I can't be too disappointed. The thing that bothers me is having the fitness for the ascent and not enough of the rest at the moment. If I was 9th to the top of the first hill and 9th overall I don't think I'd be so bothered.
Sunday - 60 minutes of easy running on a lovely spring morning from Glossop, up a hill, where there were some quite quirky sheep with, frankly, RIDICULOUS fringes and wool patterns (some white, which I believe is standard, some brown and white, and some black and white, like Friesian sheep), and then back again to cook lunch for Andy's mum. Beef florentine and Queen of Puddings. Mmmm.
Monday - NO TRAINING due to parents' evening (giving a frightening number of days in 2012 where I've done no exercise, but I missed swimming and thought I might starve to death if I went straight after parents' evening at 8:30pm)
Tuesday - an hour on the North York Moors with some reps: 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minute, 2 minute then 1 minute rep. Not particularly fast or long but I was at work until late-ish and my legs were still tired after Saturday, so it was better than nothing.
Et voila. Now I know what I need to focus on I want to gear up better for Coledale in April, so I need to reconsider my training to optimise my race readiness in the next month. In the meantime Andy potentially has a BG to run at the end of March...
Sunday 11 March 2012
SHORTS AND T-SHIRT WEATHER!
The capitalisation of the title indicates quite how excited I was to be able to run in shorts and t-shirt yesterday, for the first time in 2012 and indeed the first time since about September 2011.
A summary of things from this week...
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Some drills, some backstroke, some breaststroke and some front crawl, all executed at a steady pace following Sunday's race.
Tuesday - ran on the North York Moors straight from work to try and get a bit of a run in daylight post-work for the first time since winter kicked in. I set off round the base of Rosebery Topping at 17:32 so managed until about 18:10 in daylight before I finally had to succumb to the torch. I jogged up Rosebery Topping and then went east, warmed up for about 30 minutes and then did 6 x 90s on a flattish bit and then a hillyish bit. Not super-intense - legs were still a bit tired after the race - but a nice stretch out. And then warmed down and jogged back to the car. I can't describe how pleasant it was to have done the first bit in the light. Treatarama.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. 20 x 100m off 2 minutes with 5 fast, 1 easy, 4 fast, 1 easy, 3 fast, 1 easy, 2 fast, 1 easy, 1 fast, 1 easy. One of my favourite sessions. Took a while to get into - first few were 1:34, which was a bit sluggish, then got slightly quicker. Last one was 1:27. Not bad but they should really all be 1:30 for such a session. Then some fast 50s and some hard 50s kick.
Thursday - parents' evening so couldn't train. Plus, developed a sore throat throughout the day. Somebody should have shot the carrier prior to the situation in which I caught the germs.
Friday - intention had been to do a rep session but with the aforementioned sore throat and associated cold it seemed prudent to rest. Made a very tasty creamy caramelly maltesery ginger nutty dessert instead. Mmm.
Saturday - woke up with a cold but it appeared to be fairly mild and I didn't feel chesty or particularly fuzzy, so I went swimming. Brad set a session but I swam very steadily for just over an hour, but was going so slowly it seemed sensible to get out instead of dragging it out for 90 minutes. Went home and the day was so beautifully springlike and pleasant that I went up to Hamsterley - in SHORTS AND T-SHIRT - to run. Ran up to Doctors Gate as part of my warm-up, although I had to take a slightly altered route due to heather burning. I didn't fancy my chances on a moor full of flames. I did a 5.5 mile warm up then found a 0.95 mile loop that had a steady hill, a flat bit, a steep bit of downhill and then a flattish bit. Brilliant fast loop. First loop 5:44, second 5:34, third 5:38. Hadn't planned to do a third but couldn't resist. 3 miles warm down meant it was 11.5 miles in total. Lovely running. Good to be doing something fast after two days off. I'm missing depth of quality at the moment so it was nice to have a lung buster.
Sunday - planned a 40ish mile hilly steady cycle up to Woodland, Stanhope, Wolsingham, Hamsterley and home. Breezy but not horrendously windy. Warm and mild with brilliant visibility. I was enjoying cycling at a gentle pace when I was caught by a man shortly after Woodland. He then said he would cycle the loop with me so despite him being a cyclist of significantly higher pedigree, he waited for me on the climbs and we went over the moors together. Despite him saying we could just go at my pace I didn't want to look like too much of a slow coach so exerted myself more than planned to keep up. I was also too embarrassed to ask for a food stop so did the 3 hours fasting. By the time he left me at Morley, after spending about 2 hours cycling with him - just 15 minutes from home - I could barely cycle. I was absolutely shattered and starving. Still, a pint of milk blended with a banana and some coffee essence worked a treat, with a slice of toast and a pint of Ribena and a pot of herbal tea. I'm hoping it doesn't linger in my legs but although I'm still - excuse the phrase - snotty, I don't feel like the cold is too much of a problem.
All in all a fair week: shame to have missed Thursday and Friday due to parents' evening/cold, but que sera sera.
Delighted spring has arrived and today it was an absolute marvel to cycle today without shoe covers, wearing just one pair of socks, no coat and FINGERLESS GLOVES. Whoop whoop.
Next weekend is Lad's Leap: I don't feel in amazing condition - I felt fitter for running in October - but I think I'm getting back on track and with a few weeks of quality training I should be more race ready. As such I'll see how next weekend goes: I shall try my hardest and see what happens.
A summary of things from this week...
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Some drills, some backstroke, some breaststroke and some front crawl, all executed at a steady pace following Sunday's race.
Tuesday - ran on the North York Moors straight from work to try and get a bit of a run in daylight post-work for the first time since winter kicked in. I set off round the base of Rosebery Topping at 17:32 so managed until about 18:10 in daylight before I finally had to succumb to the torch. I jogged up Rosebery Topping and then went east, warmed up for about 30 minutes and then did 6 x 90s on a flattish bit and then a hillyish bit. Not super-intense - legs were still a bit tired after the race - but a nice stretch out. And then warmed down and jogged back to the car. I can't describe how pleasant it was to have done the first bit in the light. Treatarama.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. 20 x 100m off 2 minutes with 5 fast, 1 easy, 4 fast, 1 easy, 3 fast, 1 easy, 2 fast, 1 easy, 1 fast, 1 easy. One of my favourite sessions. Took a while to get into - first few were 1:34, which was a bit sluggish, then got slightly quicker. Last one was 1:27. Not bad but they should really all be 1:30 for such a session. Then some fast 50s and some hard 50s kick.
Thursday - parents' evening so couldn't train. Plus, developed a sore throat throughout the day. Somebody should have shot the carrier prior to the situation in which I caught the germs.
Friday - intention had been to do a rep session but with the aforementioned sore throat and associated cold it seemed prudent to rest. Made a very tasty creamy caramelly maltesery ginger nutty dessert instead. Mmm.
Saturday - woke up with a cold but it appeared to be fairly mild and I didn't feel chesty or particularly fuzzy, so I went swimming. Brad set a session but I swam very steadily for just over an hour, but was going so slowly it seemed sensible to get out instead of dragging it out for 90 minutes. Went home and the day was so beautifully springlike and pleasant that I went up to Hamsterley - in SHORTS AND T-SHIRT - to run. Ran up to Doctors Gate as part of my warm-up, although I had to take a slightly altered route due to heather burning. I didn't fancy my chances on a moor full of flames. I did a 5.5 mile warm up then found a 0.95 mile loop that had a steady hill, a flat bit, a steep bit of downhill and then a flattish bit. Brilliant fast loop. First loop 5:44, second 5:34, third 5:38. Hadn't planned to do a third but couldn't resist. 3 miles warm down meant it was 11.5 miles in total. Lovely running. Good to be doing something fast after two days off. I'm missing depth of quality at the moment so it was nice to have a lung buster.
Sunday - planned a 40ish mile hilly steady cycle up to Woodland, Stanhope, Wolsingham, Hamsterley and home. Breezy but not horrendously windy. Warm and mild with brilliant visibility. I was enjoying cycling at a gentle pace when I was caught by a man shortly after Woodland. He then said he would cycle the loop with me so despite him being a cyclist of significantly higher pedigree, he waited for me on the climbs and we went over the moors together. Despite him saying we could just go at my pace I didn't want to look like too much of a slow coach so exerted myself more than planned to keep up. I was also too embarrassed to ask for a food stop so did the 3 hours fasting. By the time he left me at Morley, after spending about 2 hours cycling with him - just 15 minutes from home - I could barely cycle. I was absolutely shattered and starving. Still, a pint of milk blended with a banana and some coffee essence worked a treat, with a slice of toast and a pint of Ribena and a pot of herbal tea. I'm hoping it doesn't linger in my legs but although I'm still - excuse the phrase - snotty, I don't feel like the cold is too much of a problem.
All in all a fair week: shame to have missed Thursday and Friday due to parents' evening/cold, but que sera sera.
Delighted spring has arrived and today it was an absolute marvel to cycle today without shoe covers, wearing just one pair of socks, no coat and FINGERLESS GLOVES. Whoop whoop.
Next weekend is Lad's Leap: I don't feel in amazing condition - I felt fitter for running in October - but I think I'm getting back on track and with a few weeks of quality training I should be more race ready. As such I'll see how next weekend goes: I shall try my hardest and see what happens.
Sunday 4 March 2012
A sniff of spring.
It was nice in the past week to think spring was finally arriving, with milder weather and noticeably more daylight. This, however, appears to have been cruelly taken away today, which I think was in direct response to me saying yesterday, "The good thing about March arriving is that we shouldn't get much more snow or ice." Ha. As always, I was wrong.
A summary of the week:
Monday 27 February - 60 minutes of swimming. As usual, I have no recollection of this. It must have been okay.
Tuesday 28 February - not a great night of training. Andy was climbing so I set out to Cockfield Fell on my own. However, there appeared to be some sort of freak weirdo on the fell with a very bright torch, who kept shining it at me, then turning it off, then shining it at the graveyard, then turning it off, and not really moving. I jogged on anyway but then got the heebie-jeebies after he (I'm making an assumption here it was a man; it may of course have been a woman, but we'll assume not) shone it at me for a good few seconds. I turned round to jog back down to the stile to run on the road, and his torchlight followed me all the way back. This was quite disconcerting, so I went on the road, warmed up for 20 minutes, did 6 x 60s fast on the road, then warmed down, did a few jumpy/hoppy plyometric things, then went home. This took about an hour in total: not enough, and not of high enough quality, but it was late and my initial plan was foiled so it was better than nothing. Henceforth I shall be training on the North York Moors on a Tuesday straight after work, in order to try and squash in a training session before it gets pitch dark.
Wednesday 29 February - 90 minutes of swimming. This went well: we did a pyramid of backstroke which was something of a shock to my system. Normally I replace part of this with crawl but I thought I should persist with backstroke so did 4 x 50m, 2 x 75m, 1 x 150m, 2 x 75m and then 4 x 50m. This is the most uninterrupted backstroke I have ever done, and it was part of about 130ish lengths. Nice bit of variation and although the word 'fun' is perhaps overrating it, I quite enjoyed it.
Thursday 1 March - Hamsterley Forest. The club was doing 6 x 10mins of hill reps, with a minute between each set. I wanted to warm up properly with lungey skippy things and some strides, so joined in partway through the second set of 10 minutes, then did the next three sets, and didn't do the last one. I thought it was best to play safe after last week's Achilles problem.
Friday 2 March - rest.
Saturday 3 March - 60 minutes of very easy swimming and drills, and 40 miles of cycling with David. This was a slightly longer version of the route I did a few days before Christmas when I was blown off, and although it was breezy, it was quite a treat to never feel at any time like I was going to be blown into a ditch. I did the whole thing with just a banana for sustenance, which left me quite hungry at the end but which was quite encouraging. It rained horrendously for the first half hour and we thought the whole thing might be cold, wet and miserable, but then it dried up and was genuinely a pleasant spring day for the afternoon. It was an absolute treat to go out again on a reasonable length bike ride in relatively pleasant weather.
Sunday 4 March - Brough Law fell race in Northumberland. 5 miles, 400m-ish of ascent. I went off quite fast and Will said that if I kept it up I would get a course record, but then some of the leading men went the wrong way and there was a bit of route confusion, which meant I lost focus a bit. Fortunately I was within earshot of Will for when the men went the wrong way further on, so I took the right route. Nice grassy runnable route, weather not so pleasant. Freezing. Although, actually, it was snowing a bit when I woke up, so it could have been worse. During the race we were troubled with a bit of rain but not torrential, and visibility was good. I think I could have gone slightly faster but I was first woman and got the course record by over a minute so I can't complain. It did, however, take about an hour for my feet to defrost, and talking to Denise and Lou at the end my face started to actually freeze.
All in all it's been a fair week, and I feel like I'm getting back on track. Now I need more quality intense sessions if I want to do well at the Championship races; I don't think I'll be in peak form for Lad's Leap in 2 weeks but I feel like I'm getting there. I plan for a hard week this week, and then a few days of tapering before then. I do love a justified taper.
A summary of the week:
Monday 27 February - 60 minutes of swimming. As usual, I have no recollection of this. It must have been okay.
Tuesday 28 February - not a great night of training. Andy was climbing so I set out to Cockfield Fell on my own. However, there appeared to be some sort of freak weirdo on the fell with a very bright torch, who kept shining it at me, then turning it off, then shining it at the graveyard, then turning it off, and not really moving. I jogged on anyway but then got the heebie-jeebies after he (I'm making an assumption here it was a man; it may of course have been a woman, but we'll assume not) shone it at me for a good few seconds. I turned round to jog back down to the stile to run on the road, and his torchlight followed me all the way back. This was quite disconcerting, so I went on the road, warmed up for 20 minutes, did 6 x 60s fast on the road, then warmed down, did a few jumpy/hoppy plyometric things, then went home. This took about an hour in total: not enough, and not of high enough quality, but it was late and my initial plan was foiled so it was better than nothing. Henceforth I shall be training on the North York Moors on a Tuesday straight after work, in order to try and squash in a training session before it gets pitch dark.
Wednesday 29 February - 90 minutes of swimming. This went well: we did a pyramid of backstroke which was something of a shock to my system. Normally I replace part of this with crawl but I thought I should persist with backstroke so did 4 x 50m, 2 x 75m, 1 x 150m, 2 x 75m and then 4 x 50m. This is the most uninterrupted backstroke I have ever done, and it was part of about 130ish lengths. Nice bit of variation and although the word 'fun' is perhaps overrating it, I quite enjoyed it.
Thursday 1 March - Hamsterley Forest. The club was doing 6 x 10mins of hill reps, with a minute between each set. I wanted to warm up properly with lungey skippy things and some strides, so joined in partway through the second set of 10 minutes, then did the next three sets, and didn't do the last one. I thought it was best to play safe after last week's Achilles problem.
Friday 2 March - rest.
Saturday 3 March - 60 minutes of very easy swimming and drills, and 40 miles of cycling with David. This was a slightly longer version of the route I did a few days before Christmas when I was blown off, and although it was breezy, it was quite a treat to never feel at any time like I was going to be blown into a ditch. I did the whole thing with just a banana for sustenance, which left me quite hungry at the end but which was quite encouraging. It rained horrendously for the first half hour and we thought the whole thing might be cold, wet and miserable, but then it dried up and was genuinely a pleasant spring day for the afternoon. It was an absolute treat to go out again on a reasonable length bike ride in relatively pleasant weather.
Sunday 4 March - Brough Law fell race in Northumberland. 5 miles, 400m-ish of ascent. I went off quite fast and Will said that if I kept it up I would get a course record, but then some of the leading men went the wrong way and there was a bit of route confusion, which meant I lost focus a bit. Fortunately I was within earshot of Will for when the men went the wrong way further on, so I took the right route. Nice grassy runnable route, weather not so pleasant. Freezing. Although, actually, it was snowing a bit when I woke up, so it could have been worse. During the race we were troubled with a bit of rain but not torrential, and visibility was good. I think I could have gone slightly faster but I was first woman and got the course record by over a minute so I can't complain. It did, however, take about an hour for my feet to defrost, and talking to Denise and Lou at the end my face started to actually freeze.
All in all it's been a fair week, and I feel like I'm getting back on track. Now I need more quality intense sessions if I want to do well at the Championship races; I don't think I'll be in peak form for Lad's Leap in 2 weeks but I feel like I'm getting there. I plan for a hard week this week, and then a few days of tapering before then. I do love a justified taper.
Sunday 26 February 2012
An enormous boon.
Well well well; having just glanced at the calendar and my last post, it appears to be almost a full month since I last wrote. This is for several reasons, chiefly among which are that towards the end of January/beginning of February work was busy, I was tired, didn't have enough rest and so although I was still training, I didn't feel like it was of sufficient quality - or, in some cases, length - and as such had no desire to stew over it further by committing it to the internet.
This built up towards the end of half term, meaning that on the Thursday before I broke up for the holidays, I got changed ready to go training at Hamsterley, drove a mile or two up the road, then evaluated the situation: I was yawning profusely, the road was icy, it was raining, it was pitch black (obviously, because it was nearly 7pm in mid-February, but in addition to the above moans, I was getting tired of running in the dark after work) and I was well aware that at Hamsterley the ground would still be largely covered in snow and ice. And so, having made such a convincing case not to go training (to myself, not to anyone else), I turned around, went home, made some pork stroganoff and then a generously proportioned cocoa with a billowing cloud of whipped cream and a blanket of marshmallows, and a glug of Baileys in the bottom of the mug. It was delicious.
And then it was Friday, the last day of half term, and I was aware I should go for some sort of trot, but couldn't be bothered so didn't. Hence I had two consecutive days off - for the second time in January - and felt quite sluggish. On the other hand, I always find training good fun, which is how it should be. When it becomes a chore, although I firmly believe that to improve you have to force yourself out even when you'd rather sit on the sofa in a warm room, I think there's an equally valid case for taking the odd day off for both a mental and physical rest. The good thing after my two days off was that when half term kicked off on the Saturday, I woke up feeling energetic and full of joie de vivre again and so went out for both a swim and a run. In 13 days I did 14 training sessions - not following my usual pattern since I was on holiday - but they were a mix of steady and quality and although I feel as though I've still lost some fitness, it was nice to have rediscovered my mojo (I loathe the word 'mojo', but it appears appropriate here).
And so, in the past week, I have accomplished the following (I'm obviously not going to go back through the past 4 weeks. That would firstly be dull, and secondly make my brain hurt with powers of recall, and I can smell beef bourgignon and gammon in cider cooking so this blogging malarkey already feels like an inconvenience but I feel I ought to record something to make me seriously consider how much training I've been doing):
Saturday 18 Feb: a whopping 30 minutes of swimming. This would ordinarily be more but I had to get the train to London before 9am from Darlington so I just squashed in 30 minutes before I had to dash to the station. Still, quality is better than quantity etc. so I warmed up, blasted 8 x 50m off 90s, did a few drills and then got out. Although 8 x 50m is hardly anything, they were fast by my standards and actually rendered me speechless. This is a good thing. And then I raced to the station, met my mum on the train, and spent most of the rest of the weekend eating. We went Michel Roux Jr's new restaurant for dinner, where we treated ourselves... or rather my mum treated us... to the seven-course tasting menu. My 30 minutes of swimming, regardless of how intense the 50s were, certainly did not burn off sufficient calories to compensate for the seven courses of tastiness.
Sunday 19 Feb: 9 miles or so with Alastair in London. This was largely uninspirational: I ran from our hotel to Alastair's flat, up the not-very-scenic Caledonian Road, past the pool where I used to swim every Wednesday night, where someone's bike would be pinched without fail each week, and up past the Emirates stadium. We jogged up to Finsbury Park and pootled round two laps - not fast, probably about 9-minute mile pace - and then back to Alastair's flat and then the hotel. We went out for breakfast, where my mum and I had a deliciously creamy omelette Arnold Bennett (this is of no interest to anyone other than me, but I've been loosely intending to have a well-made omelette Arnold Bennett for about four years now, so this was the culmination of a long-term idle project), half a stack of pancakes, half a chocolate and raisin brioche, and half a cinnamon bun. Mmm. Lovely.
Monday 20 Feb: 60 minutes of swimming. I don't recall this at all. I presume it must have been okay.
Tuesday 21 Feb: I struggle on Tuesdays, because I usually get home about 6:45, and have more work to do when I get back, and so although it should be a quality running day, I don't usually find I do the quality that I require. I went out for a bit of a jog and had a plan to do some strides partway through. My Achilles and heel were a bit sore which presumably was due to the miles done on tarmac in London. I jogged up to the top of Cockfield fell, where a horse did a strikingly good impression of a llama in the dark, and the wind was so loud and there were so many dogs barking that I convinced myself the Hound of the Baskervilles was about to come hurtling towards me. I jogged down to the old railway line where the wind was howling and did 4 x 60s strides into the wind, then turned around and practically flew back home with a tailwind.
Wednesday 22 Feb: 90 minutes of swimming. Was lacking a bit in motivation for this so I recall performing adequately but it was nothing of note.
Thursday 23 Feb: DFR were on tour at Chester le Street but having driven back from Guisborough I didn't fancy another drive out, and Andy had work to do so we just drove up to Hamsterley. I wanted to do 8 miles fast-ish but my Achilles and heel weren't in agreement so having jogged up to Doctors Gate and a bit beyond we had to walk back. This was a fairly boring process, because it was raining, and hence a bit cold, and walking back naturally takes much longer than jogging. Andy jogged back from Hamsterley to get some miles in; I came home and ate some lamb mince with celeriac mash and then perked up remarkably when I remembered we had some left over rice pudding in the fridge.
Friday 24 Feb: Day off, first day off in 14 days, padded around work in my Vibram 5 Fingers in an effort to sort out my Achilles.
Saturday 25 Feb: I thought it was perhaps a gamble to run so soon after Thursday's debacle but we were in the Peak District visiting Andy's sister and her husband's new baby, and being in the Peak District it seems a shame not to go for a run. We went out for an hour, on soft ground to begin with and then on paving stones further up on our way to Kinder Plateau. Lovely run out - clear day, could see for miles, we put a bit of effort in on a couple of the hills and otherwise just enjoyed being out jogging. Achilles seemed okay so that was clearly an enormous boon, and we're always on the lookout for enormous boons (see Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry's travelling poetry bag sketch from the eighties for that quote in its full hilarious context).
Sunday 26 Feb: 60ish minutes of swimming. Given my concerns re. my current levels of fitness, I was keen to do a bit of a swimming time trial to see how I'm swimming. We do a lot of reps at swimming but very rarely a time trial, and I've never timed myself over 100m or 200m as a one-off, and I've decided out of curiosity it's something I'd like to do once a month or so to measure any improvement/retardation. Michael from the club swam this morning too so he could time me and make it more accurate... I just wanted to do 100m today, which I did in 1:24, 40s for the first 50m and 44s for the second 50. Clearly this is something that a proper swimmer would snort at, but I was moderately pleased. However, I think getting down to 1:22 in the next month or so is an achievable target, possibly. It was public lane swimming this morning so doing anything proper after that was difficult since it was fairly busy but I went through a few drills and then, at the end, decided to try another timed swim. That was 1:26, so given how tired I was after the first one I was pleased. Again, I was rendered speechless for quite a while afterwards. And then, this afternoon, I thought I'd make the most of the fact that it was a clear and mild day to go for my first bike ride in weeks and weeks and weeks. I haven't really cycled properly since New Year's Eve. Anyway, on reacquainting myself with my bike I realised that:
a) I had washed it in January, quite thoroughly, so it was gleaming;
b) I had it serviced in January, and new brakes;
c) I had new wheels put on it in January, which have red bits on and hence afford a psychological boost.
All of the above was a very pleasant surprise. It was also mild enough to not wear shoe covers, for the first time in months. Treatarama. I had just planned 21ish miles to remind myself where the pedals were, where the gears were, but due to the extremely boring [goddess of weather, please take note] wind on the moors I cut it short and so it turned out to be 19.3. Really, I'm getting quite sick of such strong winds. I have no objection to winds that just turn a normal cycle into something more arduous, but when you have to fight to stay on the right side of the road, not end up in the verge, and not on the floor, it becomes tiresome and very very dull.
And so I feel like I'm perhaps getting back on track. I may race 5 miles next weekend in Northumberland but will cycle and swim on Saturday because I'm looking to do 2 hard weeks and then a taper week before Lad's Leap in March.
Piffle, this is a long blog post. Time to look at some beef and some gammon instead.
This built up towards the end of half term, meaning that on the Thursday before I broke up for the holidays, I got changed ready to go training at Hamsterley, drove a mile or two up the road, then evaluated the situation: I was yawning profusely, the road was icy, it was raining, it was pitch black (obviously, because it was nearly 7pm in mid-February, but in addition to the above moans, I was getting tired of running in the dark after work) and I was well aware that at Hamsterley the ground would still be largely covered in snow and ice. And so, having made such a convincing case not to go training (to myself, not to anyone else), I turned around, went home, made some pork stroganoff and then a generously proportioned cocoa with a billowing cloud of whipped cream and a blanket of marshmallows, and a glug of Baileys in the bottom of the mug. It was delicious.
And then it was Friday, the last day of half term, and I was aware I should go for some sort of trot, but couldn't be bothered so didn't. Hence I had two consecutive days off - for the second time in January - and felt quite sluggish. On the other hand, I always find training good fun, which is how it should be. When it becomes a chore, although I firmly believe that to improve you have to force yourself out even when you'd rather sit on the sofa in a warm room, I think there's an equally valid case for taking the odd day off for both a mental and physical rest. The good thing after my two days off was that when half term kicked off on the Saturday, I woke up feeling energetic and full of joie de vivre again and so went out for both a swim and a run. In 13 days I did 14 training sessions - not following my usual pattern since I was on holiday - but they were a mix of steady and quality and although I feel as though I've still lost some fitness, it was nice to have rediscovered my mojo (I loathe the word 'mojo', but it appears appropriate here).
And so, in the past week, I have accomplished the following (I'm obviously not going to go back through the past 4 weeks. That would firstly be dull, and secondly make my brain hurt with powers of recall, and I can smell beef bourgignon and gammon in cider cooking so this blogging malarkey already feels like an inconvenience but I feel I ought to record something to make me seriously consider how much training I've been doing):
Saturday 18 Feb: a whopping 30 minutes of swimming. This would ordinarily be more but I had to get the train to London before 9am from Darlington so I just squashed in 30 minutes before I had to dash to the station. Still, quality is better than quantity etc. so I warmed up, blasted 8 x 50m off 90s, did a few drills and then got out. Although 8 x 50m is hardly anything, they were fast by my standards and actually rendered me speechless. This is a good thing. And then I raced to the station, met my mum on the train, and spent most of the rest of the weekend eating. We went Michel Roux Jr's new restaurant for dinner, where we treated ourselves... or rather my mum treated us... to the seven-course tasting menu. My 30 minutes of swimming, regardless of how intense the 50s were, certainly did not burn off sufficient calories to compensate for the seven courses of tastiness.
Sunday 19 Feb: 9 miles or so with Alastair in London. This was largely uninspirational: I ran from our hotel to Alastair's flat, up the not-very-scenic Caledonian Road, past the pool where I used to swim every Wednesday night, where someone's bike would be pinched without fail each week, and up past the Emirates stadium. We jogged up to Finsbury Park and pootled round two laps - not fast, probably about 9-minute mile pace - and then back to Alastair's flat and then the hotel. We went out for breakfast, where my mum and I had a deliciously creamy omelette Arnold Bennett (this is of no interest to anyone other than me, but I've been loosely intending to have a well-made omelette Arnold Bennett for about four years now, so this was the culmination of a long-term idle project), half a stack of pancakes, half a chocolate and raisin brioche, and half a cinnamon bun. Mmm. Lovely.
Monday 20 Feb: 60 minutes of swimming. I don't recall this at all. I presume it must have been okay.
Tuesday 21 Feb: I struggle on Tuesdays, because I usually get home about 6:45, and have more work to do when I get back, and so although it should be a quality running day, I don't usually find I do the quality that I require. I went out for a bit of a jog and had a plan to do some strides partway through. My Achilles and heel were a bit sore which presumably was due to the miles done on tarmac in London. I jogged up to the top of Cockfield fell, where a horse did a strikingly good impression of a llama in the dark, and the wind was so loud and there were so many dogs barking that I convinced myself the Hound of the Baskervilles was about to come hurtling towards me. I jogged down to the old railway line where the wind was howling and did 4 x 60s strides into the wind, then turned around and practically flew back home with a tailwind.
Wednesday 22 Feb: 90 minutes of swimming. Was lacking a bit in motivation for this so I recall performing adequately but it was nothing of note.
Thursday 23 Feb: DFR were on tour at Chester le Street but having driven back from Guisborough I didn't fancy another drive out, and Andy had work to do so we just drove up to Hamsterley. I wanted to do 8 miles fast-ish but my Achilles and heel weren't in agreement so having jogged up to Doctors Gate and a bit beyond we had to walk back. This was a fairly boring process, because it was raining, and hence a bit cold, and walking back naturally takes much longer than jogging. Andy jogged back from Hamsterley to get some miles in; I came home and ate some lamb mince with celeriac mash and then perked up remarkably when I remembered we had some left over rice pudding in the fridge.
Friday 24 Feb: Day off, first day off in 14 days, padded around work in my Vibram 5 Fingers in an effort to sort out my Achilles.
Saturday 25 Feb: I thought it was perhaps a gamble to run so soon after Thursday's debacle but we were in the Peak District visiting Andy's sister and her husband's new baby, and being in the Peak District it seems a shame not to go for a run. We went out for an hour, on soft ground to begin with and then on paving stones further up on our way to Kinder Plateau. Lovely run out - clear day, could see for miles, we put a bit of effort in on a couple of the hills and otherwise just enjoyed being out jogging. Achilles seemed okay so that was clearly an enormous boon, and we're always on the lookout for enormous boons (see Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry's travelling poetry bag sketch from the eighties for that quote in its full hilarious context).
Sunday 26 Feb: 60ish minutes of swimming. Given my concerns re. my current levels of fitness, I was keen to do a bit of a swimming time trial to see how I'm swimming. We do a lot of reps at swimming but very rarely a time trial, and I've never timed myself over 100m or 200m as a one-off, and I've decided out of curiosity it's something I'd like to do once a month or so to measure any improvement/retardation. Michael from the club swam this morning too so he could time me and make it more accurate... I just wanted to do 100m today, which I did in 1:24, 40s for the first 50m and 44s for the second 50. Clearly this is something that a proper swimmer would snort at, but I was moderately pleased. However, I think getting down to 1:22 in the next month or so is an achievable target, possibly. It was public lane swimming this morning so doing anything proper after that was difficult since it was fairly busy but I went through a few drills and then, at the end, decided to try another timed swim. That was 1:26, so given how tired I was after the first one I was pleased. Again, I was rendered speechless for quite a while afterwards. And then, this afternoon, I thought I'd make the most of the fact that it was a clear and mild day to go for my first bike ride in weeks and weeks and weeks. I haven't really cycled properly since New Year's Eve. Anyway, on reacquainting myself with my bike I realised that:
a) I had washed it in January, quite thoroughly, so it was gleaming;
b) I had it serviced in January, and new brakes;
c) I had new wheels put on it in January, which have red bits on and hence afford a psychological boost.
All of the above was a very pleasant surprise. It was also mild enough to not wear shoe covers, for the first time in months. Treatarama. I had just planned 21ish miles to remind myself where the pedals were, where the gears were, but due to the extremely boring [goddess of weather, please take note] wind on the moors I cut it short and so it turned out to be 19.3. Really, I'm getting quite sick of such strong winds. I have no objection to winds that just turn a normal cycle into something more arduous, but when you have to fight to stay on the right side of the road, not end up in the verge, and not on the floor, it becomes tiresome and very very dull.
And so I feel like I'm perhaps getting back on track. I may race 5 miles next weekend in Northumberland but will cycle and swim on Saturday because I'm looking to do 2 hard weeks and then a taper week before Lad's Leap in March.
Piffle, this is a long blog post. Time to look at some beef and some gammon instead.
Friday 27 January 2012
A day off.
I write this feeling like I have let myself down. I don't train on a Friday, because it's a nice night to come home from work and not execute a 15-minute hot beverage/toast turnaround to go out training. It is a night in which I could, if I chose, watch The One Show followed by Eastenders, or whatever it is the average population member does after work.
A Friday off is normally fine, because ordinarily I train once or twice on a Saturday. However, tomorrow we go to London to eat meat fruit at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, and to see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. This means that unless I fancy training at, say, 5:30am, I will be having a Saturday off. A 5:30am start on a Saturday is unappealing, particularly after continuing to suffer the after-effects of not sleeping enough on Andy's 30th weekend (his 30th birthday weekend, not his actual thirtieth weekend. That would make him less than a year old, which would make our marriage socially unacceptable and, moreover, illegal). All of this serves as a pathetic way to say I am taking two consecutive days off. This is why I am disappointed in myself.
So, aside from this, here's the week's training:
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Swam well, very hard, nicely elevated heart rate for most of the session. No faster, fitter, men in my lane this week to make me feel inadequate.
Tuesday - should have been a good warm-up run, a speed session, and a good warm-down. On Tuesday I can't deny that I was SHATTERED after the weekend, could hardly stay awake on the way home, had to take a longer route to and from work due to excessively dull roadworks in Darlington, and couldn't be bothered to go out. I therefore modified to do about 25 minutes (maybe even just 20?) warm-up, 4 x 60s fast, and a 10-15 minute jog back home. Better than nothing, but not enough.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. Used fins for the first 2 x 400m. Naturally much faster, and they made me VERY out of breath. This is a good thing. No-one else enjoys me using them though: the wash remains a problem for the other swimmers. Took them off for the remainder of the session.
Thursday - DFR on tour! This month, we showcased the north east's premier off-road running venue: Cockfield fell. 11 of us met at Cockfield Co-op (where the local youths hang out, on their tiny bikes with their tiny hairless dogs), did an 8 mile run round the fell including all the old slag heaps, and threw a good 6 minute hill rep in the middle. I followed Duncan's feet almost to the top of the rep but I think he had 10s on me at the top, and he didn't appear to be as fatigued as I was. I beat Andy, but he wasn't at maximum effort.
Friday - risotto, braised red cabbage, Celebrations, some crisps.
Other things that have happened this week include the following:
"It was my husband's 30th birthday last weekend."
"Was it? Are you 30 as well Fiona?"
From this I can only infer that I require more sleep, some of that moisturiser that professes to remove all wrinkles after one application, a haircut and perhaps some more highlights.
And the news that not only do I behave like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory (emotionally retarded, unable to understand humour or sarcasm, asexual), but that I also look a bit like him. This is peculiar, because he is a brown-haired American male.
And I lost control of my vehicle on a minor icy road this morning, almost hit a van, but managed last-minute to divert into a gateway and stopped upon hitting the grassy verge. I tried to make it look planned, casual and cool, but I think my heart rate shot up to above 200. Does that sort of heart activity count as training?
A Friday off is normally fine, because ordinarily I train once or twice on a Saturday. However, tomorrow we go to London to eat meat fruit at Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, and to see Cirque du Soleil at the Royal Albert Hall. This means that unless I fancy training at, say, 5:30am, I will be having a Saturday off. A 5:30am start on a Saturday is unappealing, particularly after continuing to suffer the after-effects of not sleeping enough on Andy's 30th weekend (his 30th birthday weekend, not his actual thirtieth weekend. That would make him less than a year old, which would make our marriage socially unacceptable and, moreover, illegal). All of this serves as a pathetic way to say I am taking two consecutive days off. This is why I am disappointed in myself.
So, aside from this, here's the week's training:
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming. Swam well, very hard, nicely elevated heart rate for most of the session. No faster, fitter, men in my lane this week to make me feel inadequate.
Tuesday - should have been a good warm-up run, a speed session, and a good warm-down. On Tuesday I can't deny that I was SHATTERED after the weekend, could hardly stay awake on the way home, had to take a longer route to and from work due to excessively dull roadworks in Darlington, and couldn't be bothered to go out. I therefore modified to do about 25 minutes (maybe even just 20?) warm-up, 4 x 60s fast, and a 10-15 minute jog back home. Better than nothing, but not enough.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. Used fins for the first 2 x 400m. Naturally much faster, and they made me VERY out of breath. This is a good thing. No-one else enjoys me using them though: the wash remains a problem for the other swimmers. Took them off for the remainder of the session.
Thursday - DFR on tour! This month, we showcased the north east's premier off-road running venue: Cockfield fell. 11 of us met at Cockfield Co-op (where the local youths hang out, on their tiny bikes with their tiny hairless dogs), did an 8 mile run round the fell including all the old slag heaps, and threw a good 6 minute hill rep in the middle. I followed Duncan's feet almost to the top of the rep but I think he had 10s on me at the top, and he didn't appear to be as fatigued as I was. I beat Andy, but he wasn't at maximum effort.
Friday - risotto, braised red cabbage, Celebrations, some crisps.
Other things that have happened this week include the following:
"It was my husband's 30th birthday last weekend."
"Was it? Are you 30 as well Fiona?"
From this I can only infer that I require more sleep, some of that moisturiser that professes to remove all wrinkles after one application, a haircut and perhaps some more highlights.
And the news that not only do I behave like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory (emotionally retarded, unable to understand humour or sarcasm, asexual), but that I also look a bit like him. This is peculiar, because he is a brown-haired American male.
And I lost control of my vehicle on a minor icy road this morning, almost hit a van, but managed last-minute to divert into a gateway and stopped upon hitting the grassy verge. I tried to make it look planned, casual and cool, but I think my heart rate shot up to above 200. Does that sort of heart activity count as training?
Sunday 22 January 2012
Severe buffering.
This week has ended WELL. It started with snoozy legs (inevitably, after a race), and ended with a 30@30 triumph for Andy.
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming, had to take it very easy after Sunday's race. I had tired legs, making pushing off the wall somewhat difficult. I had to move into a different lane because Patrick and Steven in my lane are both younger, male and significantly faster than me and I was intimidated.
Tuesday - an hour's easy run with Andy with 5 moderate 2-minute hill reps, worked stiffness out of legs nicely.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. Back on form, felt very strong, strongest swim I've had for a while. Tip top. Used my new fins for 4 x 50m and it was brilliant, although nobody appreciated the amount of wash that they created. I have yet to decide how to respond to this. Clearly I don't want to stoke the ire of fellow swimmers, but they definitely aid quad strength and cardio work. We'll see how it pans out.
Thursday - ran 6 miles-ish Doctors Gate loop at Hamsterley. One hill exertion where first Mike, then Brian, then Liam tried to pull away, meaning that it ended up being quite a race. Still, it was good to have a bit of a raised heart rate in an otherwise very pleasant run out.
Friday - fish and chips, nigh on 100g of Galaxy, cookie, flapjack... frankly, an overly large portion of food for one woman who knew she had another meal (namely breakfast) just round the corner, and the only thing in between said meals would be a night of unstressful sleep. As it turned out, actually, the sleep wasn't as plentiful as expected, due to having: a) a coffee at 6pm, and b) two cups of tea with my fish and chips at 7pm. This was not a wise move for someone who normally doesn't caffeinate after 6pm. As predicted, I was still awake at 2am, well aware that I would be getting up at 6am to prepare for Andy's 30@30, and VERY aware that the amount of sleep I would be getting was inadequate.
Saturday - Andy's 30@30! It was Andy's actual 30th birthday so we all got up at 6, ready to breakfast before starting running at 7:15. Initially Leg 1 was supposed to be Andy (obvs), me, Jim, Duncan, Pippa, Joe, Mike, Brian and Liam. Joe couldn't make it and Mike, Brian and Liam had decided on Thursday they couldn't run in the Lakes today... As it was, Andy, me, Jim, Duncan and Pippa set off. Pippa's leg wasn't happy to be running so she had to turn back, so the remaining four of us plodded on through Leg 1. Visibility was excellent, the wind less so. Unbelievably windy, making mobility very difficult at times, as they like to say on the MWIS weather forecast. A few times I was blown off course or had to stand still to stabilise myself against a gust. It was blowing my eyelashes inwards so they were poking into my eyes, and swirling snot out of my nose and depositing it on my face. Not cool. Despite all this, it was a great run out on leg 1 - 12 hills (or Wainwrights... some of them didn't have a great amount of prominence) - and about 15 miles, covered in about 3 hours 30ish.
At Kirkstone Pass we had soup and chips, and a random sheep farmer bored everyone to death with a few substandard magic tricks. Having recommended a coffee shop in Ambleside to Gill and I (we weren't going to Ambleside, but this didn't seem to bother him), just Andy and Jim set off on Leg 2 to do the remaining 18 peaks and about 20 miles of running. Wind was atrocious, and it was raining quite heavily. Not ideal.
Having mentioned in passing that I had wet feet (thank you 'waterproof' socks for once again allowing water in after approximately 3 minutes of running), the magician man grabbed my attention by shouting across the room "Oi! Oi! Oi! Wet feet, you say? You just need to dry them, and change into dry socks." Brilliant. Once I'd learnt this - something I'd been ignorantly unaware of previously - I mentioned to Gill I might like to go back to the camping barn to shower, and then wash and dry my feet, and then change into dry socks, and even dry shoes. The camping barn had a rather sweet feature in that the shower was actually 2 showers together, behind a glass door, that anyone could see through. No locks. Anyone who wanted to go to the toilet or wash their hands could quite freely gander at whomsoever was showering. Despite the barn being empty at the time, I asked Gill if she wouldn't mind being on guard just in case anyone else came back and decided to wander through. I managed to get my coveted dry feet.
We went for coffee in the afternoon and happened upon the aforementioned Mike, Brian and Liam getting a sausage sandwich. They'd run part of Leg 3 of the BG.
And then we went to wait for Andy and Jim to return from their run. Jim had tweeted a bit in the morning (including a tweet declaring there was severe buffering... he actually meant buffeting, but we can't ridicule him for spelling mistakes when he was attempting to tweet in 70mph winds on a cold January day), but we hadn't heard anything all afternoon. Given the extreme wind we hoped they'd be fine, and indeed on schedule. They were scheduled to finish at 17:08 and they arrived at 17:12, which was pretty much bang on time, especially given the 5 minute delayed start due to miscellaneous faffage. 30 peaks, aged 30, about 36 miles, in 9 hours 51. Brilliant. Very pleased for him.
Sunday training - I hadn't initially planned to do anything, since I don't usually run 2 days in a row, but Jim was going out for an easy hour(ish) so we jogged from the camping barn along the old coach road round the base of Clough Head to Threlkeld. About 7-8 miles, into a headwind, but after yesterday's endeavours the wind, although nominally quite strong, didn't feel like a problem at all. It wasn't actively blowing us over and we could stand upright, so by comparison it was calm.
And that's it for this week: I now have a 30 year old husband, and have had a good solid week's training. I've also consumed sufficient calories in the past 48 hours to last me until at least Wednesday. I think yesterday involved cereal, 2 slices of toast, mango slices, jelly babies, a gel, soup, chips, bread, millionaire's shortbread x 2, different soup, crisps, carrot cake, chilli, cheese, jacket potato, crisps, tomatoes, cucumber, sticky toffee pudding with custard x 2, fruitcake, crisps. I genuinely don't think I burnt off that many calories in my run. I'm still full now.
Monday - 60 minutes of swimming, had to take it very easy after Sunday's race. I had tired legs, making pushing off the wall somewhat difficult. I had to move into a different lane because Patrick and Steven in my lane are both younger, male and significantly faster than me and I was intimidated.
Tuesday - an hour's easy run with Andy with 5 moderate 2-minute hill reps, worked stiffness out of legs nicely.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming. Back on form, felt very strong, strongest swim I've had for a while. Tip top. Used my new fins for 4 x 50m and it was brilliant, although nobody appreciated the amount of wash that they created. I have yet to decide how to respond to this. Clearly I don't want to stoke the ire of fellow swimmers, but they definitely aid quad strength and cardio work. We'll see how it pans out.
Thursday - ran 6 miles-ish Doctors Gate loop at Hamsterley. One hill exertion where first Mike, then Brian, then Liam tried to pull away, meaning that it ended up being quite a race. Still, it was good to have a bit of a raised heart rate in an otherwise very pleasant run out.
Friday - fish and chips, nigh on 100g of Galaxy, cookie, flapjack... frankly, an overly large portion of food for one woman who knew she had another meal (namely breakfast) just round the corner, and the only thing in between said meals would be a night of unstressful sleep. As it turned out, actually, the sleep wasn't as plentiful as expected, due to having: a) a coffee at 6pm, and b) two cups of tea with my fish and chips at 7pm. This was not a wise move for someone who normally doesn't caffeinate after 6pm. As predicted, I was still awake at 2am, well aware that I would be getting up at 6am to prepare for Andy's 30@30, and VERY aware that the amount of sleep I would be getting was inadequate.
Saturday - Andy's 30@30! It was Andy's actual 30th birthday so we all got up at 6, ready to breakfast before starting running at 7:15. Initially Leg 1 was supposed to be Andy (obvs), me, Jim, Duncan, Pippa, Joe, Mike, Brian and Liam. Joe couldn't make it and Mike, Brian and Liam had decided on Thursday they couldn't run in the Lakes today... As it was, Andy, me, Jim, Duncan and Pippa set off. Pippa's leg wasn't happy to be running so she had to turn back, so the remaining four of us plodded on through Leg 1. Visibility was excellent, the wind less so. Unbelievably windy, making mobility very difficult at times, as they like to say on the MWIS weather forecast. A few times I was blown off course or had to stand still to stabilise myself against a gust. It was blowing my eyelashes inwards so they were poking into my eyes, and swirling snot out of my nose and depositing it on my face. Not cool. Despite all this, it was a great run out on leg 1 - 12 hills (or Wainwrights... some of them didn't have a great amount of prominence) - and about 15 miles, covered in about 3 hours 30ish.
At Kirkstone Pass we had soup and chips, and a random sheep farmer bored everyone to death with a few substandard magic tricks. Having recommended a coffee shop in Ambleside to Gill and I (we weren't going to Ambleside, but this didn't seem to bother him), just Andy and Jim set off on Leg 2 to do the remaining 18 peaks and about 20 miles of running. Wind was atrocious, and it was raining quite heavily. Not ideal.
Having mentioned in passing that I had wet feet (thank you 'waterproof' socks for once again allowing water in after approximately 3 minutes of running), the magician man grabbed my attention by shouting across the room "Oi! Oi! Oi! Wet feet, you say? You just need to dry them, and change into dry socks." Brilliant. Once I'd learnt this - something I'd been ignorantly unaware of previously - I mentioned to Gill I might like to go back to the camping barn to shower, and then wash and dry my feet, and then change into dry socks, and even dry shoes. The camping barn had a rather sweet feature in that the shower was actually 2 showers together, behind a glass door, that anyone could see through. No locks. Anyone who wanted to go to the toilet or wash their hands could quite freely gander at whomsoever was showering. Despite the barn being empty at the time, I asked Gill if she wouldn't mind being on guard just in case anyone else came back and decided to wander through. I managed to get my coveted dry feet.
We went for coffee in the afternoon and happened upon the aforementioned Mike, Brian and Liam getting a sausage sandwich. They'd run part of Leg 3 of the BG.
And then we went to wait for Andy and Jim to return from their run. Jim had tweeted a bit in the morning (including a tweet declaring there was severe buffering... he actually meant buffeting, but we can't ridicule him for spelling mistakes when he was attempting to tweet in 70mph winds on a cold January day), but we hadn't heard anything all afternoon. Given the extreme wind we hoped they'd be fine, and indeed on schedule. They were scheduled to finish at 17:08 and they arrived at 17:12, which was pretty much bang on time, especially given the 5 minute delayed start due to miscellaneous faffage. 30 peaks, aged 30, about 36 miles, in 9 hours 51. Brilliant. Very pleased for him.
Sunday training - I hadn't initially planned to do anything, since I don't usually run 2 days in a row, but Jim was going out for an easy hour(ish) so we jogged from the camping barn along the old coach road round the base of Clough Head to Threlkeld. About 7-8 miles, into a headwind, but after yesterday's endeavours the wind, although nominally quite strong, didn't feel like a problem at all. It wasn't actively blowing us over and we could stand upright, so by comparison it was calm.
And that's it for this week: I now have a 30 year old husband, and have had a good solid week's training. I've also consumed sufficient calories in the past 48 hours to last me until at least Wednesday. I think yesterday involved cereal, 2 slices of toast, mango slices, jelly babies, a gel, soup, chips, bread, millionaire's shortbread x 2, different soup, crisps, carrot cake, chilli, cheese, jacket potato, crisps, tomatoes, cucumber, sticky toffee pudding with custard x 2, fruitcake, crisps. I genuinely don't think I burnt off that many calories in my run. I'm still full now.
Tuesday 17 January 2012
A race! A race! We like a race!
This week brought a race! First proper one since the relays in October, and it left me feeling suitably stiff-legged so I must have tried hard. Or not prepared properly, one of the two.
Training in the build-up was without any form of taper: my priority is to get better at running for the fell season from March onwards, so this race was just a play-day out, for 'fun', if such a thing exists in a race. Plus, I was going to a friend's for peanut butter and chocolate cake in the afternoon so I was obliged to do some sort of workout in advance to give me space for at least half a cake.
Monday - 60 minutes of hard swimming. Patrick, an 18-year old who used to be national breaststroke champion, was back from university so decided to come along for the first time in months. For a reason unbeknownst to me he got in my lane, which made me look half the speed I usually do, despite the fact he's well out of condition. It's useful to have such confidence knocks every so often: it gives you something to focus on. Plus, he's so much faster it's almost laughable.
Tuesday - Achilles a bit sore after the first part of Andy's 30@30 on Sunday, so swam again. Pool much warmer than this time last week, but still chillier than is comfortable.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming, good session, acquitted myself fairly well. For the second time IN 5 DAYS I was likened to someone called Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. This is a programme I have never seen, so I looked him up on Wikipedia. Here are some choice extracts: 'Sheldon exhibits a strict adherence to routine, a total lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humor, and a general lack of humility or empathy. He is vocal about his own superior intellect compared to those around him. Reviewers and fans have speculated that Sheldon's personality traits are consistent with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and/or obsessive–compulsive personality disorder and asexuality.' Fortunately I have a bedrock of self-confidence (or Asperger syndrome?) that led me to believe that these people must be wrong, despite the fact this comparison came from two entirely independent sources. I have now ordered Series 1-4 (when apparently I was 'more like him', when he was 'more weird') so I can adopt some more of his appealing traits. I also went to work yesterday dressed like him, with a long-sleeved top under a short-sleeved top. I amuse myself in very low-level ways.
Thursday - running at Hamsterley. Just under 10 miles, including 3 hard 3 minute hill reps. I paced these very badly, like a small primary school child. I ran the first one incredibly fast, thought I might die by the top, then predictably got much slower on reps 2 and 3. Still, was pleased Achilles was fine and pleased overall. Andy faster than me on all of them.
Friday - dinner, banana sponge and rum sauce, rest.
Saturday - 60 minutes of gentlish swimming. Had a glass of wine with dinner: first time I've ever had a glass of wine the night before a race. My tests remain inconclusive. I can't figure out if it had no effect, a positive effect, or a negative effect. Must research further.
Sunday - race in North York Moors. 5.7 miles, about 300m of ascent, first woman and course record by about 90s so very pleased. Found it very hard: it was cold, icy/frosty/solid underfoot, which was quite difficult to run on, and didn't have the flat speed I would have liked (I think this happens to everyone, regardless of how fast you're going). Still, I'm pleased with my time and very pleased Achilles didn't hurt, although there were a few men I would have liked to have beaten. Andy beat me by about 3 minutes so he's pleased to have clearly restamped out the pecking order in our marriage.
This week Andy's tapering for his 30@30. I'm doing leg 1 with him, which is quite a long way for me and so I'm naturally fairly apprehensive. I don't want to hinder any part of his day out, although he's assured me it'll be slightly slower than the recce we did last weekend... I shall wait and see. One of the more appealing aspects is that when we stop at Kirkstone Pass for soup and chips, I'll get to stay there for as long as I wish and he'll have to haul himself back out for the long hilly leg 2... he's tougher than me, obvs.
Training in the build-up was without any form of taper: my priority is to get better at running for the fell season from March onwards, so this race was just a play-day out, for 'fun', if such a thing exists in a race. Plus, I was going to a friend's for peanut butter and chocolate cake in the afternoon so I was obliged to do some sort of workout in advance to give me space for at least half a cake.
Monday - 60 minutes of hard swimming. Patrick, an 18-year old who used to be national breaststroke champion, was back from university so decided to come along for the first time in months. For a reason unbeknownst to me he got in my lane, which made me look half the speed I usually do, despite the fact he's well out of condition. It's useful to have such confidence knocks every so often: it gives you something to focus on. Plus, he's so much faster it's almost laughable.
Tuesday - Achilles a bit sore after the first part of Andy's 30@30 on Sunday, so swam again. Pool much warmer than this time last week, but still chillier than is comfortable.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming, good session, acquitted myself fairly well. For the second time IN 5 DAYS I was likened to someone called Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. This is a programme I have never seen, so I looked him up on Wikipedia. Here are some choice extracts: 'Sheldon exhibits a strict adherence to routine, a total lack of social skills, a tenuous understanding of irony, sarcasm, and humor, and a general lack of humility or empathy. He is vocal about his own superior intellect compared to those around him. Reviewers and fans have speculated that Sheldon's personality traits are consistent with a diagnosis of Asperger syndrome and/or obsessive–compulsive personality disorder and asexuality.' Fortunately I have a bedrock of self-confidence (or Asperger syndrome?) that led me to believe that these people must be wrong, despite the fact this comparison came from two entirely independent sources. I have now ordered Series 1-4 (when apparently I was 'more like him', when he was 'more weird') so I can adopt some more of his appealing traits. I also went to work yesterday dressed like him, with a long-sleeved top under a short-sleeved top. I amuse myself in very low-level ways.
Thursday - running at Hamsterley. Just under 10 miles, including 3 hard 3 minute hill reps. I paced these very badly, like a small primary school child. I ran the first one incredibly fast, thought I might die by the top, then predictably got much slower on reps 2 and 3. Still, was pleased Achilles was fine and pleased overall. Andy faster than me on all of them.
Friday - dinner, banana sponge and rum sauce, rest.
Saturday - 60 minutes of gentlish swimming. Had a glass of wine with dinner: first time I've ever had a glass of wine the night before a race. My tests remain inconclusive. I can't figure out if it had no effect, a positive effect, or a negative effect. Must research further.
Sunday - race in North York Moors. 5.7 miles, about 300m of ascent, first woman and course record by about 90s so very pleased. Found it very hard: it was cold, icy/frosty/solid underfoot, which was quite difficult to run on, and didn't have the flat speed I would have liked (I think this happens to everyone, regardless of how fast you're going). Still, I'm pleased with my time and very pleased Achilles didn't hurt, although there were a few men I would have liked to have beaten. Andy beat me by about 3 minutes so he's pleased to have clearly restamped out the pecking order in our marriage.
This week Andy's tapering for his 30@30. I'm doing leg 1 with him, which is quite a long way for me and so I'm naturally fairly apprehensive. I don't want to hinder any part of his day out, although he's assured me it'll be slightly slower than the recce we did last weekend... I shall wait and see. One of the more appealing aspects is that when we stop at Kirkstone Pass for soup and chips, I'll get to stay there for as long as I wish and he'll have to haul himself back out for the long hilly leg 2... he's tougher than me, obvs.
Sunday 8 January 2012
A cold start.
Training this week:
Tuesday - 60 minutes of swimming. On Tuesdays we swim in a school pool, which is normally fine. I don't like it as much as the main pool - it's only 20m, and feels slightly claustrophobic, and the damp on the ceiling looks like a fat cat and I don't like cats - but it's normally a good session. HOWEVER, on Tuesday there was some sort of issue with the pool heating, which meant the pool was freezing. I should have realised something was amiss when I saw Frank, the coach, sitting in a coat, hat and gloves, when he normally wears a t-shirt in all weathers. One swimmer dipped his toe in and then went home before even getting the rest of him wet. I persevered, thinking "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger". I would now seek to dispute this. I got ear-ache fairly early on, after about 5 minutes, and my toes went a bit numb. Shortly afterwards I started to go dizzy and was told by Frank that my nose was blue. We didn't stop much - he had the good grace to keep us swimming to "keep warm" - but my body temperature never felt like it was above freezing. After each new set of reps I said I would get out, but somehow conned myself into staying in for the whole hour. This was potentially a mistake. My legs ached miscellaneously all day Wednesday. It felt like the bones were aching, although I'm quite aware they probably weren't. Nevertheless I could hardly bend my feet on Wednesday lunchtime, which I attribute to the pool. And my face looked funny until Thursday. And my right ear hasn't recovered: it seems to have gone partially deaf. I hope this sort of hardcore training pays off at some point, otherwise it was an arduous and painful hour for nothing. In such situations it would be useful to be extraordinarily fat, with a nice insulating layer of blubber over everything. Frank said on Wednesday it was 15 degrees, which would normally be when I would wear a wetsuit and two swimming hats, rather than Speedo's budget thin black costume.
Wednesday - 90 minutes of swimming in Bishop Auckland municipal pool, which was heated to a normal temperature. Lovely. I was slow - I think Tuesday's session wiped me out more than the average hour's swim - but it was nice to get out with a rosy glow rather than a mottled grey and blue pallor.
Thursday - hill reps at Hamsterley. The proper athletes (everyone else) did 4 pyramids of 100, 200, 300, 200, 100m, with a minute in between. I can't go straight into a fast run after such a short warm-up and I'm building up my return to reps gradually so my poor Achilles doesn't have a tantrum, so I jogged while they did the first pyramid, then joined in the second and fourth. In the fourth one I managed to beat Andy on the 300m, whereupon he gave up, so I also beat him on the 200 and 100. I've never beaten him in a rep before. In the past he's always said that would lead to divorce, but apparently it didn't count because I didn't do the full session, which is a fair point. Still, I count it at as a small victory. He likened it to Usain Bolt joining Gebrselassie for the last 100m of a marathon. The comparison doesn't quite work (my diet isn't chicken nuggets, and I've yet to break the world 100m and 200m world records), but I appreciate his point. For now he's letting me keep my wedding ring.
Friday - hoisin chicken, blackcurrant and pear crumble, and Stephen Merchant's stand-up DVD. Not as funny as I'd hoped, and, as is the way with most male stand-ups, he developed massive sweat patches by the end of the show. Why don't they wear black?
Saturday - 90 minutes of swimming. Worked like a bitch by the coach, but in a good way. Worked on my backstroke, which remains atrocious: like a person swimming with broken arms, apparently. And apparently in my breaststroke I shake my head each time it surfaces, like a sideways Churchill dog. It remains to be seen whether I repeat these strokes in public, or whether my fragile self confidence has been shattered. We'll see tomorrow night.
In addition to spending a freezing hour cleaning my bike, I did a 45 minute cycle. My route was altered when some woman walking her massive fat angry Alsatian dog didn't seem to have full control of it, so I had to turn back. She said it would be fine, but I didn't rate my chances. I didn't get close enough to see, but I imagine it was frothing at the mouth.
Sunday - 3 hours in the Lakes with Andy and Duncan, on the first leg of Andy's 30@30 route. I felt somewhat lacklustre, although I'm not sure if this can be attributed to:
a) not eating enough yesterday;
b) actually freezing and then defrosting on Tuesday;
c) all the uphills: not the sort of thing that would trouble a hardcore BG-er, but still a fair bit;
d) yesterday's endeavours;
e) (most likely) running with two men who are significantly faster than me.
Back at the car, Andy noted he had three Penguins. He was about to inhale all three (he has a phenomenal talent of 'inhaling' food when hungry. He's particularly good with Freddie Frog sweets: it's one of the things that made me marry him) when Duncan and I managed to snaffle one each. He wasn't pleased. We had to stop at a shop in Pooley Bridge to replenish, although they didn't have Penguins OR Boosts OR Toffee Crisps, which was what Andy was looking for. He settled on a Wall's Cornish Pasty (I don't have the vocabulary to comment on how vile that looked, fridge cold) and a Double Decker, so it wasn't a totally wasted visit. He'd never had a Double Decker before. Imagine! Nearly 30, and never had a Double Decker! I last had one aged about 10, but wouldn't rush back. I settled for a KitKat Chunky: a modern-day classic.
Summary of this week's training: Achilles feels okay(ish), and I beat Andy in a rep. Hence it has been a success.
Tuesday 3 January 2012
Bored of the wind.
Let's see where we're up to... It has been 13 full days since my last blog post, so now I shall test my powers of recall to see what I've done in the interim:
Thursday 22 December - 37 miles of cycling, in hideous wind, during which time I got blown off, actually blown across the road and into a ditch, after about 20 miles. i.e. Pretty much the furthest point from home, so 'turning back' wouldn't have made much sense. Should have turned back before it got so dangerous. So windy it actually blew snot out of my nose, which, although it saved me dirtying my glove, was fairly grotesque.
Friday 23 - made fudge and truffles.
Saturday 24 - about 75 minutes of running with Andy, with one fast 2 minute hill effort, on Simonside hills. Nice day out. Bit blustery and drizzly, but nice running.
Christmas Day - the plan was for a cycle, but wind forbade it, so a short walk and lots of turkey instead.
Boxing Day - 3.5 mile(ish) race, just outside Rothbury. 1st woman, 6th overall, 25:59 and 2 mins 40 down on leading men. Would have rather been a bit faster but was more pleased that my Achilles wasn't a problem. The wind in my face for the last mile made me feel a bit like I was pulling a lorry. Hard work, despite the shortness of the race. Plus, my experiments would indicate that a face full of truffles, fudge, turkey and bread sauce 90 minutes before the start is not conducive to feeling athletic.
Tuesday 27 - 29 mile cycle down the A68 home from Corbridge, since Andy had taken the car to support Jim's BG attempt. 25 miles on one road was ever so slightly boring, although it had sufficient hills to more or less retain my interest. Legs slightly tired from Monday's efforts. Mince pie at Tow Law.
Wednesday 28 - 56 minutes of running on Bowes moor with Andy and Jim, in more strong wind. I think we only did about 20 minutes actually into the wind, but it felt like about 20 hours. 60 minutes swimming in the evening. Should have been 90, but got out early to go for a curry. (It was the Christmas holidays, after all.)
Thursday 29 - 59 minutes of running with Andy, Jim, Duncan and Pippa on Cockfield fell. NB: Had I been left to my own devices, I would have made both Wednesday and Thursday's efforts up to a nice round 60 minutes. However, I was made to feel by the company that this would be obsessive and pointless, so I didn't.
Friday 30 - breakfast, lunch and dinner. (i.e. a rest day)
Saturday 31 - 51.5 miles of hilly cycling (in more wind, although not quite so ferocious this time) in Northumberland with my sister. (Longframlington - Netherwitton - Elsdon - Alwinton - Netherton - Rothbury and back). About 4800 feet of ascent (if the Garmin is to be believed). Nice to ride with Louise; haven't cycled with her properly for about 5 years. Then stuffed my face with soup and cake and hared it down to Glossop for New Year's Eve.
New Year's Day - 10 miles from Glossop up to top of Snake Pass and down through a medley of peat bogs. I think it would be fitting to rename the Peak District as the Peat District. After all, the peaks are hardly prominent but it is genuinely full of peat.
Monday 2 January - almost too embarrassing to write - about 37 minutes of cycling. Fortunately the odometer on my bike had been knocked so the embarrassingly short distance wasn't recorded.
And now we're up to today, which will involve 60 minutes of swimming.
Scanning above it seems to make for a fairly dull read. I'm pleased that despite having been on holiday for over two weeks and being away for most of it, I've managed a fair bit of good training, and now that I'm back to work it should start to get more structured again. Looking forward to the wind finally abating so cycling becomes less dangerous, although glancing outside it would appear that it's as strong, or stronger, as it has been for most of the past month.
Now that my FRA calendar has arrived I think the first race that I'm aiming for properly this year is the English Championships race mid-March. January is traditionally when I find training the hardest - back at work, still dark, seems like ages (! for a teacher this will gain little sympathy) until the next holiday... - but with a race a mere 10 weeks away it focuses the mind somewhat.
In other news, having consumed approximately a tonne of saturated fat over the past month, it is time to begin something of a more athletic diet, in order to prevent dropping dead of a heart attack before my next race.
Thursday 22 December - 37 miles of cycling, in hideous wind, during which time I got blown off, actually blown across the road and into a ditch, after about 20 miles. i.e. Pretty much the furthest point from home, so 'turning back' wouldn't have made much sense. Should have turned back before it got so dangerous. So windy it actually blew snot out of my nose, which, although it saved me dirtying my glove, was fairly grotesque.
Friday 23 - made fudge and truffles.
Saturday 24 - about 75 minutes of running with Andy, with one fast 2 minute hill effort, on Simonside hills. Nice day out. Bit blustery and drizzly, but nice running.
Christmas Day - the plan was for a cycle, but wind forbade it, so a short walk and lots of turkey instead.
Boxing Day - 3.5 mile(ish) race, just outside Rothbury. 1st woman, 6th overall, 25:59 and 2 mins 40 down on leading men. Would have rather been a bit faster but was more pleased that my Achilles wasn't a problem. The wind in my face for the last mile made me feel a bit like I was pulling a lorry. Hard work, despite the shortness of the race. Plus, my experiments would indicate that a face full of truffles, fudge, turkey and bread sauce 90 minutes before the start is not conducive to feeling athletic.
Tuesday 27 - 29 mile cycle down the A68 home from Corbridge, since Andy had taken the car to support Jim's BG attempt. 25 miles on one road was ever so slightly boring, although it had sufficient hills to more or less retain my interest. Legs slightly tired from Monday's efforts. Mince pie at Tow Law.
Wednesday 28 - 56 minutes of running on Bowes moor with Andy and Jim, in more strong wind. I think we only did about 20 minutes actually into the wind, but it felt like about 20 hours. 60 minutes swimming in the evening. Should have been 90, but got out early to go for a curry. (It was the Christmas holidays, after all.)
Thursday 29 - 59 minutes of running with Andy, Jim, Duncan and Pippa on Cockfield fell. NB: Had I been left to my own devices, I would have made both Wednesday and Thursday's efforts up to a nice round 60 minutes. However, I was made to feel by the company that this would be obsessive and pointless, so I didn't.
Friday 30 - breakfast, lunch and dinner. (i.e. a rest day)
Saturday 31 - 51.5 miles of hilly cycling (in more wind, although not quite so ferocious this time) in Northumberland with my sister. (Longframlington - Netherwitton - Elsdon - Alwinton - Netherton - Rothbury and back). About 4800 feet of ascent (if the Garmin is to be believed). Nice to ride with Louise; haven't cycled with her properly for about 5 years. Then stuffed my face with soup and cake and hared it down to Glossop for New Year's Eve.
New Year's Day - 10 miles from Glossop up to top of Snake Pass and down through a medley of peat bogs. I think it would be fitting to rename the Peak District as the Peat District. After all, the peaks are hardly prominent but it is genuinely full of peat.
Monday 2 January - almost too embarrassing to write - about 37 minutes of cycling. Fortunately the odometer on my bike had been knocked so the embarrassingly short distance wasn't recorded.
And now we're up to today, which will involve 60 minutes of swimming.
Scanning above it seems to make for a fairly dull read. I'm pleased that despite having been on holiday for over two weeks and being away for most of it, I've managed a fair bit of good training, and now that I'm back to work it should start to get more structured again. Looking forward to the wind finally abating so cycling becomes less dangerous, although glancing outside it would appear that it's as strong, or stronger, as it has been for most of the past month.
Now that my FRA calendar has arrived I think the first race that I'm aiming for properly this year is the English Championships race mid-March. January is traditionally when I find training the hardest - back at work, still dark, seems like ages (! for a teacher this will gain little sympathy) until the next holiday... - but with a race a mere 10 weeks away it focuses the mind somewhat.
In other news, having consumed approximately a tonne of saturated fat over the past month, it is time to begin something of a more athletic diet, in order to prevent dropping dead of a heart attack before my next race.
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