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...
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
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.
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