No rest for the wicked

After completing the Swashbuckler 70.3 on Sunday last week, you might of thought I'd have an easy training week ahead.  Think again.  We're running out of time and as of today there is only 118 days to go and I haven't run any more than 14 miles in one go never mind 170 in 7 days with 13kg on my back in much warmer temperature.  I love a challenge.
With my coach we'd decided that the scheduled 70.3 in Edinburgh wasn't going to work with my training plan.  I don't need long bike rides although my training plan will include sessions more to give my legs a break and also to work my cardio fitness.  The same goes for swimming.  But I need to build in more strength training and build my running mileage.
Monday might have been my day off, sitting in a car for 8.5 hours, but between Tuesday and Sunday (today) I had 4 runs, 2 swims and 1 bike session. A good weeks training but it required some planning around my work schedule.  On Friday I travelled early to my swimming, parked the car and went for a run before my swim so I could be sitting at my desk by 8.45am - great start to the day.
The highlight of the week (apart from my daughter's 18th birthday which was epic!) was today's run.  I headed back to Chatelherault which I haven't run in for at least 3 months.  I had to search deep in the shoe cupboard to find my trail shoes which were caked in mud suggesting the last run was wet and muddy.  Today however it was muggy but dry.  I headed out with two pals and two dogs with the intention of doing two laps (16km total) - something I hadn't done in over a year so there was a psychological barrier to get over.
I was aiming for a relatively easy pace of 47 min per lap and to keep my heart rate under 155bpm which isn't easy with the amount of climbing in Chatelherault.  The pace was going well on the first lap until we met some friends who were running quicker.  Without realising it we picked up the pace so when completing the fist lap in 43 minutes I was surprised and worried at the same time as I still had a lap to go.  The second lap was 44 minutes so I was very pleased to have maintained this pace on a difficult run.  My trail shoes felt good although my foot was a bit niggly when I was driving home.  I just have to keep an eye on that and my leg will be getting strapped again on Thursday which will help.
I paid the final, non-refundable, payment to the race so that's it - no backing out now.  In a few weeks I'll be booking the flight and accommodation.  Soon I'll start buying the equipment that I'll need for the race.  It's starting to become real and having cleared my calendar there will be nothing to distract me from this goal.  So no rest for the wicked as they say!