The Red carpet

After a week of rain we've had the most wonderful autumnal weekend. Yesterday I went out on the bike for 2.5 hours. I haven't done that in a long time and I really enjoyed the feeling in my legs. Cycling keeps my fitness up while giving the legs a bit of a rest - but not too much. You're using different muscles which keeps a balance as too much of either discipline can cause problems which I have experienced before. My pals had gone out earlier so I was on my own for the ride. Again I didn't use my Garmin and just went on feel. It felt good. Then I had to clean the bike due to all the muck on the farm roads because of the previous weeks rain. It was filthy. This morning the sun was shining brightly in the blue sky and I headed out for a 14.4 mile trail run. My ultra running pals were either exhausted from a race the day before or hungover from the night before or both - they train hard, race hard and play hard. So it was Derek no mates again. The trail is tough with it's constant ups and down but the scenery makes up for it. At one part there was a red carpet of leaves , absolutely stunning. I lost my water bottle on the first lap and decided that I would continue and treat this as "desert dehydration training". Fortunately I found it on the 2nd lap as running for 2 hrs 13 mins with no hydration isn't advisable. Now I'm home and resting so I can start again tomorrow.

Improvement

The last few days I have noticed some aches in my ankles and have put this down to increased mileage on trails i.e. uneven ground. So a trip to the sports mausseuse Grant this afternoon was, painful. But a good kind of pain. It's been too long since my last visit but the yoga has kept me going. Grant was impressed by the greater range in movement in my ankles and again this is as a direct result of my yoga. That's the first time in 3 years that I have seen a marked improvement of that nature and that encourages me to go keep going with the yoga. I went out for an early morning run with my swimming pal in the dark and pouring rain but he developed a stitch so we cut it short. But this will act as a warm up for a tough weekend of distance running!

It's a drag

Swimming was never my strong point and as I stirred at 5.10am I realised I would be getting up in an hour for my swim session. At 6.10 I was thinking of every reason I could to stay in bed but then I remembered I'd have to report back to you in the blog. That's one of the reasons I write the blog almost daily as it keeps me going when the motivation is weak. So into the pool for 4 x 500m and I had to drag my ass up and down the lane whilst getting passed by an excellent swimmer and fellow triathlete on a frequent basis. He made it look so easy that didn't help my frame of mind as my times got slower with each 500m. But being realistic I can't swim once a week and expect to see improvement. It's not my priority but is there to help my legs recover from the running. So tomorrow I will bury that swimmer when I take him out running and later on will suffer at the hands of the sports masseuse. With all the running I expect there will be a few sensitive points, you'll probably hear me screaming!

Key session

When I was training for Ironman Lanzarote I realised that there were key sessions which you "banked" and they paid off on race day. But you must complete them. Today I had a key session. After 1.5 hours of wonderful yoga which keeps pushing me to new limits, I came home and rested in anticipation of what was to follow. The weather was awful with the rain hammering down so I waited till the afternoon when it wasn't as heavy. I had ran 14 miles on the road on Saturday and 10 miles trail running on Sunday. So I had miles in my legs and wanted to push it further. So I went out in the rain and completed a 14.5 mile trail run. Not a huge run but the important aspects were; I was on my own so tougher mentally; the trail is up and down and the weather made it difficult and heavy under foot; my legs had covered 24 miles in 3 days so it wasn't going to be easy. The session was a success and it's important to put in mentally and physically tough sessions. In 3 months time I won't regard this as a tough session as I'll be running with a weighted rucksack but at this stage of my training, it was important. As I sit and recover watching the footie I realise that my legs feel great. But a sports massage would be wise in the next couple of days. The yoga is really working at keeping me injury free and today I did my first headstand! Chuffed to bits.

Bike fit

A weeks holiday at home with the family and the chance time to relax, spend quality time with them and train. So today I went out on my bike for the first time in 7 weeks. I had no Garmin, no targets in mind, I just wanted to spin my legs after all the running. It was also the first time I had ridden my bike since the bike fit and what a difference it made. My quads felt great. The scenery was amazing in a crisp autumn day but I stopped to take a photo and when I started again I was freezing! It was great to be out on the bike but my bike fitness has gone. No worry there as this will improve when I started my turbo training this week. Tomorrow I have my 6.30am yoga which will be followed by a couple of hours trail run. I feel so good just now, I'm loving it!

Lighten up!

Winter is definately here and we seem to have skipped Autumn. After my yoga session I went out running at 6.50am and had to wear a head torch to enable me to avoid the potholes on the pavements and the roads and as a warning to car drivers that I was approaching. The rain was relentless but I had dressed appropriately and other than wet feet, stayed relatively dry. But it was only towards the end of the run that the darkness started to lift. I suppose there is no choice but to get used to it and not be tempted to pull the covers over and enjoy an extra hour in bed! My long runs will be contained to the weekend so I can do them in day light and having back to back long runs (between 10 - 30 miles) is ideal training for the desert.

Virgin training

I declared today my weekly rest day - I'm allowed 1 day off a week and this was it. However it wasn't exactly rest as I was on an early virgin train to London (Virgin training!) meaning a 5.30am start and I won't get home till 11pm tonight. But the strange thing about training for an event like MDS is that it's never far from your mind. On the way down I laid out the foundations of a training plan to improve my focus. When meeting with clients they ask how the training is going and usually as I lay my head on the pillow, not during client meetings, I turn my thoughts to what it will be like sleeping under the stars in the desert. This really is the adventure of a lifetime and the more I read about it the more excited I become. However before I feel the furnace of the Sahara a lot of work needs to be done and many miles covered. It's hard to contemplate how my body and mind will cope especially when I start to run with a loaded rucksack. But I've stretched the boundaries before and gone through a similar thought process so I'm not going to waste any energy worrying unnecessarily. I leave that to others. In the meantime I can look forward to my yoga at 6am tomorrow!