Also, I feel like there's not really been much to talk about the last few months!
OK, OK, that's not strictly true - there is the small matter of the World Duathlon Champs, and that's probably worth quite a lengthy entry! But apart from that I was tapering down for the World Champs and then recovering and having an enforced end of season break - so that's pretty much the whole of September covered off there with not much training to speak of.
But despite there not being much going on training wise, I keep saying to myself that i want to keep my blog updated because it's a great personal record and has a bit more detail than my minimal training diary - AND also because I'm an avid blog reader! I love reading other athlete's blogs. Especially when I'm training on my own and not racing it can feel quite lonely slogging out the miles, so it's always great to sit down with a cup of tea and read what my friends have been up to. Just a bit of extra motivation to get out and get the training done, plus I find I can learn a lot from how others deal with fitting training in to busy lives!
I love the blogs on RunnersLife - very interesting to see what other sessions runners are doing over the Winter, and how people approach big races in different ways. Plus they're always updated weekly which makes for great Monday morning coffee break reading!
Right, enough ABOUT blogging, and time for some actual blogging - what have I been up to?!
Firstly, I've made the very important discovery that unless everything else in my life is going smoothly, I simply cannot train hard. If other things are taking up my energy, I don't have the energy left to consistently train hard. I'm one of those athletes who needs to focus before a hard session and concentrate on what I'm trying to achieve, otherwise I just can't do it!
Lesson learnt. And as training hard and achieving my sporting goals makes me happy, I'll be doing my best to get things in balance a bit more so I have the energy to train well.
Secondly, I've discovered the level of training I can do to not lose any form - always useful, and now I'm in a position where I can push on with Winter training and focus more.
Ok, better get on to what I have actually been doing...
Right at the end of my two week break after the World Champs I ran a charity 10km up in Scotland. The Strathcarron Hospice 10km was a fundraising event for the hospice that looked after my Uncle before he passed away earlier this year - my wonderful cousins decided it would be great to get the family together to run the 10km and give back to the Hospice by raising money for them. It was brilliant to see my family doing something so positive and really enjoying running as well! I was super proud of my brother for running the 10km without any preparation, and happily confessing he'd never run that far before.
It was a beautiful sunny day and a lovely course - apart from the first 3km all being uphill! I set off steady, slowed down a bit up the hill and then enjoyed every second of the race, passing 5km in 21mins and speeding up to finish in 40.55 for 2nd lady and 21st overall.
Results here
I'm already looking forward to doing this race next year and will definitely be trying for first place - I know my Uncle would have wanted to know why I hadn't won!
Since then I've been getting back into training and been very busy buying a house with my fiance. It's been a surprisingly stressful time, with not knowing exactly when we'd be moving till a couple of days in advance! Luckily I had Sean to sort out a lot of the stressful stuff and reassure me we wouldn't be homeless...and if we were, it wouldn't be for too long! Everything worked out in the end and we moved into our new house the day before we had to vacate the old one.
Training wise I've been building up the bike sessions to 3 a week comprised of:
1 long ride - though this is currently only up to 60mins as I'm still having problems with my hip
1 45 min spin class - I've found a fantastic spin class at my local DW Fitness which definitely replicates the sort of interval training I'd be looking to do on my own.
1 4 mile run + 40 min bike session
I've also built up my long run to 12-14 miles with an exceptionally long but very enjoyable 2 hour run round Stockport a couple of weeks ago!
Running session wise I've struggled to have enough energy for sessions but have managed some good mile reps and an enjoyable 10 x 90seconds along the canal which had to be cut down to 8 x 90seconds when it got too dark to see people walking towards me - although I jumped, I didn't actually scream!
Race wise I had a good run at the Worsley Woods Park Run at the beginning of November, setting a course PB of 20.20 for this very muddy ParkRun which actually has 3 sets of steps in! My aim is to get under 20mins for this one as not many women have managed it yet!
I followed that up the weekend after with a shocking run in the Manchester XC League at St. Helens. I maintain that the first XC race each year is always the hardest, so this year I stupidly decided to make the hardest of the Manchester XC Leagues my first race. It was AWFUL. Up hill, down hill, up hill, down hill - and all the down hills were really muddy and boggy so it was relentlessly hard! Unfortunately this was another case of finding out how hard it is to train/race without any energy and when I finished the race I was very dizzy and couldn't even warm down. Not enjoyable at all.
I took things easy in training the next week and had a great Physio session with Paul Savage at Athlete Matters which loosened up my tight back and hip and come Sunday I was in much better shape for the Leeds Abbey Dash 10km where I set a Season's Best of 39.35. I'll do a full race report on this one as I think this one actually deserves it!
After Leeds I'm feeling a lot more positive about what I can do when I get some consistent training in - so that's exactly what I'm going to do for the rest of the Winter! I'm also adding in a yoga class each week to try and work on my flexibility and mobility in my back/hip to hopefully enable me to build up the bike further - apparently 2 hours is the aim!
WOW that's a long blog - if you've made it through this far, thanks for reading - it must be time for another cup of coffee now! As always, any comments are welcome and I PROMISE I'll be doing more regular blog updates now - if I get some consistent training done I'll be able to write about that for a start!
Thanks :)
