Pooped!

Only one word sums up how I feel... YAWN... blimey I'm pooper-scoopered! Why?!.. Well I did my first cross country race today in about 23 years!!! Last time I recall running like an idiot around a muddy field I was a teenager (just) at school! Today however, I'm pleased to say, was more fun - probably as I decided to do it rather then a teacher making me ;o)

We've had nothing but rain for days and with a forecast of rain again all day today so the run was never going to be pretty. However, the rain gods smiled on us and we were lucky to get the run in between showers - how lucky. On top of that it was unseasonably mild! It got pretty muddy pretty quickly. Having started on some hard standing road/ path we quickly went into some woods before heading down hill - to which I was quite pleased given it was 5mins in I could do with a break, although feared going back up the other side... - anyhow yes down the hill into a field, there wasn't much of a path really more of a squelchy muddy vague path thing - eugh! Greeting us at the bottom was a brook - humm so that was half way up the legs in freezing water, into another field and back across the brook before heading up the side of the field trying to avoid the trees which had fallen over. By this stage we were 10mins in - and I was beginning to wonder what I had let myself in for!!!! Much slipping/ sliding and running through mainly woodland with little wind and no rain to hamper. What fun (well sort of)!! After the first 15mins or so I decided that no one should be passing me.. how foolish! Alas a couple of people did worm their way around me, but I made up for that my taking a couple of people myself. After about 40mins I was beginning to wonder how far we had to go (although the course is marked/ marshaled there were no distance markers).... got told on 42mins we were a mile out. Stupidly I decided that should mean I work even harder - well that's what my brain said but my legs weren't really listening!! ;o).. Eventually finished in just over 52mins. No idea as to the distance, something like 5miles+ I think.

Great to have done the "race", if not for the cup of tea and cakes after then to meet some of my fellow Triathlon club members. They're all a really friendly bunch so it was good to have a natter after the race, with the nice cup of tea especially! Overall I'm pleased with my performance... Although I've no idea how my time was compared to others - I certainly wasn't anywhere near the front and definitely much closer to the back - but pleased with the fact this was probably the hardest session I've done in a while (HR avg 160, ending on 174), I survived, I enjoyed it, meet some good people, got out into the fresh country air, got muddy (very), also got wet (not soaked), BRILL!! :oD

On top of that I had my gym induction this afternoon and as a result the trainer is kindly putting together a really rather nasty looking core stability session - this will be excellent and very much needed! After the induction I went to a "Body Balance" class - some combination of Tai-Chi, Yoga and Palates...very good for the core, good stretch (much needed!!) and very relaxing.

What else this weekend... oh well a good turbo session yesterday morning and a good (although slightly short) swim in the evening. The swim was enjoyable actually, I didn't follow any set practice or session and kind of made it up as follows;
WARM-UP: 100 * F/S, 100m * Pull Buoy and Paddles, 100m * Kickboard
DRILL SET: 4 * 25m drill into 25m f/s (Drills; sculling 1, 2 and 3 + fists)
MAIN SET: 10*100m intervals with 30s rest between sets.
WARM-DOWN: 200m very very easy (ie in 5mins!)
I didn't do brilliantly on the 100m's; fastest 2'05, slowest 2'18. I would have liked to carry on to 15 sets but had to get out the pool to make sure I wasn't late for a friend I was meeting in the evening! Still happy that did 1000m which is the first time I've just gone through like that without having specific drills. In conclusion I would like to have one session like this every week where I look to increase # intervals then increase interval length.

Overall a good training week. Despite having 3 days off (naughty me), I have managed 7hours, pretty much 2 hours each of swim, bike, run with an hour of core stability. The good thing also about the week is I managed a double session day on three days... so know I can cope with that too.

The week ahead is going to be a challenge however, working locally tomorrow, but off to Coventry Tuesday, City Wednesday and Thursday and then Newbury sometime Friday. At least Friday is relatively local so hopefully shouldn't be too disruptive. Tuesday - Thursday will however be challenging!

Right - I feel like I've written a book in tonights blog and am getting RSI in my fingers tips as a result!

Tally-ho!