Monday was swim and bike day, I managed 120 lengths of the 25 yd pool in just over an hour and that was followed by a tough watt bike session.
Tuesday was running club, I ran down to club, ran with the juniors, ran with the adults and ran home.
I saw the physio on Wednesday morning about my sciatica, she thinks it's rooted in my L5/S1 joint at the base of my spine and given me some exercises to strengthen my back, bug I still need to stretch my Piriformis too. She also said to carry on doing what aim doing. I wanted to run the Muddy Boots 10km but wasn't sure until she said that. After work I did 58 lengths of the pool followed by 2 x 20 minute efforts on the watt bike.
Thursday was hill training, what a disaster, I was demoralised at first as my leg refused to co operate and the other runners left me standing, but I pulled myself together and completed the training to the best of my ability.
Friday was rest day, I ran my mile early in the day. In the evening I did half an hour of Pilates
Saturday was a lovely bright day so I got out on the bike for 3 hours, I managed a big hill without irritating my back further.
Saturday evening was the Tri club dinner, what a laugh, it was a brilliant night, eating, drinking and dancing. I had decided not to dance for fear of irritating my back, but I couldn't resist.
Sunday, race day. I was supposed to run for 3 hours and 10 minutes today, but I figured the race would take at least an hour, so I decided to do a 2 hour run afterwards.
Muddy Boots is the first local 10 k that I ever did, it's a great race, undulating multi terrain. This year they have got a new route taking out the bridge in the first half which caused a bottleneck. The new course was more off-road. I planned to just enjoy the run and to walk up the muddy hill. And to gave a gel half way to test it's impact on my stomach.
I set off near the back and ran reasonably comfortably moving though the runners, As I reached the hill, I set off slow running it and soon was passing people, buoyed up I ran it all and noticed some Ripon Runners ahead I started to chase. I had never planned to race it today but just enjoy it. I was racing it and really enjoying it. The course was muddy but not too bad, the sun was shining and it was not too cold. I ran hard and until the last mile, when my back started to niggle, the distance remained constant between me and the other 2 Ripon Runners, but they soon pulled away over that final stage. I had a great race, finishing in 1:01:18 and very happy and the gel had not disagreed with me.
I ate my banana and drank my water as I chatted with friends, then I headed home to drop off my jumper, medal and tea before setting off again.
So about 40 minutes after finishing the race I set out again, this time heading for Fountains Abbey.
It took ages to get going and I didn't feel great, I thought the banana and water would have been enough energy. I ate a dextrose and felt a bit better, but not much, so I had another and was feeling much better, so I had another for good measure and felt back to normal as I ran my regular route to Studley Church. I ran to the visited centre and refilled my bottle before going into the Abbey grounds. It's ages since I have seen so many people visiting, It was sunny and felt warm in the sunshine, it was lovely to see families picnicking and children running and climbing around the ruins. I decided to go up to Ann Bolyn's seat, wow that was a tough hill. It was much quieter so high up and the views between the trees were fabulous.
I ran along taking a few pics before descending through a tunnel back to the water gardens
I then left the Abbey grounds and headed back up to the church
After getting home I walked the dog to keep everything moving gently.
So there you are, this last week of training.
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