Week 7 update, Carrying on regardless

Well what a week, Monday I did my runstreak mile before taking Jed for a Dogjog. I was really buoyed up by the quality of my run the day before at the Muddy Boots 10 km and stopped paying attention to what my sciatic half numb left foot was doing and so the dogjog was going well, until just before we reached home I misjudged a kerb with my dodgy left foot and went sprawling across the pavement, loosing my grip on the lead, fortunately Jed slowed and stopped. I got up quick grabbed the lead and glanced down at my sore knees

That'll be new tights needed then. The trip wax at a busy junction so I waited till I got home before investigating further

Oh great, a flap of skin removed and knees like a 10 year old. I cleaned it up and applied a massive plaster and hid it all with thick tights for work.

After work and a dog walk I changed the plaster for a waterproof one and headed to the pool. I managed 2650 yds in 57.44 minutes. I then went home, grabbed a couple of rice cakes then headed back out, this time to Ripon Cycle Studio for a watt bike session. The session was a warm up, then 4 minutes at 90 cadence then a minute 3-4 gears higher trying to maintain cadence and repeat 10 times. I really struggled with this session. But I tried really hard.

Tuesday means a lie in before walking the dog. I awoke with a dreadful pain in my shoulder which made breathing difficult. After work I jogged to the Rugby club to run with the junior runners. I was ok jogging, but I could not run, I couldn't breathe deep enough, the kids were having to wait for me. One of the youngsters was feeling unwell, I accompanied them back to club at a walk. 

I ran slowly at the back of the adult group, I was fine as long as I didn't try to run hard.

Wednesday, and it was back to an early start with a runstreak mile and a dogjog. I could breathe a bit better but my knee was still bleeding a bit. The runs were uneventful, phew. After work I walked the dog before my swim and watt bike sessions. Whilst on the walk, a dog went for Jed nightmare.

For my swim session I did 100yd sets, I managed 3 sets under 2 minutes, the rest were just over.

I only get a half hour swim session on a Wednesday and go straight to watt bikes. The watt bike session was a long warm up then a 3 minute test. I managed 253 watts, an improvement since last time, not bad on tired legs, I wanted to redo the test another day.

Thursday, almost a rest day a dog walk in the morning and running club training in the evening. The training was 2 x 4 min efforts, then a 400 m effort and then 2 more 4 min efforts and another 400 m effort. It was tough, but good to attempt to run faster than usual.

Friday was again an uneventful runstreak mile and dogjog before work. In the evening was strength and conditioning, in other words a rest day.

Saturday is endurance day. The plan called for a 2 hr 20 min walk at high heartrate followed by a 3 hr 20 min run with a low heartrate. 5 hr 40 min of steady exercise. The weather was nice so I went to Fountains Abbey, so here are the pics

This was a heron in the river on the walk section along the River Ure

I noticed how orange and black the Abbey looked as I did a freedom parkrun.

I love this view, you get it twice on the Fountains Abbey Parkrun

I liked the way the snowdrops and skeletal trees reflected in the River Skell.

There are signs saying no public access to this Fairey Glenn, shame.

I went up to the Banquetting House for the first time.

It was a lovely view from there.

Sunday was endurance ride day, I didn't sleep well with wierd queries going around my head about Equinox24 and how I'd rack my bike with it's Adamo snub nosed seat, and other random stuff. So I got up tired and my legs were tired from the running too. The plan asked for a 4 hr 30 min ride at heartrate 130-140. After walking the dog Billy and I set out seperately. We were both heading for Richmond but my pace would prevent him training effectively, he was going with similar paced friends.

I set off and soon was paced by them, I worked hard to keep them in sight. At Masham they had stopped. Jeff decided to ride with me as Billy and Martin's pace was to much for his training plan.

It was nice to ride with someone for a change, Jeff said he would probably head back at Leyburn. I had to work hard at times to catch up, at other times we rode together. At Leyburn Jeff decided to continue on with me. The route is undulating and hilly with no flats, by Brompton on Swale my tired legs were arguing, I slowed to get some nutrition in me and soon felt a bit better on the long slog up to Richmond. Then it was time to head home more downs now, some quite fast, but there were still a couple of tough hills. We stopped to offer assistance to a couple with a puncture on one of their mountain bikes, but didn't have appropriate equipment. It was now apparent that we had totally over run our planned time, but Jeff had completed his longest toughest ride. 5 hr 35 min was the time it took to complete 66 miles with 3,839 ft of ascent, Jeff did 70 miles because he had to get home.

It was nice to ride with somebody.

When I got home there was still the small matter of runstreak. I struggled around a mile, before cleaning up my mucky bike.

So that's how my week has been, a good training week with a couple of minor incidents.