MdS 2022 - Training diary. Week 3

Bit of a belated post but better late than never!

Week three started with doing my long hike on Monday as the grotty weather was coming back in from Tuesday.

Just under 3 hours hiking round our commune in the glorious sunshine was very good for the soul. LOTS of photos taken and general wellbeing was high!

Tuesday was muscle club and then I had the bright idea to run home as the weather still hadn’t appeared. Legs of lead meant a 5km trot home became a walk, jog, shuffle. But by 10am I had done an hour’s strength and conditioning and a 5km run so I felt pretty pleased with myself!

I took Wednesday and Thursday off (two rest days off together will not be happening again, if I can help it - good but you pay for it!) because of general aches and pains plus kids off school, one still quite ill with covid. Physio on Thursday made my hip really, really painful so sleep was elusive.

Friday I squeezed in my first interval training on the treadmill. It was really hard but I secretly quite like interval training. It’s never too long and I always feel very shiny halo afterwards!

Saturday was another treadmill session where I think I went a bit harder than I should have because by Sunday’s bike ride I was very fatigued… Headwind from hell on the way home did not help.

I ended the week feeling very tired but happy becuase I had a lovely Mother’s Day and I had hit all my sessions.

Total training hours: 8h 20mins

MdS 2022 - Training diary. Week 2

Well, if I was worried about the diary being boring, this was the week to prove me wrong…

Monday morning greeted me with torrential rain and a feeling of being wiped out after my first week of training. Heeding my coach’s words of “the only way you will let me down is by not listening to your body”, I shuffled my sessions and took Monday off. (I hasten to add she said this in response to me saying I hoped I wouldn’t let her down, not becasue she’s some kind of crazed bully!)

Tuesday morning I went to muscle club, worked really hard and then went immediately to the sports specialist who promptly agreed that my hip problem was indeed a psoas issue and that I needed physio and strengthening. The knee, on the other had, needs scanned to check what state my dodgy old cartilage, menisucs and osteoarthritis are in. Heading there on Wednesday.

I finished the day by dragging myself out for a run just in time for my hairdresser’s appointment at 6:30pm. Poor woman, I stood outside her window stretching and then walked bright red and with sweaty hair. Nice. Surely, though, the only time anyone has ever come home from a run looking better than when they went out!!

Wednesday was to be the last good day before the really bad weather came in so I did my long hike. Only thing is that I went waaaaaaay longer than I was supposed to because a. it was really beautiful, b. I was stubbornly determined to finish the hike I had started the week before and c. as my husband had driven me to the start, there really was only one way home… End result: amazing hike, but very knackered me!

Thursday I took as a rest day and went to the physio, who hummed and hawed and decided he wasn’t sure about the psoas diagnosis but that he would know more within 3 sessions. To be continued…

Then all hell broke loose as both my husband and son tested positive for COVID and I had to cancel everything in the diary, inform everyone we’d seen and hunker us down for 10 days of quarantine. Turns out we all have different legal requirements for quarantine in this situation, which mean I don’t have to as I’ve had it in the last 6 months; my husband has to until 10 days after his first symptoms; my son and daughter 10 days after my son’s psoitive test but if my daughter tests negative after 7 days she can go back to school… FFS.

Friday I quite frankly did not make time for training, it was a complicated day and I just didin’t…

Satruday my first treadmill session thanks to the dire weather plus an hour of yin yoga. Today an hour’s blast up the hill on my ebike, trying not to get killed on the way down by the kamikaze dog darting in front of me.

Tomorrow is our only good day of weather this week as the rain and snow are making themselves quite at home so I am out long hiking in the morning. Quite nice to be the only one allowed out and about!

Two weeks of kids at home as half term starts for one on Friday. Let’s see how the training discipline holds up!!

Total hours training: 7:35

PS Two sick men in the house is no laughing matter… ;-) They’re both feeling a bit bleurgh but thankfully nothing too dire.

MdS 2022 - Training diary. Week 1

25/4/21

I approached the week of training with excitement. Following a set up call and some form filling out, I was now on the Training Peaks platform with an actual real life coach! I felt like an athlete (albeit one fighting some serious impsoter syndrome).

The weather was beautfiul all week and I started on Monday with a 35-40 minute run in the plan. I was very slow and stiff and I’m carryng a very painful hip and waiting for a scan. The osteo thinks it’s a psoas injury but sports Dr will know more next week.

Tuesday was a 3hr long hike into the mountains really near home and I felt very fortunate to have such an incredible backyard. Quite stiff and sore after that, but lots of stretching a hot bath later, I was fine. Tired, though.

Day off on Wednesday and Friday. Feels so good to have official coach “permission” to have a day off. Not that I’m some sort of sports mad obsessive who needs to exercise every day (far from it), just that it’s nice to have a day where I’m not thinking “oh I really should be doing some exercise”. Takes the guilt away!

Thursday and Saturday more easy 40 minutes runs. I ran in the evening for the first time ever, whch was lovely in the warm, early evening sun.

Sunday was cross training day with the first road bike outing of the year followed by some yin yoga.

Doing lots of stretching and rolling to help with recovery. I am loving the Training Peaks app and the stats, those motivate me. Have scheduled in my training for next week, have had to do some rejigging as I have an appointment to have my hip scanned on Tuesday.

The best thing so far with structured training led by someone else is that I trust her to do this right. I can focus on week by week and let her think about the bigger picture and how to get me to my race fit and ready, which avoids me feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the task at hand!!

Exciting start! Long may it continue. Although weather’s coming back in so there may be some treadmill sessions in my future this week!

Total training hours: 7:40