Since we currently have no race coming up soon (well apart from one 15k trail run that is) there is no real need to work out for 8-10 hours a week as would of been the case had I been training for the Ironman (well and the rest tbh).

So this week I only did 6 hours training which weirdly feels on the light side now. You definitely notice the difference; I don’t feel tired enough today. Still I should savour these moments really, since I normally reach Sunday afternoon completely wiped out and stuffing my face with flapjacks.

The 6 hours of training were all super fun hours, however. I spent just over an hour on the turbo which was great as I hadn’t been on it for a while so it felt like a novelty again. I managed an hour of physio/strength work (generally core) which I enjoyed as my shoulder is now recovering from the rotator cuff injury and I’m allowed to do press ups again woohoo. Having said that I do mean baby/girly press ups and I can only do 10 but you have to start somewhere so I was still thrilled 😆.

I went swimming for the first time in half a year! It was also the first outdoor swim in over a year. I felt quite nervous and excited about it. I used to, and still do love outdoor swimming but there is something slightly uneasy about swimming out into a lake when there is hardly anyone in it and you cant see the next buoy. My prescription goggles have broken so I had to wear normal ones and even though the buoys are huge orange things I genuinely cant see them that well when I’m initially setting off from the last one. Unbelievable I know!

I started off drafting off my husband as it gave me a chance to be pulled along and take it easy at first (its a bit like drafting on a bike); it also made me feel safe as I only had to follow his legs so if there was some kind of evil creature in the murky water it was going to get him first 😆.

After the second buoy I pulled away and felt confident enough to carry on alone but promptly then stopped at the third buoy as I couldn’t see where to go next. Chris caught up with me and his friend also came zooming past and Chris shouted follow him! Well his mate was a bit too fast for me but he was usefully towing one of those orange float things behind him (I think people put there possessions in them). So I followed the moving orange blob in the water until I had to then return to the jetty whilst both his mate (and Chris) carried on to do further loops.

Unfortunately my physio had said only do 100metres at first and build up. Naturally I did 600 metres and will do more next time (well the loop is 600m so what was I supposed to do?). Anyway my shoulder is fine 👏 and Im very excited about doing more next time and rebuilding my swimming.

I find swimming, particularly outdoor swimming so very relaxing. I need to work on my sighting though. When you swim in open water you have to lift your head slightly out of the water (crocodile eyes they call it) in order to see where you are going (well this is for people who can see 😆) and then you turn your head to the side to breathe and continue with your front crawl. This looking up and taking a breath to the side is ideally done in one smooth flowing movement. I haven’t done this for a year so I guess I was lifting my head too high as the muscles in my neck were really tight and sore afterwards.

I have got my weekly running mileage up to 31k now. It’s not much for most runners but I’m building it up slowly to avoid injury and I should now be able to add 10% to this amount every 3 weeks out of 4 (in week 4 I’ll drop it back a little to recover).

18.5k of this was done today on a beautiful trail run. Unfortunately my husband is poorly so couldn’t come after all which was not only a shame but also he had planned the route. Following advice from him I set off to do 50% of the planned route and then diverted off half way through to do my own route on the return leg. I passed through an area called the Roman Lakes. I’ve never run there before and it’s really lovely and he was in fact right when he said it was easy to follow the signs and you cant get lost. Initially when he said this I was thinking but yeah I can get lost in Marks and Spencers so…….you know I’m pretty useless with directions 😆. Honestly, though, even I couldn’t get lost on this route. I included some canal running on the way out and back and then finished off by running up Werneth Low and down again. It was very muddy and a lot of fun.