It was a week of pushing through training.
Sunday was my rest day. I adore Sundays. Church followed by Roast Dinner and a highly calorific pudding and then ahh! nap time. I descend into the arms of sleep either on the settee or sinking into the glories of my memory foam pillow for a least an hour of restorative sleep and digestion time. I generally try to not actively train on two days a week, usually Friday and Sunday but, those rest days are not about sloth. We must always remember that rest days are just as much part of race preparation as the training days. So, I am learning to cherish them.
On Monday I did the first double session I had done in a long time. The morning saw me out on my bike to do a fast couple of circuits totalling just over 15km in an hour and that ended up with the school pick up (multi-tasking is my middle name) and this was followed up with a pleasant run of about 8.28km.
Tuesday I was at a conference all day but pottered down to the canoe club after dinner with all my boys in tow. Youngest one is yet to do his paddle power so he ran alongside us on the tow path. Ross joined us and we pootled about for about 1 1/2 hours. It was lovely and yippee, I didn't have to capsize, nor was I in any danger of doing so! Taking the assessor's advice I am trying to change my paddling style to use more core and less arms. I have straightened my arms a bit and it is helping. It is a good thing too because of a nagging shoulder and neck nerve injury I have lived with for years which was exacerbated by the car crash of a few weeks ago. Anyway, it was a gorgeous evening for a little paddle and fab family time. It is quite tough having so many family members in training as it really eats up into family time so I am always looking for creative ways to include the children in my training.
Wednesday, due to my lack of car, I decided to meet a friend via peddle power. It was a lovely ride but as I treated it as a commute, I didn't drink enough which had a rather horrible knock on effect on Wednesday night....
On Wednesday evening I met up with my running buddies Kate, Abi and Asia. It would be the first time in ages we would be able to coordinate to run together. I was really up for it, full of energy and excited to run. I had my kit on and was raring to go. 600m from home it started - CRAMP. All the muscles in both my legs went as stiff as planks and no amount of rubbing or stretching was sorting it out. Within 700m of leaving home I was squeaking and howling in pain. (Apparently this caused some hilarity among my friends) I soldiered on, I mean it should wear off in a minute and I am training for an endurance event. Unfortunately by the time I was just over a kilometre from home I could barely walk. Quite frankly I was walking with very stiff legs, at a distance apart that made me look a bit like a cowboy and as if I had done something unpleasant in my knickers.
The ladies said I should turn round and go home. So I did.
A friend drove passed me as I walked home and her children commented, "That's Emma. She's not going very fast is she?"
Oh dear!
Lesson learned.
After that rather unpleasant experience I gave myself Thursday off.... I needed it, my body said so!
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