8WOS - Lucky day

The best thing about this week´s blog, the great thing about it, the amazing thing about it, is that I have some running to report - and all went well. Considering there are 6 weeks to go before I launch myself over a HM´s worth of mountains this has to be a good thing.

It´s been hard mentally over the last few weeks, especially since I fell so low in my first week, but I finally put my foot down with myself and went running even if it wasn´t far and it wasn´t fast. I was considering leaving the HR monitor at home and just enjoying myself without being too disciplined but I decided in the end that this way would only lead to rack and ruin i.e. injury. So...with my HRM on I studiously did my 10 minute walking warm-up then found myself running and stopping, then running and stopping, because my HR kept creeping up over 135 (my limit for developing aerobic function). It was impossible to run for more than a few seconds at a time. However this didn´t matter to me. You see, I´ve been here before I know what it´s like when you lose your aerobic fitness - it´s like this. However, what I also know is that it comes back pretty quickly and I would expect, within two weeks or so, to be able to do at least 10-15k without getting near my HR limit.

I also had the scare of my life this week. This blog is supposed to be reporting on my training for the mountain HM in Pedreguer on 3rd June. The only slight catch, that I found out this week, is that this race doesn´t actually exist. I´m not sure how this happened. I overheard someone talking about the race when I was at my last one and I asked them to confirm it. As they were one of the organisers of said race, I presumed the info was solid. Apparently not. Luckily I found another mountain HM, on the same day, about 100k to the north of where I presumed my fantasy race was taking place. So not only do I still have a race, but I get to take the family away for the weekend. How lucky is that? Here´s hoping it´s a sign of things to come.

The profile of the race is here. As you can see, I wasn´t joking when I said there were mountains involved. I may have been joking when I said it was a HM though - it´s only 20K. Perhaps I´ll go for a jog around the village afterwards.

Just to end, I´d like to say a big congratulations to everyone who did the London Marathon today. It looked like a great event. And a big well done to everyone off the Runners Forum. You did us all proud.