w/c 5th March - a hard, easy week!

I'd like to have been able to look back at this week and say that I backed off to provide a little recovery before returning strongly and training harder still. The truth I did less milage, ran less frequently and did less climbing than in previous weeks and am sat here on a Monday lunchtime stiff and sore. How?! Well, the answer, and the lesson concerns cross training. On Saturday I played some squash and badminton, things I rarely do, and made the usual runner's assumption that being fit for the fells and the roads makes you fit and strong for anything physical. If i can knock off a stage of the BGR and feel as fresh as a daisy, what harm is an hours squash and an hours badminton going to do..?

Imagine my chagrin when I awoke on Sunday morning at 6.30 to go out and run on the fells to find that my hamstrings and glutes registered a soreness that i recognised only from having run the London marathon or the Jura fellrace! Quads and calves were fine but still I walked like Douglas Barder after a night on the pop. Strangely, I ran OK on Sunday - as if the bits of my body that did running were fine and the bits that did hurt weren't made any worse.

Considering how sore my calves were last Monday and Tuesday (and still a bit on Thursday) after the half marathon last Sunday, it seems that this week holds a lesson - training for running on the fells makes you good at running on the fells.

Here's how this reduced week's activity actually shaped up...

Monday - Rested, legs tired from Haweswater half

Tuesday - 8M, easy run out with the club, calves VERY tight. Was worried about getting injured so I let the group so the efforts and pootled round on my own.

Weds - Rest, plus some stretching

Thursday - 9M, including 2 1.2km efforts and 6 400m efforts. Worked hard and calves tightened up towards the end. Ran well and was at the head of the group. 400m efforts were tough.

Fri - rested

Sat - 3M run after 2 hours of badminton, squash and probably an hour's cycling.

Sun 8M, 2500' - Run on Bowscale Fell and Bannerdale Crags. Initial heather slope was a tough to get any rhythm on, so much so that I descended to the valley and climbed a different slope. Ran well once on the top. Didn't feel too pushed at all. Out for 2 hours - but had to get back to group. Weather windy and misty but dry. Felt a bit dissatsified afterwards.

Totals - 28M, @3100'?

Will do better next week, honest...