Getting back on it

Recce of the part of the 10 Peaks route

Following my first 50 mile event in May, it's been a fairly quiet month or so and the time has come to step it back up in preparation for the 10 Peaks Challenge in early September.  

Getting back in to the training has been tough and I've been suffering with tight hamstrings and a lack of leg power.  I had some leg issues during the NDW50 and I knew I would need to spend some serious time working on getting more power in preparation for the amount of uphill work in the next event.  

For this reason I've engaged the help of a personal trainer specifically to help me with getting some strength and conditioning work alongside the same training programme I've been following.

The pain that is known as Jacob's ladder

To add some variety and for further leg power, I treated myself to a new road bike, which I've rolled in to my training, stepping it up another gear.   Getting out on some big distance rides (~40 miles) and running the same day is really giving me an additional boost to my legs, although fitting it all in with work is becoming a juggling act....thank goodness for the light mornings and evenings.

The next event has also just got a lot harder.....not only am I competing in the 10 Peaks Challenge, I have also entered in to the Brecon Beast Mountain Bike race (short course) which starts 5 hours after the cut off for the run.  That means potentially only 5 hours rest (and some sleep) between 89km and then a further 60km race.....should be an interesting challenge.

Before the 10 Peaks I've got the Summer Fan Dance in July and then the Brecon 10 miler in early August, which I'll complete with Nikki (or not as I have a habit of getting swept away at the start of a race).  Oh and just to keep things interesting, I've entered another 50 miler for 2014, the South Downs Way this time........I also quite fancy Comrades and UTMB next year but not sure I can squeeze it all in.  Anyway better get back to the training.....

Training in the Sun

Nikki and I jetted off for some final preparation training and conditioning in the Sun this week, arriving in Lanzarote for a week of carefully planned running with Run Wild Run Free.  

The training camp isn't just for runners, is primarily aimed at Triathletes, offering expert instruction and coaching covering all three disciplines.  With a daily schedule allowing you to maximise your time in the pool, on the road and/or on the trail/track, you could easily spend 8 hours a day pushing yourself to your limits.

The Taff Trail

Stretching south from the market town of Brecon through the valleys and into the centre of Cardiff, the Taff Trail is an easy going pathway that takes in historical architecture and awe-inspiring views, passable to those on bikes, horseback or on foot.

It was a cold yet dry(ish) morning on Saturday 26th January when Chris Hyde and I set off along the Brecon canal, our destination central Cardiff weather permitting. With the snow of the previous weeks still on the ground, compacted down into sheets of ice, neither of us expected to be able to get all the way to the end of trail.  The first few miles were taken slowly along the towpath with the threat of taking an early morning dip somewhat undesirable, we eased our way into the 55 mile journey.

With Chris testing a Garmin, it didn't take long for our first navigational error, just as we entered Talybont-on-Usk, where we dropped down on to the main road to avoid the sheet ice we missed the right turn up the hill to the reservoir.  Subsequently we turned around but then headed upwards on the wrong road, but it turned out all right in the end, only having climbed a few hundred metres higher than necessary and clambered over fences and waded through knee deep snow drifts - all good fun of course!

Time for another change

My new stead

Given all the running and probably also due to Olympic fever, I thought it was time to add a new activity to my fitness regime...time to buy a mountain bike.  Being a gadget freak, getting a mountain bike was not dissimilar to one of my trips to the Apple Store, expensive but very worthwhile!

My purchase was made at a somewhat local store, just the other side of Reading.  The sales assistant knew I was a newbie but treated my ignorance without laughing too hard or as frequently as I would have done if the roles had been reversed.  I loved the fact he just pulled a bike from the rack and told me to take it round the block, no ID, no name, nothing at all....just a level of trust you don't find very often these days.