The Training Plan (Week 2 - 29 to go)

Now the biggest problem with the challenge is actually doing the training and sticking to some sort of plan.  It sounds so easy from the comfort of my armchair and wasn't too bad last week in the dry sunny weather.  But today the wind is howling and rain lashing and the little devil in my brain is coming up with all sorts of excuses of why I can put off today's run!

Last week in the dry sunny weather up on a forest trail with  Goatfell in the background  

I know 30 weeks will fly by, and I must resist the urge to do too much when I'm still in the early stages. So my plan is fairly simple.  Up to Christmas I aim to do 4 training sessions a week - not a lot but double what I have been doing.  The difficult bit is fitting it around all my other commitments but by not biting off too much I hope to build slowly. And it doesn't mean I'm sedentary for the rest of the time - I'm quite active and have 2 dogs to walk.

The 4 sessions will be varied, running, biking and hill walking.  The running will be a mixture of fast (that's fast for me), long, including hills and coaching sessions.  I may not run all of the session (if my lungs give up going up hill) but I will try. I hope to increase my distance to 15km by Christmas - not every run of course, but to at least have done this distance a couple of times or more.

Me and my bike

The biking is off road on my mountain bike.  I find this really good for core muscles, balance and concentration going downhill over technical bits - not to mention pushing hard on the ups.  The bike also reduces the impact on my knees and calves (something I'll talk about in another blog). I have even bought some lights for my helmet (I figure if I end up in a ditch I'd rather be lit than my bike).

And hill walking.  I've climbed many a mountain and know from experience the only way to get mountain fit is to climb mountains.  Being realistic some of the up on Goatfell is not going to be runable (for me anyway), so improving my mountain fitness will help.

I don't have fixed days for training as my work hours vary each week and I may shake it up a bit if needed.  But that's the plan so far.

So how'd it go this week?

17^th – 23^rd October:

Saturday – Mountain Bike ride, hilly, out for 50 minutes - tested the new lights, OMG it's hard riding technical bits in the dark!

Sunday – Trail run, planned short run, out and back 5.17km, height gain 146m (not feeling great as I was out partying last night).

Monday – No training

Tuesday – Hill coaching session with the running club, 4km.

Wednesday – No training

Thursday – Trail run, hilly. 8.09 km, height gain 242m. Very windy but at least the rain stopped.

Friday -  No training

(Goatfell Race 15.5km / 870m)