Trying to get fit again

It seems ages since I last posted and it is probably because the weather has been so bad. There really isn't much to write about when all one has done is another run in the wind and rain. And the photos don't exactly inspire either! Saying that I have finally been getting the motivation to get going and start beasting myself again. No more long runs needed now so I have been concentrating on doing relatively fast paced efforts of up the 3hs maximum. As a result I have rediscovered muscles I had forgotten about and I am getting used to the effort required to run up hills properly.

Even with the weather I have had some fantastic runs all over the place including a trip to the Breacons in Wales and a chance encounter with the famously smelly feral goats of White Comb in the Borders.

The race I was training for, the Lake District Mountain Trial, was cancelled due to bad weather, but it looks like I might be racing the OMM Elite instead. Last year I didn't train at a hard enough pace and I paid for it, so this year I am going to keep the runs short, but go at them hard. I know I can plod for hours at a time so with a bit more strength and speed we might do a bit better than the 25th-ish place last year. My partner has learnt to navigate too so that should be a bonus. The only problem is that it is in the Lakes and apart from my Bob runs and the odd uni climbing trip I don't know the area at all well.

So my schedule at the moment is Monday and Fridays swimming or core work, Tuesday undulating trail aiming to do 10kmish in under 1hr, Wednesday steady bike with hills 1-1.5hs, Thursday hard intervals or hills. Weekends are for hill runs over round ground keeping them to a max of 3hs and trying quite hard.