Stormy weather

Ok so it's been high winds and rain for the past two weeks which suits me fine. I've been resting a calf injury and doing light running every other day. Back to full strength now and will start back on training plan at 70% tomorrow with a 1.5hr long slow run (which aren't really that slow anymore).

Rest is not rest.

Ok so been taking it easy for the last two weeks. Just doing 70% of usual training as the next race isn't until December. Been concentrating more on my form and breathing. Start back on weights and core next week. Slight pain in right calf shortened my run today only 30mins of an easy 50 could feel it pulling yesterday, am icing it and will take a day off tomorrow. All my training is now on hills except for my VO2 MAX stress training.

X-Terra 6 Shakespeare Bay.

Ran this pretty fast and went hard last year in 1:30. It's the shortest race in the series but has a long technical coastal section. I took the race start easy as well as the coastal section as I knew there were a few hills to climb at the end. I had enough in the tank to run the hills at the end and an easy trot to the finish. I took 4 mins off my time last year coming in at 1:26 and felt fresh and relaxed at the end. Knew my third place in series was assured so just wanted to see how a more relaxed approach to this race would leave me feeling at the end. Answer I could have easily run it again even faster. Wore my NB's but they felt heavy after the sea. Think the inov8's would have been lighter but not sure how they would have coped on the slippery coastal section?

Training

Went out for a 3hr run last weekend in the Waitaks on 2 hrs sleep. Hard going on a muddy trail on a slow run when you've had hardly any sleep. Back to 100% training with a taper week coming up for last run in the Xterra series next Saturday.

X-Terra 5 Whitford.

Didn't want to take any wrong turns so made extra sure I was always on the right track. Lots of hill climbs so went out quite fast to get to first hills. Made good time through the mudbath that the trail had become. Walked a few of the later hills as I'd used up a lot of energy at start. Made a few places in the last 2k's. Lost only 2 places through the entire race. 1:53 for the 18k's but with the 800m of ascent it felt a lot longer. No injuries and feel quite fresh after race.

x-terra 4 Woodhill

After slowly building back to near race level I wa gutted to have taken a wrong turn adding at least 20 minutes to my race.............grrrrrrr

Rest week over.

After no running and a generally lazy (physically) week it's time to get back into training. 30 min jog tomorrow then 60% of last training regime. Think I've rested enough. Need to get some speed for Woodhill 21k on the 25th.