I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

It's been two weeks since I started my new training plan that Ellie has designed for me and I'm loving it! It still never ceases to amaze me, just how much difference it makes being accountable to someone. It's also great not to have to think too much about what to do in my sessions, just the occasionally bit of route planning, and trying to figure out where I'm going to find a hill that takes 2 minutes to run up!

I'm building a fitness base for my events next year, upping mileage for the honeymoon marathon and working on my swim and cycling techniques. Ellie is using Training Peaks to deliver my training plan, which I've used before and get on well with. I've linked it to my Garmin Connect account so whenever I sync my Garmin to my phone, it uploads them to Vitality, Strava and Training Peaks - no fuss. I get an email every day with the current day's session and the next day's, so I'm not constantly logging in to see what's next. I'm also getting in the habit of leaving post workout comments about how it felt, what was good/bad/different. 

My first session in the week is a swim session that Ellie sets out for me. This is new for me as whenever I go to the pool I usually just swim for distance so trying to alter my speeds and do drills alone has felt odd, not least because I didn't feel as though I *could* swim at different speeds! So I squeeze that in before work and do a second swim session on a Friday evening with the tri club. The Friday sessions are coached so I get more feedback and can chat with other swimmers about the session, whether that be whinging or joking. I could have gone to these before but I always made the excuse that it was too late in the evening or I was going out, or we had the kids... any number of things. So even though Ellie doesn't set the session I still have to prove I went, so I go. Guilt - it's a powerful thing.
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New swim suit for new season

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are run days. It's an Ellie-set on Tuesday, working on hills or pace at the moment, and running club track session on Wednesdays, another session I would make excuses not to go to. It turns out I can get there in time after work, know plenty of people and Dean meets me there so again, no more excuses. Track is both wonderful and horrible. In my first week I was put into Group A (I was expecting Group B) which is the sub-24 minute 5k group... i.e. MUCH faster than my PB (at the moment - maybe this training will change that). This was supposedly so that coach could see how I ran on my own (Groups B & C were working in pairs) and in fairness the set was such that I wasn't able to compare myself to others very much although I did find my fast pace wasn't my quicker than some people's slow pace. I felt as though I'd disappointed coach but I know it's all for the greater good. I nailed the stretching though!

Tuesdays are a bit of a double run/triple training day at the moment as I lead my Fit2Run group on some trail runs in the evening which I can't weave my training into, leaving me more tired that I should be for track. I'm also doing a SUPfit class in the morning, which I LOVE and ticks the box for cross training/strength and conditioning, but it's only for a couple more weeks. If my Tuesday run training doesn't involve a hill I can do it before SUPfit, which gets it out of the way nice and early and I get to run around the lake which is so lovely.

Post run, pre SUPfit!

Thursday are rest days and I try very hard to take the advice. It's a quite work day too so I can properly chill out. The weekend is hosting my longer training sessions for cycling, running or brick (cycling followed by running). This was a bit of a disaster in my first week. I was due to cycling for an hour and run for 30 minutes on Saturday and between teaching in the morning, our pre-wedding photos and an evening out with friends I barely had enough time to fit it in. Then when I did get to it, I felt as though I was running on empty, getting slower and slower on the bike, with shaky legs and feeling sick so I abandoned after 40 minutes on the bike and went home to be fed tea and biscuits by Dean. The only reason for it I can think of is that I was full of nerves for the photo shoot and the adrenalin left me feeling washed out.

One of my faves from our photo shoot

The week ends with a long run on Sunday. If we don't have the children in tow then I'm trying to do this with Dean for some moral support and company, but I've no qualms about heading out on my own when I have to. This week I'm actually swapping my track session and long run around as I'm doing the Tolkien run on Wednesday so I'll replicate track on my own on Sunday. I've also got what looks to be a rather long/tiring swim set today which will certainly earn me my breakfast! Feels good to have structure again and I'm feeling better for it already!

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