The Week Before Brighton

On Sunday 15th April I will finally be running the Brighton Marathon. It's been a real rollercoaster of a few weeks not only in terms of what I've achieved (or not) with training but emotionally and mentally. Let's have a bit of a recap...

Week of March 12th
Swim: 1,600m
Bike: 51 miles
Run: 8 miles

It feels like lifetime ago that I walked the Sam Run course in the snow with Jackie, the race organiser, and Amy, one of the other ambassadors. I've organised some training runs in the lead up to the event which you can find out about here, and it just so happens that until April 19th you can get a discount on race entries! Just enter code Discount5 or Discount10 at the check out for the 5km or 10km race respectively. It was also the week I went out for a friend's birthday and to see Bill Bailey with Dean and my parents. It was a great week and one of my highest mileage weeks on the bike (all indoors though).

Post-floatation tea and sorbet

Week of March 19th
Swim: 4,200m
Bike: 41 miles
Run: 30 miles

Along the canal

A busy week of trying to look after myself with a floatation session mixed in with a social run, helping out at the first Barnes Fitness event of the year (see their website for more events - I particularly recommend to Dinton Series and Starlight Swims) and some long ol' distances across the disciplines! I tackled my longest run in this training cycle to date, 20.7 miles along the canal from Newbury to Reading. It was a lovely if somewhat muddy route (and I didn't have my trail shoes on) but it gave me a chance to practice my nutrition strategy (aka what I will eat and when). I also got out on actual roads on my bike! Shock horror! Only a few heart palpitations at junctions and aside from not eating anything on the 27 miles ride and almost collapsing from hunger and adrenaline at the end it went well.

A much needed snickers bar!

Week of March 26th
Swim: 1,850m
Bike: 49 miles
Run: 10 miles

Another big mileage week on the bike, although it was all on the turbo trainer where I wussed out because of the weather or on a spin bike. I had a free Monday evening which enabled me to get to one of the 3CTri spin classes, which I find so beneficial. Continuing the theme of looking after myself I had both a massage and an osteopath appointment and am seeing improvements in my posture and knotted muscles.

On Good Friday I ran the Maidenhead 10 at a pace I didn't think I was capable of. I don't run many 10 mile events but it was a huge 10 minute PB for me and a massive confidence boost to boot! If I wasn't sure before, it's shown me in no uncertain terms that training is paying off. The rest of the weekend was spent running the kids around outside between rain showers and grinding out miles on the turbo trainer whilst working my way through 4 Rocky films.

Week of April 2nd
Swim: 5,500m
Bike: 24.5 miles
Run: 16.5 miles

Which brings us almost up to date... Last week I hit my biggest swims of the year with a 2,500m and 3,000m swim. The latter was at Thames Lido where I spent a happy Thursday afternoon with Cathy for swimming and tapas with recovery in the hot tub and saunas. I've never swum a lido before but I can't wait to go back!

I'd squeezed in a brick session (2 hours on the bike plus a 45 minute run), track and the other swim earlier in the week and a 7 mile run first thing in the morning prior to the lido on Thursday and frankly I was good for nothing the rest of the week. I'd only done one thing differently to what was in my plan (7 mile run was meant to be on Saturday) but I was so much more tired than I felt I should have been. Not only was I fatigued but emotional, dithering about the simplest of decisions, falling asleep stupidly early and getting upset at teeny things. I took the rest of the week off (with the exception of a Zumba Gold course on Sunday afternoon) and felt much better come Monday.

My swimming is still ramping up this week but the bike and running is tapering off in preparation for Brighton. I'm really excited to see what I'm capable of and will of course report back!

In the mean time if you'd like to donate or simply remind yourself why I'm putting myself through this, please go to my Just Giving page. I'm so grateful to everyone who has sponsored me so far. I still have Swimathon, Outlaw and Lakesman to go!