Well it’s official, I’m in all three races which make up the ‘Triple Crown’ – Highland Fling, West Highland Way Race and Devil O the Highlands.
January is always a tough month, the excitement of Christmas is over and its’s back to work. I leave home in the morning – it’s dark, I come home at night – it’s dark and this year it has been chucking it down pretty much every day. This combined with the fact I usually have a lower mileage month in December makes it so difficult to keep motivated – so thank god for the Triple Crown! 95 miles will not run itself! And after all this fuss, failing is not an option…
So this month has been all about getting back to regular running and slowly building the miles back up. I’ve been running 4 – 5 times which is usual for me in ultra training. I’ve always worried about not training enough and compared myself to others but I think I’ve finally learnt, it’s about what works for me. I really value rest days and my body really thanks me for it.
As you may have seen from my last blog, I’ve taken up CrossFit and one month in am still going – woohoo! I’m actually really enjoying it, even though I’m a bit crap I enjoy it and already feel stronger. There were so many things I couldn’t do when I started, I didn’t dare do the box jumps and looked ridiculous trying to lift but I’m definitely getting better and feeling more confident – I can box jump like a pro now 🙂 I have experienced DOMS like never before… One hour of CrossFit caused me more pain in the following days than running 65 miles!
Through the week, I tend to get up stupid early and run first thing. Work and a long commute means getting out at night can be tricky. I tend to run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Weekends are my favourite running times as I get to go out with OH Ryan and beagle Bernard and we always find a new and exciting route to run. This has been made much easier since we moved house in December, we are literally spoilt for choice. Highlight for this month was the run up to High Cup Nick in the snow!
All in all January has been a decent month of training, next month will see the return to the big miles and a trip to the Yorkshire 3 Peaks with a bunch of North East ultra running legends! But for now it looks like this:-
20 Runs
156 Miles
9 CrossFit Sessions
2 Falls
Happy Running Everyone – Bye for now 🙂
Trail Tales 