Training between marathons

So what have I been up to since VLM?  Well, here's a short diary.

Sunday 21st April - Race day!  Ran the marathon (obviously), but managed to walk around London a bit in the even to stop muscles from seizing up.  Took in vital post marathon treats such as a slice of pizza and a huge bowl of ice cream at the Hagen Daaz restaurant.

Monday 22nd April - Spend most of day negotiating the Tube and walking down the stairs backwards.  Probably annoyed a lot of commuters.  Had to dash about 26.2 meters for the train!

Tuesday 23rd April - First bit of exercise.  A VERY light walk/jog of about 2.5 miles with the Sweatshop Running Community after work.  I went in the beginner's group!  There were 3 of us - the leader, who had actually got a bit of an injury, a girl just starting out, and me, knackered from VLM.  We were a right bunch.  Legs felt a little better by the even, but sore if I sat around for a while.

Wednesday 24th April - Cycled gently to work.  Legs finally feeling slightly more normal, but did feel quite stiff after sitting down for too long.

Thursday 25th April - Cycled to work again, and also went swimming with Tri Force in the evening.  Legs nearly there!

Friday 26th April - Rest day.  I don't think I did much today except maybe take a short walk to the shops and back at lunch.

Saturday 27th April - 5k Park Run.  Struggled with this one - my first proper run after VLM!  Ran at medium-low effort but it really took it out of me.  Felt a bit dizzy and at the end was quite light headed.  So not exactly recovered just yet.  Felt fine for the rest of the day though (had a very busy day!).  I wore my VLM tank top and it was good to chat to other runners about it!

Sunday 28th April - Rest day.  Went to see Iron Man 3.  Great film and Robert Downey Jnr is awesome! I want to see that one again!

Monday 29th April - Cycled to work, and did a very slow 2.5 mile jog at lunchtime, the same effort as what i did for the final few runs of the taper.  This felt good.  Went swimming in the evening and got the chance to test out my new tri-suit and wet suit!  Because of the wetsuit, I got a lot of extra buoyancy so the swimming felt very easy.  Plus I mostly did drills with breaks every 100m or so, which made for quite an easy evening.

Tuesday 30th April - Cycled to work and did a lunchtime run with Matt.  We did about 3.5 or 4 miles - longest run since the marathon.  Found it hard work and was feeling out of breath during the final stretch.  Went to circuits in the evening.  I would have given this a miss but it was the final one of the winter before the club switches to evening runs instead, so I went along.  Unfortunately it wasn't an easy session and included short bursts of high intensity training, probably not what I really needed.  Did have a good stretch session at the end though.

Wednesday 1st May - Drove to work.  Felt tired and not my best most of the day.  I was worried I had gone and overdone things the last few days.  Even climbing 3 flights of stairs wore me out.  I was planning on attending the club's first 10 mile time trial cycles of the year, but I wasn't sure if I was feeling up to it.  However i spent my lunch hour driving the route that the TT takes. But by early afternoon the feeling passed, I had lots to eat and drink and was feeling fine by the evening.  I decided to go to the TT.   Had to grab quite a quick supper before I went out as I'd been tied up after work which was pasta, chocolate milk and an energy then geared up and cycled over to Colney Heath and met up with the others.  It was a good turn out!  Mostly experienced riders, but there were one or two other first timers making our "debut" as we called it!  I was not sure what sort of time I would get (estimated times for the group seemed to range from 22 to 45 mins!) and was a bit worried that this was meant to be an "eye balls out" full-on, maximum effort ride.  I decided I'd put in good but not max effort given the last few days and aimed for a time of around 40 minutes.  I set off third, with the other beginners and slower riders.  had a bit of a dodgy start as managed to hit nearly every pot hole on that road - and there were a lot.  Our roads are horrendous.  I paniced slightly as I hit one coming up to a roundabout and was forced to pull over for a second.  After that, things were fine.  It was a hilly route with some sharp climbs and very little flat.  But pretty good fun!  At last i was working hard but not feeling dizzy or fatigued.  I finished in 40 minutes.  I am looking forward to going all out on these rides in a  few weeks when i have recovered from Prague.

Thursday 2nd May - Cycled to work, so mostly rest.

Friday 3rd May - Cycled to work.  More sitting at desk in front of a screen.  It's lovely weather and would much rather be outside!  Each day I have cycled to work I have worn either my tri suit or summer cycling kit.  I must look such a poser strutting about the campus in skintight lycra.  Gives the day a bit of an edge, I suppose.

Tomorrow will be another workout day, with my first duathlon in the morning with TF.  A 5k run, 20k bike and 3k run.  Feeling rather unprepared as have not doing any brick workouts yet.  Practice for the first triathlon though.  Also got the Windsor Women's 10K on Monday (bank holiday!!) - it looks like it's going to be a hot day though.  These two with be the only "big" workouts I'll do between the marathons and one of them will be at an easy pace (probably the 10k).  Next week i will do a short recovery run on Tuesday, probably skip the TT, and do another very short, easy taper run mid week.  Before another 26.2 miles of running in the Czech Republic!