Goodbye to circuits

Yesterdays bike intervals went very well. After speaking to Graeme and Emma last week, I found I was putting the seat too low and rectifying that made all the difference... so thanks to them both for that!
I tried my recovery drink for the first time and found it to be pretty good on first impressions. It had a bit of a powdery aftertaste, however after today and mixing it differently before my run, I found it to be much better.

I decided to take it easy for todays run. After being so ill last week, I chose to just take my time and not push the pace. I also drank whenever I wanted to instead of restricting water to every 5K. I thought under the circumstances, doing that today would just be silly.
The route I chose was a 15 mile course and it's quite tough because it's a lot of hills. The worst hill was at 3.5 miles, and apart from a little respite at around 6 miles for around quarter of a mile, this hill goes on for 3 miles. It's tough, and I had a couple of walk breaks. This didn't concern me though. On a good day I could easily run this, today was not the day for that though. I wasn't 100%, so I decided that the time on my feet of 2 hours and 30 was more important than my pace... just for this week!

My legs felt very heavy and fatigued practically the whole way (even within the first 3 miles), so I was pleased with 14.16 miles in the time frame. I ran 12 miles after getting over an illness last year... it took me 2 hours and 36 minutes back then!

As I was just over a mile from home, I chose to switch my Garmin off and walk the last mile. This turned out to be too painful though, as the cold got to my legs after quarter of a mile and made them seize up really bad. I ended up jogging and walking to try and keep myself warm.

So, I'm now recovered, as I've eaten very well and had my recovery drink and vitamins. Tomorrow my training changes.

I got a mahoosive email from Shaun detailing changes to my Sunday training. It's goodbye to circuits for me! I'm ready to move on to a new phase which I find very exciting. He sent me a training regime for deadlifts, and after reading it I am now in no doubt why I can't do circuits on the same day. Wow... it looks EXTREMELY hard! I have to do 10 sets... my first set consisting of 6 reps of my current top weight (60KG). I laughed when he said I may get DOMS... you're not kidding mate! :-)
The thing I'm very pleased about is that Graeme is still going to go to circuits on a Sunday without me. I think it will do him good to keep them up.
My priorities have now changed, with running top priority, strength training second priority and cross training least important. He said I will probably want to eat a lot more which is fine, as my body will need to repair itself. It was very interesting what he said about what occurs with your metabolism after deadlifts. Apparently you work anaerobically, and as you are doing sets with breaks in between, your body knows it can't convert fuel fast enough so anticipates you are going to be doing another set and so over the next 48 hours or so, periodically converts stored energy to fuel.. something to do with thermogenisis. Most interesting!

William is doing a 48 hour race this weekend, and I keep looking to see if there is any more news. After 10 hours he was in 12th place, but get this... he doesn't worry about his placing so early as he will probably run while others are resting and can keep a level pace right through to the end. That man is a machine!!!

We all went for a carvery tonight, and on the way home we were talking about being scared about stuff. My son said, "Have you ever been, like, scared stiff?". I said I had and it's an awful feeling. He proceeded to tell me he hears whispering during the night when he's in bed and it scares him so much he can barely breathe and gets all hot and sweaty. He said it's all gibberish and he can't make out what they are saying because it's like a thousand voices at the same time. How do you explain to your 13 year old that he's clairaudient, just like his mam?