9 days and counting...

 

That's all that's left. 9 days of training left, well I say training its tapering. This is the period of the training that no-one likes. I hit my "Peak Week" last Sunday and Ive been Tapering off my training since. The theory is to peak your fitness, then spend a couple of weeks doing less and less until race day, repairing all the muscle damage, resting and restoring glycogen levels into the body. It can be a really frustrating couple of weeks as you feel great and ontop of your game, but that was what peak week was for. I know exactly how to taper now and I use the down time to rest, plan my race tactics and double check everything.

I woke early this morning and made my lunch and a Chicken Curry for the slow cooker and headed off slightly early for work as it was day 2 of my course. The day went quickly and I got a lot from the course. I walked home and everyone was ok for a change and I managed to get out for a recovery run after the Bootcamp workout last night. I returned home and after a stretch had tea and tidied up. I did Olivers spellings with him and he got all but one right (international) which I thought was quite advanced for an 8 year old. He's doing so well with his work (he's had a couple of blips at school this week, hitting out and not answering his teachers but I'm thinking he's picked up my stress earlier in the week as he's really susceptible to it ).

I checked for an update on the Ultra Website and was really lucky. They had just started a Webinar with the organiser going over the route and mandatory checkpoints. Im really glad I caught it as it gave me quite a bit of extra information and it was really interesting. There was the ability to ask live questions and talk to the organiser direct which I thought was excellent planning by them.
After the webinar I downloaded he updated race info pack and put Oliver to bed, wrote this and jumped in a hot bath.

Running: 7:17 miles   7.55/mi  56 min

I set out into the beautiful and unseasonal sunshine and ran my normal route around Walney. I was sweating like mad it was so warm and humid. I kept the pace steady as I was a little achy after last nights bootcamp. My upper body was sore, especially under my arms in my lateral muscles and my shoulders. This was from all the burpees, thrusters and press-ups I did last night, painful but in a satisfying, hard earned sort of way.
By the time I got to the half way point the sun was still beating down but a cooling evening breeze picked up, evaporating the sweat away. My shoulders were really fatigued and I had to run with them by my sides for a while. I don't mind them being like this as it shows I worked hard and there are changes taking place. I made my way home and had a cold drink as I stretched in the garden.

It was a nice easy run and was good to loosen up some tight and sore muscles.

Food Diary:
Breakfast:
Mini Shredded Wheat with Skimmed milk and Blueberries

Lunch:
Tarragon seared chicken and avocado salad.

Dinner:
Homemade Slow cooker Chicken Tikka with wholegrain rice and green beans.

Snacks:
Apple, nuts and seeds, banana, slice of sourdough bread with manuka honey, square of dark chocolate.