Recovery week

After the exertions of last weekend, I had decided to give myself a couple of weeks recovery time, though I did not really know how much I would need them.

The two previous times I've run the Fling, I have kept things in check for much of the race, particularly when racing the West Highland Way only 7 or 8 weeks later. This time I gave myself more freedom to have a proper go, knowing that it is three months to the Lakeland 100, giving more time to recover and then build up to the big one. In 2010, I was training properly within 4 days of the Fling, however, that is not the case this year.

I feel that the recovery is going well and my legs feel fine; I just have a general tiredness and a desire to eat anything and everything. In some ways, it is quite useful having this tiredness as it is stopping me from kicking in with the training too soon and has reinforced my plan to take another week of easy jogging to, hopefully, complete the recovery.

Right on cue, Lorn Pearson posted an article on overtraining on her blog, which again reminded me to take things easy. At the moment, things are going in the right direction with regard to my Lakeland 100 preparation; confidence is up after the Fling, I've had a good four months of consistent training, the recces with John have gone really well and I still have the motivation to push on over the next three months. It would be a disaster to risk overtraining at this stage when recovery is obviously needed.

Today, Tracey and I had a drive out to Wasdale to make good use of the lovely weather, combining a run/jog/walk up to Blacksail Pass for me, a walk for Tracey and a picnic together after. Wasdale is gorgeous but what a pain to drive for 1:30 hours and end up only 11 miles from home!!

Looking up Wasdale Valley

My legs felt good on the long climb, though I made no effort to push the pace, simply taking in the stunning views. I had a good recce of the point where the main path crosses Gatherstone Beck as I have heard that this can be tricky in the dark and I estimate it will somewhere around here that I'll need to put on the headtorch in the Lakeland 100 race.

Heading towards Blacksail Pass

View from the pass

I have started to think about how I am going to make the slight shift towards a more Lakeland 100 specific training plan which I will share on another day, though needless to say, it is going to include more mountains than I did on the build-up to the Fling.

Finally, a quick congratulations to my stepfather, Paul, who became MV60 British Mountainbike Orienteering (long course) Champion last weekend. I'll be a happy man if I'm that fit at his age!