A slow week, sore legs and a festival. Hell and Back training update!

Oh hey there! 

I wrote a whole blog post up just before I went to the gym and decided to finish it off when I got back and it's amazing what a good trip to the gym can do for raising your spirits so I've scrapped half of it cos I was clearly a negative Nelly earlier. So... you're welcome that I didn't bum you out! This will now be the first tip of this blog post: If you have a decision to make, workout and decide afterwards. 

I digress! Last week's training didn't exactly go to plan which isn't surprising because anything I plan rarely works out as expected! I underestimated the stress I would be under as I had to do final year assignments and it was my last ever week as an undergraduate student so the pints were a flowin'! So I won't lie and pretend I did 5 days training when it actuality I did.... two. But two runs is better than none!  I don't know about you though but if I work out really hard for a few weeks the odd time I just think you know what nope I'm not doing anything this week and when I take a few days off I feel recuperated and my muscles are fully rested and I run better and faster than I ever did so the few days off probably didn't do me any harm. (I'm really good at making up excuses to make myself feel better...) 

What I did last week 

I ran both runs on the road and the first one was 10/11km and the other was 6/7km with speed intervals on a pitch. My legs are still sore from the speed intervals I did on the pitch which is strange! I think it's because my legs aren't used to running at that speed on that terrain so it's probably a great thing for the Hell and Back because I'm assuming most of the ground will be grass! My legs hurting just goes to show that the muscles that are sore aren't being used so it's time to get them to work! I think from now on I'm going to try to do speed intervals on a grassy area at least once a week. I genuinely think this will save my life when doing the Hell and Back because one of the hardest parts of the course is running on the rough grassy terrain! 

So, tip number two! (That I'm pretty sure I said in the last post but I'm too lazy to check) : Do speed intervals on grass. 

What I did this week

Yesterday I hit the gym but my legs were still too sore to run so I did 6km on the cross trainer and I tried a quick one kilometre on the treadmill to see how the legs were! They weren't having any of it so I just hit the weights and did some arm work! I've taken advantage of the glorious weather the last few days too and actually went on walks which is unlike me! Today myself and some friends did a few laps of our local park and then spent a good half hour playing in the playground. They described me as a desperate 8 year old begging for people to play with, I just really really like playgrounds. So I was climbing up walls, hanging off monkey bars, climbing ropes and doing weird backward flips I haven't done in years so I count all that as training for the Hell and Back! 

Afterwards, I hit the gym and did a 10min warm up on the cross trainer and then a 5km run on the treadmill, my legs were sore but they managed!! I then did some plank work, legs raises, push ups, skipping, arm work and core work! I plan on hitting the gym in the morning again to try and squeeze in one last workout before the weekend! I'll probably do some leg work like squats and lunges mixed with maybe some interval training if my legs can take it!

Here I am having a whale of a time at Vantastival
last year

I'm heading to a festival on Friday in Louth, where I'm from, called Vantastival. It's almost a tradition amongst my group of friends at this stage to go every year and I've been looking forward to it for the last few months! Literally everything will go out the window, food, drink and exercise wise but sure I'll be on the right path come next week again and all should be grand hopefully! I find it's easy for me to get caught up in training and eating right to the point where I almost don't want to do things that might interfere with my hard work, for fear I end up unravelling it in some way but I realise this is a bit irrational and you have to let go of the runners and let your hair down once in while! I still plan on getting in 4 really good workouts this week and I'm even going to try and get a run in Friday morning before the festival! That one really is wishful thinking but sure I'll try my best! So this leads me to tip number 3! : It's okay to let your hair down every now and again, it won't unravel everything you've done.

That's all for now folks! Hope training is going well and that you all get out in the glorious weather for a nice walk or run! Don't forget you can follow me on twitter here.