SportsShoes Blog

Well that’s been a grotty week hasn’t it….

Last Sunday morning I had a great run for a couple of hours over Ilkley Moor - it was freezing cold with ice on the ground, no mud but plenty of grip. It was the perfect morning for a long run so I made the most of my kids’ footy matches being called off and took to the hills.

Monday I cycled to work and on the way home as cold water trickled down between my butt cheeks I thought to myself “I really should have put my mudguard back on!!!”

Since then I’ve been crocked with a cold - a gift from my wife who has been struggling with a bad dose of girl-flu for the past couple of weeks.

Anyway on the postive side, it was a great time to have a cold and be laid off running as the snow and ice meant that it would have been pretty much impossible to do much anyway. I still managed my 2 dog walks each day to keep the old joints from seizing up.

It’s Saturday now and I think I’ve beaten my cold through a bout of ‘positive thinking’ I’m just at the green custard stage now - it looks very pretty in the snow!!!

I’m all psyched up again now after just talking to a chap (Rob Thackery) about his sub 10 hour Ironman so tomorrow I’m going to try another long trot over the moors - hope the weather holds.

I’d like to do an Ironman sometime soon but the training commitment is huge because of the three different events. I used to swim a lot as kid but not anymore - to get to a point where I could do 5 miles open water would be a massive challenge (and that’s before 100 miles on the bike and a marathon).

Well I was all set to do the Oldfield race today but my training partner Jamie texted me last night to say he fancied a long run in the morning instead so I decided to join him. With Borrowdale just around the corner this was probably a good idea.

We went over Ilkely Moor and did 2 hours 10 mins at quite a reasonable pace.

After feeling rough earlier in the week I was quite pleased with my performance. The weather helped - it was a perfect running day - nice and cool with high cloud and great viz - the tracks were still V wet though.

Got back and tried some Powerbar Recovery milkshake (that I brought back from the yacht race)- can’t say it tasted too good but let’s see if it works….

Another week of training ahead then a rest week before Borrowdale.

Can’t help but feel I need to spend more time on my bike with the 3 Peaks Cyclocross looming!!