Week 12 of Marathon Training!

Here we are again!  Another Monday, another week closer!

This week is a "step back" week where the mileage is significantly reduced!  This is to give the muscles a chance to absorb the increased training and adapt to the new, higher level of workload and very importantly for me to decrease the risk of injury!

So after last weeks epic 36 miles, this week is a relatively easy 20 miles with a 8 mile long run! 

This has fallen at an ideal time for me as I have "The Mad Dog" 10K race in Southport on Sunday!  I am not sure I appreciate being classed as a Mongrel mind you! 

I am hoping for a PB - weather permitting!  My current 10K PB is 52:54 so I will be delighted with anything starting with 51! 

However the current weather forecast doesn't look good - heavy rain and high winds! 

Fingers crossed they get it wrong!

Tonight is my cross training night where I go to The Tri Club Swimming Session.

It was cold outside and after a busy weekend I wasn't feeling overly enthusiastic about leaving the warm surroundings of my home to take off all my clothes and plunge into a freezing cold pool!

However, I had booked my place so no excuses were allowed! 

After all I only have 12 weeks until my first PROPER Triathlon! 

Yikes!  

 I even ordered a Tri Suit today!  It was in the sale and too good an opportunity to miss even if I only do the one triathlon! It was £59.99 on one site  and I got it for £15 - would be rude not to!

Back to tonight's swim! You will be pleased to hear that I did actually go and the water was as cold as I feared but once I got going it was OK!

Tonight the focus was on open-water skills (perhaps that's why the water was so cold!).  After a warm up and some technique drills we did "sighting" practise so that when we eventually get into the open water we will be comfortable raising our head slightly to look forwards without excess effort or ruining the rhythm of our stroke! 

This sounds fairly straight forward but in reality it isn't!  

We then did drafting skills!  At first we had to swim in a long single file line but sit directly behind another swimmer as close as possible without touching their toes. This was difficult to get right!  It's very off putting when someone keeps tapping your toes!

Then we moved on to arrowhead drafting where 5 of us swam together with one person at the front then another 2 swimmers directly behind, then 2 behind them. The idea was to get as close as possible without clashing arms or getting kicked!  We took it in turns every 50 metres to be the lead, drafting behind and to the side! 

It was hard work but good fun to swim in a group with similar paced swimmers!

A really enjoyable training session where we covered 66 lengths, 1650 metres or 1.03 miles!

I actually feel quite excited about the forthcoming Summer months so I can actually have a go in the Open Water and put some of these skills into practise in a real life situation!

Back to running tomorrow!