Ok, so as some of you may or may not know, at the start of this year I was struggling to walk properly due to a back injury - Fast forward 7 months and thanks to a lot of support from work, providing me with a vari desk and orthapedic chair and also weight watchers for helping me lose some of my timber (still ongoing) I find myself in a place where I can finally take on the challenge that I wanted to do last year.
As you may know, my ultimate ambition is to take on the Arch to Arc challenge, but I need to be in a place where my fitness allows me to even consider it - hence my foray now into Ultra distances, if all goes well I may consider the Double Iron at Avon Tyrell in May (brrrrrr chilly swim).
On 16th December 2016 I will be taking part in a charity event called Walking Home for Christmas - it encourgages people to walk home from work one day, instead of the car / bike / bus /train etc... the charity is for Walking with the Wounded. I lost a couple of friends in the recent conflicts, which has made me want to help those that made it home with bits missing, both physically & mentally.
So I live in Sheffield, and work in Derby - My drive to work is 40miles, but I can't see me being allowed to run up the M1, so I will be using pavement & trail to make my way home, bearing in mind this will be in December, I am hoping that there will be a lack of snow. The route that I have surveyed via Garmin Connect shows the distance to be approx 65km so pretty much the same as my drive, the only downside is that Sheffield is uphill from Derby.....lol
So although this is officially Week 1/21 of my training programme - I actually did some pre-training in the 3 weeks leading up to this week - I basically ran the first week of the plan for 3 weeks. I will endeavour to keep you updated on a weekly basis with the training, so that anyone interested in doing something similar can see what I have to go through.
All runs are done at an easy pace, as speed needs to go out of the window.
T-3 to T-1
Mon 5km Run
Tue Strength Workout
Wed 6km Hilly
Thur 30-45min Bike (Turbo smashfest)
Fri Rest
Sat 1hr Run on same terrain as my 65km planned route
Sun 2-4km Walk
Week 1/21
Mon 5km Run Easy Pace = 5.01km @ 5:22pace
Tues Strength Training = 20mins
Wed 6km Hilly Run = 6.01 @ 5:39pace
Thu 30-40mins bike = 30mins Turbo
Fri Rest Day
Sat 1hr Run Easy Pace = 10.46km @ 5:50pace
Sun 2-4km Walk = 16:31pace (Walking the dogs)
Running Distances to date
T-3 23km
T-2 21km
T-1 11km
Week 1 21km
Next update will be for Week 2/21