All was going so well until Thursday at 2am. I'd planned a swim for the evening as I've been introduced to Magic Seaweed (the website, not the psychotropic plant) and conditions were looking perfect for the first time in a while. Unfortunately I turned inside out and spilled all of my secrets to Mr. Toilet upstairs, leaving me frail enough to watch nothing but Attenborough and having to cancel all training until things returned to normal.
Yesterday I planned to go on my long ride having written off Friday as well but was not up to scratch and, instead, went today. I was feeling good after the first 25 miles having dropped off a proof copy of a book and so I carried on, putting in some extra miles until I hit the magic 50 mark for the second time in my training. I was sore, slow and needed diet lemonade but I'd made it, giving me the confidence to look at how my training has gone so far.
My pace has always been a complaint of mine and the way I increased my running pace was to put in an extra couple of very short, very quick runs every week. This is what I'm going to do for my last month of hard training before tapering, using the final two 30 minute windows in my week to push speed and hopefully get to an acceptable level. I'm within the four hour timeframe for a 50 miler if I discount stops and checking my map all too often yet I'd like to give myself half a chance should something unkind arise.
As for the swimming...more time in the sea, methinks. Running involves putting on a pair of shoes and going, cycling needs as little wind as possible yet swimming needs the right tide, the right swell and the right wind - all at the same time. It's going to be the hardest part of my training to get right for sure.
