The one with the rest week

So now I’ve completed my 100km ride my coach decided it was time for a new plan change.  Previously it had been running and Strength and Conditioning, then Running, cycling and strength and conditioning with focused running sessions and enjoying the bike ride without focussing on specific training goals.  However with a Sprint Tri coming up in September it is time to start dialling in my sessions.  This called for a meeting with Coach Zoe in her garden to discuss progress and how I am feeling with my training.

We agreed training and weight loss was going well and to be perfectly honest we were a little ahead of targets thus far on the weight.  However one thing we talked about was the intensity of training.  I have been training 4/5 times a week since January with no break and we agreed to introduce a ‘REST WEEK’.  Well, we’ll call it rest week.  What it actually means is every 4^th week will be a much reduced intensity week, with 2 short steady runs of 30 min and a 1 hour ‘brick’ session on Saturday – which means Bike ride and into Running with max 90 second transition time.

I also had a big achievement last Sunday – on my usual weigh in I had hit the magic 5 stone weight loss mark.  For the first time I took a long hard look at myself and to be honest thought ‘Feck me’ this is getting serious.  I can see the changes for myself now.  Clothes I’ve not worn for a long time are getting worn and new clothes are being bought.

This week has actually been my rest week, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Tuesday I went for a run at lunch with no heart rate goals, no pace goals and a massive smile. This is my body’s way of recovering for the intense training I am going to put it through 😊. Then Thursday a good friend Sam joined me for a social distance run. We chewed the fat all the way round talking like a couple of old ladies. Remember folk running can be fun 😊