Back to work...and a bit of a wildcard

Fortunately, I'd been waking up early on camp, so my 6am alarm wasn't too painful.  However, the cold and the dark was as I made my way to the swimming pool, feeling sad that I wouldn't have a swimming hat twin, an outdoor swim, a nice fresh towel or someone on poolside telling me what to do.  Still, I got to the pool, and I got a swim done and I tried some of the drills that we'd done on camp.  I'm still pretty tired so I didn't really push it.  I was pleased to notice that on the poolside warm up, my shoulders seemed a lot more flexible (too bad about the hamstrings, back to not being able to touch them). 

Onto the wildcard.  I was talking with Janette, my pilates teacher, by text on Saturday as to what races we were going to do swimming wise this season (in fact, you'll see my plans on the right hand side now, although they need to be amended slightly in light of today's excitements).  Janette consistently beat me at most of the same events last year so I was keen to know what was on her calendar.  She mentioned the Age Group World Championships Aquathlon Qualifier on 5th May.  This is a 750m swim followed by a 5k run, and the top 7 in each age group (I will be in 25-29) at each qualifier (there are 3) get to go to the Age-Group World Champs which are being held in London this year.  I already knew about the triathlon AGWCs, because half of my tri club are attempting to qualify, but I didn't know about the aquathlon.  And the one on 5th May is at Box End, a lake about 1h15 minutes away from me where I always swim well.  To be honest, I don't stand a hope, because lots of people will be interested as the AGWC are in London which is a whole lot more convenient than Auckland, where 2012 happened.  And my run is poor.  And whilst I could spend the next 2 month improving it, I am really supposed to be focussing on making sure that I can get round a 56 mile bike as part of a half ironman.  But it should be exciting fun and a busy race with lots of people, and for the next two months at least I can dream of representing GB!

Tenerife #8

As I write my final camp blog 37,000 feet above the earth in the plane (to upload when home, oh for some free wifi on planes!), it’s a good time to reflect on the last week and to mention some of the highlights for the week.  I know I sort of wrote a wrap up post yesterday, but I was tired and I don’t think I did the week justice.

We also had a fantastic final afternoon which was worth writing about.  Last year, we had some very informal girls v boy relays on camp which proved highly competitive with not a little cheating (I admit from myself).  Since the girls lost last year, Vicky and myself had been looking forward to some sort of rematch for most of the year…

Friday afternoon was our opportunity, and Dan organised the first (hopefully annual) boys v girls Tridynamic Swim for Tri Swimming Gala.  This consisted of 12 events plus 2 relays with everyone, and we all had to take part in 2.  They included 50m backstroke, 50m front crawl, 25m butterfly, push and glide (to see who could go the furthest), dive and glide (ditto), 50m front crawl with 6 forward rolls, extension drill for speed, advanced single arm drill for style, armchair sculling, and backwards sculling and individual medley in 2 lengths.  As there were 6 boys, and only 5 teams, Martin(a) kindly joined the girls, which was good because he could swim butterfly as well as being a competitive breaststroke swimmer.  It was neck and neck until the last relay event where bonus points were on offer: this involved the teams splitting into two.  Swimmer A had to swim to the other end of the pool where Swimmer B was waiting, Swimmer B grabbed Swimmer A’s ankles and they front crawled back to the Swimmer C, who joined in as well.  It was neck and neck but the two girls teams came in first managing to bag the overall victory.  And here we are with our celebratory bottle of water.  Very entertaining after a long week.

Before getting the transfer back to the airport this morning, I got up for another early morning run, same route as the other day.  I felt really proud of myself as I got back; running 5k seems like very little after the half marathon, yet I know I didn’t even do any 5k runs this time last year as I was anaemic and not supposed to be running.  I calculated that I’d done 18.5 hours of training since arriving (nothing compared to Simon’s projected 35 if he gets in a long run tomorrow), but twice as much as I do on a normal week and nearly twice as much as on a good week (15.5 hours swimming, 1.5 hours strength, 0.5 hours on the track, 2 x 0.5 hour runs)

I was really sad to be going home.  It hadn’t been the easiest week for me, but it had actually flown past, and reports of 0C weather in the UK did nothing to make me want to leave the beautiful blue skies and warm sunny day.  It had been great to see people who I already knew, as well as meet some new people.  It had been lovely to swim outside in February at such a fantastic centre (amid eminent athletes!), even if getting changed and showering endlessly got a bit groundhog day.  Nice to have a week away from making packed lunches and doing chores; the all you can eat buffet will be much missed.  Doing different drills has really helped my stroke and given me more things to practise and think about when at home, and there were a couple of moments when I really felt things click – in the last outdoor swim particularly.  I am looking forward to the season ahead, and looking forward to getting back in my wetsuit in April (although maybe not the cold water until the lido warms up!).  As I said yesterday, I would certainly recommend a Tridynamic Camp (although I’ve no idea how I could keep up with a camp doing all 3 sports!), and coaching by Dan Bullock is well worth having.

I managed somehow to escape the excess baggage charge this time around, and even managed to find room for a 1kg Ritta Sport selection pack (10 different flavours!) to take home to share with Mr Tuna (admittedly that was airside).  In a couple of hours I’ll be back with Mr Tuna hopefully, and then a fairly easy day tomorrow catching up with some chores/work and getting ready to hit the pool and take my hopefully improved stroke for an outing.

Tenerife #7

Apologies for the lack of blog post yesterday.  It was that point in the training camp when I feel like I don't ever want to see another swimming pool ever again, let alone swim.  It happened to me last year so I wasn't too surprised (although I'd been hopeful that the Ritta Sport consumption might have seen it off this year...), but it was horrid.  I felt sick with tiredness and combined with some stressful news from home it was difficult to keep going.  I found it hard at that point last year, so was twice as bad this year with the depression monster.  I even got out of the afternoon pool swim 20 minutes early yesterday!

Anyway, it hasn't been all bad.  Once the end is in sight, a second wind resurfaces, and I really enjoyed the sea swim this morning.  Unfortunately the sea was still pretty rough, so we weren't able to swim from the beach by the hotel to the cove we use as we did last year, and the cove itself was quite full of swell, but we had quite a good swim in the cover, and must have covered nearly 2k.  Martin did some spectacular wipe outs from his paddle board too.  We've just got one swim left in the 25m pool this afternoon, and I'm hoping that the sun stays out as its forecast to rain later.  Mind you I was covered in prickly heat by the end of yesterday so I guess cloud might be better for that.

I've kind of run out of steam with taking photos, and the wifi is so bad here that it's impossible to upload them, but Martin has kindly promised me some photos for the blog, so that's something to look forward to in due course.  I've been really lucky to come on this camp again, even if I have run out of steam somewhat, and will definitely be back next year if there is one?  Dan Bullock is an excellent coach and managed to make the week almost entirely different to last year and I think I've learned a lot.  Martin does a fantastic job of organising the week and so I would definitely recommend a Tridynamic camp if you're looking for a triathlon camp.  My friend Cycling Claire is going on their Mallorca Camp and I am really looking forward to hearing about that.

This morning I'm starting to think about going home.  I've been doing some work admin, doing a grocery order, writing a shopping list for Mr Tuna and so on.  The next big challenge for me is to come up with a training plan to take me through until my half ironman on the 1st September.  Once camp is over, I'll be trying to take the gains made back to the pool at home, and then be focussing on getting my cycling up to scratch now that I know that I can run a half marathon!

Tenerife #6

Another busy 24 hours on camp...


Yesterday afternoon we were in the 50m pool for a technical endurance session.  We started with some drills, doing the hand position ones that we had done in the morning (sadly not the leg ones!).  Our main set was 24x50m off 90 seconds.  For the non swimmers, this means that you have 90 seconds to do the swim and rest, so the faster you swim, the more rest you get.  The aim was consistency.  I found this swim session pretty tough as I am definitely not used to doing fast short sprints, give me a nice 3.8k plod any day.  However, I know that it is important (and that's why I scheduled some shorter, 1500m races last season).  I misestimated the first 50m and was too slow (I think I was worried about getting through the set), around 50 seconds, but after that I was hitting 42-43 seconds throughout which I was really pleased with as I didn't even know I could swim so fast.  Although it hurt, the session went by surprisingly fast and we were soon cooling down and I was trying to get rid of the lactic acid.

After that it was back to the hotel to read my book and I finally managed my first daytime nap of the camp listening to the sea.

This morning we were in for a disappointment but it turned out to be one of the best mornings of the camp so far.  We were due to do an openwater swim at 7.30 but the decision was taken that the current was making it too unsafe to swim in the sea.  So I was togged up in my wetsuit with nowhere to go.  Decided to go and change and go for a run!  Instructions for route provided by Vicky, and I was off on my own (with my trusty iphone managing to connect to the GPS even with data turned off so that I got some feedback on time/distance).  it was surprisngly up-downy going along the coastal promenade but what a great chance it was to see a bit more of Tenerife than the small strip between the hotel and the training facility.  I enjoyed seeing the other hotels and the shops and restaurants along the coast and some quite different, more touristy beaches.  La Caleta where we are staying is a bit more traditional with black sandy beaches and obviously a lot quieter than 2k down the coast.  5k run was completed, a bit slower than usual but I blame that on the up-downy paths.

Whilst I was out running I got a text saying that the 25m pool had been booked for 9am, so it was back to the room to grab a drink and get my kit together.  I wasn't sure how I'd be feeling in the pool after the run but it was a really enjoyable session.  Two things I was asked to focus on including trying to tuck my chin in to give me a better head position (fine until I wanted to breathe when I nearly ended up drowning - I think my head position is a side effect of swimming so much in a public pool where you're always on the look out for people that you are about to catch up!), and also to try to brush my opposite hip with my thumb as my arm goes under my body, hopefully this will give me a better alignment.

We did two drills tomorrow that stick especially in my mind.  Firstly we worked on hand position using fists and then paddles.  We did half a length using one fist, one hand normal, and then the other half of the stroke reversing, before a whole length of full stroke.  We then used paddles (I was lent some really cool teeny tiny ones which were much kinder to my weak shoulders than my husbands regular ones), 2 lengths using one paddle on one hand, 2 lengths using the paddle on the other hand and then 2 lengths full stroke.  Repeated 3 times.   Secondly, a mechanical front crawl, where you touch the thumb to the stomach, then the shoulder, and then the ear as you take a stroke, and using a catch up so that you have time to think about it.  We did this first with fins and snorkel, and then snorkel only, and then tried to do full stroke utilising these lessons.

I capped the morning off with a freshly squeezed orange juice in the pool cafe whilst having a chat with some of the others and checking my work emails (well, you can't have it all!).  It seems to have clouded over a little now which is a shame, but we'll be back to the 25m pool anyway for our afternoon session.

Tenerife #5

In the last 24 hours I have:
* found a swimming hat twin!
* done some track running drills
* been hugely competitive in some relay races
* eaten dinner in the dark (power failure outside!)
* woken up trying to swim front crawl in my bed
* acquired a lot more Ritta Sport flavours to try.
* purchased some suncream of a much higher factor.

Yesterday's track session with Vicky was good fun (although hot!).  I enjoyed doing the drills and hopefully I can remember some of them to try out at home.  Both Vicky and Martin said that they thought I looked stronger running compared to last year.  A couple of months of pilates work starting to pay off.

In the afternoon we did a technical swim in the 25m pool.  Doing drills was enlivened by doing them as relay races.  Unfortunately I am quite competitive so there was a little bit of cheating in my lane...oops!  Drills new to me included using fins and a float, and kicking one length with one leg, and then back with the other.  Not as easy as it sounds!  We then removed fins and did full stroke, except for kicking with just one leg up the pool and the other back down.  The most entertaining part of the afternoon was not really swim related, but before we got in when Vicky and myself pulled out matching Dolly Mixtures hats.  I think Vicky had pointed them out to me originally a few months ago, so I knew she had one, but it was funny getting to the 4th swim of the camp without wearing them and then pulling them out at the same time.  Here we are posing at the side of the pool. 

Afterwards, we watched the submerged filming from yesterday afternoon.  I knew I had a bad swim yesterday afternoon and it showed, so much so that I just couldn't bear to watch myself a second time :(  Felt bit down after that.  Was able to skype Mr Tuna back home before dinner though which was nice.

This morning we were back at the gym for half an hour of strength and conditioning.  It was pointed out to me that whilst I am flexible in my shoulders I don't really have much strength, so this is something that I need to work on, so some time with the stretch cordz might be helpful I guess.  It's difficult when I can't use paddles in the pool so I will have to be creative in trying to build this up.  It's always a question of finding time, but I need to make sure to find the time.

Then we were in the 25m pool.  I got in and spent 15 minutes swimming before we started which was a bit of a mistake as was then a bit tired.  Before we did some more filming (of drills this time), we did some progression drills which I'm going to record here as I think I want to include these
1.  Progression sequence for improving hand position: 1L FC with hands clenched, 1LFC with index finger pointed, 1L FC with hands in the OK position, 1L FC full stroke.  Repeat 3 times.
2. Sequence for improving consistency of kicking: 1L breastroke arms, kicking, 1L kick ten times, 1 stroke, repeat, 1L kicking with catchup arms, 1L full stroke.  Repeat 3 times.

Is it surprising that after that I stopped at the shop to pick up some more Ritta Sport?!

Now I'm back in the hotel having a rest, trying not to sleep during the day as it makes sleeping at nighttime harder.  Waiting for it to be Mr Tuna's lunchtime for us to skype, and then back up to the pool to have a snack before our 90m session in the 50m pool.  Let's hope I can find some energy!

Tenerife #4

A few more pictures....

Here is the 50m pool where we were training yesterday.

View from the cafe terrace again, including the track where we will be doing our run workshop later.

Delicious strawberry smoothie with pink straw!

Palm trees!  I'd never seen a proper palm tree before I came to Tenerife last year!

Tenerife #3

In the last 24 hours I have:
* got sunburnt in extremely weird fashion (half of one arm, next to my watch on the other arm, and half of my back) (need to pay better attention to application)
* had a strawberry smoothie
* cringed at myself swimming on film
* had my first openwater swim of 2013

Yesterday afternoon's swim was very hot and sunny, hence the sunburn.  We were in the 50m pool for technical endurance, the focus of which was a mainset of 50m, 10 seconds rest, 100m, 10 seconds rest, 150m, 10 seconds rest and so on up to 400m.  I know I didn't swim as well as I can so felt a bit flat after that.  However, we were in the pool at the same time as Hannah Miley, so that was pretty cool.

Then we went and watched our video footage from the morning.  I cringed more than usual at seeing myself on screen, I'm not really sure why.   Key points for me are that my head is still a bit high (although I'm good at keeping it still), I need to try to keep my fingers apart a bit more, and my right arm still isn't quite close enough to the body.  Still, plenty of time to work on that this week.

Back to the hotel for a quick rest before dinner, lots of food and then the obligatory early night.  Stayed awake until 9:10 pm though!

This morning I was awake at 6am, and up at 6.45 for our first openwater swim of the camp.  Unfortunately it was very windy, so we weren't able to swim across to the little cove where we swam last year, we had to walk there instead :(   It felt cold initially getting in but actually it was really toasty and I didn't get cold at all.  We used to time to practice getting used to swimming in wetsuits again and doing some siting practice.  We finished off this morning's swim with some drills.  Breastroke arms with FC legs; fists for 6 strokes and then normal for 6 strokes, and finally 1 fist for 6 strokes (other hand normal) and swap to the other fist for 6 strokes.  Not done the last one before but that was good.

Came back and had breakfast and tried to have a nap but got woken up by a cleaner.  Hope I can stay awake for the rest of the day!  For the rest of today, it's off to the centre later for a run workshop with Vicky Gill, an elite triathlete who was also world age group duathlon champion the other year.  She is from a running background so an excellent person to learn from.  Then almost immediately we're back in the 25m pool for another 90 minute technical endurance session.  The weather's not so great today and it might rain later, but at least it's warm!

Tenerife #2

As promised some pictures, with apologies for the poor quality.  Mr Tuna text me just as I got on the plane to tell me I'd left my camera in the car.  At least I had my idevice!

Here is the view from just outside the hotel yesterday.

Decided to take my pink toenails for a walk on the beach and a quick paddle.

Amazing to be standing in the sea, in the warm in February!

This is the view from the training facility at the end of the day yesterday.  There is a lovely terrace cafe with this view one side and the pool the other side.

View from my hotel room this morning at 8am.

25m pool where we swam earlier.

I have got lots of food!  We had a goody bag which included a lot of powerbar products to try (sadly most have wheat so I'll be taking those home for Mr Tuna!), and a t-shirt which I'm sure you'll see me modelling at some point.  I brought a load of snacks from home too, and in the supermarket I spotted Ritta Sport which lots of the top triathletes seem to rave about.  If it's good enough for Rachel Joyce, it's good enough for me.  I got two flavours to try, had to have the one with the pink packet obvs!

Should there be downtime, I've got a great stack of reading material.  One book down, 11 to go, but I do have my kindle too as well as 3 Tri magazines!

Tenerife #1

I've been in Tenerife for less than 24 hours and so far I have:

* swum twice
* knocked 3 off my 25m stroke count (down to 18 and a half!)
* developed freckles
* SEEN HANNAH MILEY WHO IS TRAINING IN THE SAME FACILITY AS US [I was in swimming costume at the time without my idevice or would have asked for a snap]
* been chatted up by a Swiss footballer in German (he was a bit bemused when he realised I was english, I was a bit bemused when he realised this as I really only have schoolgirl German).
* been paddling in the sea and got my trousers wet

Here I am on Tridynamic's Swim Faster Camp with Dan Bullock, for the second year running.  It's good to be back on the camp and there are some familiar faces.  Vicky and I are set to see who can out-pink each other this year!  Yesterday we swam in the 50m pool for 1.5 hours, we did some black line swimming work where you use the line to help you align your body.  We did some drill work as part of a "technical endurance swim" and by the end of the session I was already feeling stronger.

This morning we spent half an hour doing warm up work in the gym.  I was pleased thati had remembered the warm up routine correctly from last year, which is good as I must have done it over 200 times in the interim as I have been using it for my own warm up routine!  There was a little bit of time before we hit the pool so I did 5 minutes of my own pilates exercises.  I will take my instructions next time and then I can do all 5 exercises (could only remember 3 of them!).  We then hit the 25m pool for some technical work, and I was really happy that after doing some drills and then counting my strokes, I hit 18 strokes for a length.  I was swimming about 21-22 in the UK, sometimes worse than that.  The drill that was new to me today was a variation on the extension drill/superman position, where you extend your forearm; today we added in raising the following arm .  It was interesting for me to see how much weaker I am when my right arm is leading.


It is really warm and sunny which is a great tonic.  Coming away with my depression is a bit of a struggle if I'm honest, and there was a bit of a meltdown after dinner last night, as this is the first time I have been on my own since being ill without Mr Tuna around to look after me.  I was overtired and probably hadn't eaten enough (as evidenced by managing 2 powerbars, a flapjack and a bag of maltesers after speaking to Mr Tuna on the phone!).  Anyway, I'm going to have a nap now and then head back up to the training facility for some juice (or maybe even a banana milkshake) and have a verity-friendly snack for lunch.

Big thanks to everyone who has sent me lovely texts over the last 24 hours, the internet here is a bit rubbish so it's variable as to whether or not I can get online.  I want to try to blog each day, and because I forgot my camera, Martin, tridynamic camp director has promised to pass me some pictures for the blog to make up for the paucity of idevice!

I'm going to put some pictures in a separate post for now, just because it's easier with the internet/lack of camera issues!

Wokingham Half

In a nutshell, it was pouring with rain, I had dreadful IBS, but somehow, after a man with a Dennis the Menace t-shirt told me at Mile 6 that we were on course for sub 2h, I negatively split it to a 1:58:34 finish.

Look!

Mile 1: 8:57
Mile 2: 9:18
Mile 3: 9:02
Mile 4: 9:11
Mile 5: 9:11
Mile 6: 9:20
Mile 7: 9:03
Mile 8: 8:57
Mile 9: 8:39
Mile 10: 9:05
Mile 11: 9:11
Mile 12: 8:51
Mile 13: 8:40

(I took these times off my watch by pressing it each time I went past a mile marker).

I'm trying to think what to say about it.  I'm a bit sad that they didn't manage to get any photos of me as I was so proud to be wearing my Mind Charity vest.  It was VERY wet, I wore a bin bag for the first two miles but then decided that I wanted to show off my Mind vest (and make sure that my number was showing for photos of me!).  I just kept chipping away at the miles, started eating my veggie jelly bears at mile 5 (put them in two at a time as kind of difficult to chew), made sure I took water each time it was offered, and just tried to keep putting one foot in front of each other.

I definitely didn't have a race plan.  If I had, I doubt I'd have achieved what I did today as I think I'd have been trying to stick to 9:30 minute miles.  I enjoyed looking to see what other people had on their tops (previous race top/club top/charity top (like me!) or just plain).  I put out a call on facebook for people to send me texts, and I got a load of really kind ones, including several from my fellow Supervisor at work such as "Go, go, relax your shoulders" and "....theme to Chariots of Fire" which really made me giggle and gave me something else to think about.

Now it's over, my IBS is still horrific, my legs are in agony (no idea how I'll walk tomorrow, let alone cycle to work), but at least I'm dry and warm.  I knew that I probably had a sub 2h half marathon in me at some point, but I didn't think it would be this time, as I've not done nearly as much running as I thought I should have done in the last two months.  Well, it proved enough!  So I might not ever have to do another stand alone half now :)  What is scary is that the next time I attempt that distance I will have swum 1.9k and cycled 90k first...

Catching up again

Not a great week in training terms.  Came down with a sore throat on Tuesday, having had swollen glands for two days, which has resulted in a mild cold.  Busy week at work and continued low mood has made it difficult to motivate myself beyond the bare minimum, but there is also the little matter of my first half marathon on my mind. Which is tomorrow.  The weather is currently pretty grim, so at this stage I'm not promising to get out of bed and do it!

Anyway, 13.25k swimming in the bag at this stage, plus a pilates class.  Mr Tuna and I should have been practicing the exercises we were given after our private tuition last Sunday, but we haven't. :-/

In other news, I'm packing my suitcase, or trying to, for Tenerife.  This time next week I'll be there, hopefully in the sun.  Can't quite imagine it.  It's very difficult to pack for temperatures averaging 20C when they currently average nearly 20C less than that.  Can't logically decide how many jumpers I need, and whether or not I should pack tights!  Also unsure as to how many event freebie t-shirts can get away with packing, I don't want to look really sad.  Fortunately this year I'm travelling with Jet2 rather than RyanAir and my reward for this is a 23kg baggage allowance which is helpful.  I'll be taking my laptop and hoping to blog while I'm away as I'd like to try and record some of the stuff that we do so that I can go back and revisit it once I'm back here, but also for the obligatory (hopefully) blue skies and beautiful swimming pool pictures :)

Weekly catch up time!

So another busy week at work has meant no blogging in the week.  Sorry!!  The good news is that despite continuing low mood and a hectic workload, I've still managed to get a fair amount of sessions in.

There was 13.5k of swimming (5 sessions), 9 x 4.5 mile cycle commutes, and 2 pilates classes, but I think the running has been the highlight of this week.  I've only been out twice, which by runner-standards is very little, but I'm very pleased with the two runs that I did.  The first, on Thursday was a 7k run (which is a fairly long distance by my standards up until a few weeks ago), but I managed to hammer the pace and averaged 5:33 minutes per k (normally I average about 5:45, and looking back at my times in the summer I was averaged about 6:26!), so was pleased with that, even if my legs hurt a lot.  On Saturday, I went out for another long run (a proper long run), and like last week managed to beat the distance and the length of time that I ran for.  Unfortunately my GPS only kicked in after 7k, so I don't have terribly accurate data, but I ran 16k (definitely) in about 1h40.  16k apparently equates to 10 miles!

Also, on Friday late afternoon, I made an appearance on local radio.  I was ostensibly invited in to talk about the Bicester Triathlon which I am doing at the end of March, but I agreed to go on in the hope that I might get to talk about Mind, the mental health charity.  In fact, the resultant discussion covered triathlons more generally, and open water swimming, as well as me seeing how many times I could mention Mind.  If you want to listen (and a friend from Australia managed to listen, so hopefully works internationally...), the link to the show is here (it will only be up until 8/2/13), and I'm on at 40 minutes in.

As for next week, the half marathon is next Sunday, a week today, so I don't think I'll run again until then, as I'd like my legs to be itching to run.  I'll continue with the swimming and some pilates, including a private lesson next Saturday with the lady who runs my pilates classes.  I also must start packing as it is less than a fortnight now until I go to Tenerife and time is getting short!  I wonder how many race-freebie-t-shirts it is acceptable to pack?!

January data

Looking back at my training data for January, it was quite a good month.  I only managed one bike ride (74k), but biking was never going to be the priority for January/February with a half marathon coming up and with horrible, icy conditions.

Swimming wise, I swam 73.75k which is the furthest I've been in a month since July.

Running wise, I ran 55.99k which is the furthest I've ever run in a month, including my longest run to date of 14k (a distance which I've already surpassed in February).

I also took up pilates and have now been to four classes.  I find it really helps with relaxation and my posture and flexibility is already improving.

So, overall, I'm pretty pleased.  My mood may have been low and I may have been really busy with work, but I managed to focus on both my swimming and running which will help enormously for the swimming camp coming up on the 16th, and the half marathon before that on the 10th!