I always find May an uplifting month as you can really feel the benefit of spring, you have a couple of Bank Holidays and you have the World Snooker Championships. This year has been no different and it has helped me get my training back on track after a bit of a hiatus recovering from the Paris Marathon.
Still the April proved a successful end on the fundraising front. I raised £540 through the five aside tournament. Face Biscuit won the Cup and Whitechapel FC won the Shield. All in all it was a successful tournament but I was over optimistic on the turn around between games so we ran out of time at the end. The finals were an extreme 20:20 version of five a side lasting 3 minutes. Basically whoever scored the first goal won. It was a shame as the final of the Cup was shaping up to be a cracker. Thanks must go to David Williams who shared the refereeing responsibilities.
With only five weeks to go to the 10k swim I have been concentrating on my swimming hoping to get my running back on track in June. Week commencing 23rd April consisted of 4 hours of training, mainly swimming. Over 4 trips to the pool/lido I racked up 6,000 metres. I also spent an hour doing some cycling, with half an eye on the half-ironman in June, and a short 4 mile run to test the foot.
Worryingly the foot still hurts. I don't think its a break it just feels like a deep rooted bruise around where my laces were tied on the marathon. It has got better and I hope that by the time the swim is over I can crack on with the running again.
Week commencing 30th May included a ramp up on swimming. I did just shy of 9k for the week in the pool/lido over 4 sessions. I am relieved to say the swimming has got easier again and my pace has returned. I was a little alarmed the previous week that my shoulders were quite tight and each session felt much more difficult than comparable sessions in January and February. I also took advantage of the Bank Holiday to have two trips to the lido however the session on Monday forms part of next weeks statistics.
I am little more confident about the 10k swim and hope that over the coming weeks this confidence will grow.
On the MDS front I am positive that I will get a lot of opportunities to have warm weather training as Becs begins a six month secondment in Dubai. With temperatures of over 90 degrees the majority of year, dunes and significant beaches this will be perfect preparation for the Sahara.
The Blog wouldn't be right without a comment about my beloved West Ham. The disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion has been quickly replaced with optimism after a 5-0 aggregate semi-final victory over Cardiff. I am now waiting for the final tickets to go on sale to secure my place at our first Wembley final in 30 years.
Next week will be more of the same: an increase in swimming training and some light runs to keep the legs working over.
TTFN...