Steven's desert dash

It’s now coming up to a month since returning from the Marathon Des Sables and most of my injuries are healing well. It did not take me long to get over the mental touchier, I seem to have all but forgotten the bad times to the point I have registered to run it again in 2015 – it will be the 30^th Anniversary, roomers are rife that it will be something more challenging than a standard year, let’s hope not!!!

My quest to find out if I am any good at running/ endurance / triathlons is well underway although I think I maybe spreading myself a bit thin, not sure training to be fast over 5km has much benefit to Ultra Marathon Running so I am going to need to make a decision fairly quickly about the route to follow. In the next couple of weeks I have 2 x 5km races booked, I am racing in the Greenbelt relay (a team event running round the Capitals green belt), semi trail run of 13 miles on day one and the a short 9 mile road race on day two. I went out to practice the first leg on Sunday, I tend to get lost in races, so thought it a good Idea I know where I am going. It did not start too well, the easiest bit to navigate was a trail along the Jubilee River is slough – I  set off running in the wrong direction.  

I have also been trying to push my 5km time down on the treadmill, so fare I got it down to 15:42.0 after a couple of attempts, although It is not translating to road as it took me 17:28 in regents park and worried it will take me even longer around Battersea Park as part of an organised meet this evening; figures crossed I am not too slow.

Interestingly the part of my training I am enjoying the most is the one thing I have put off for the last 15 years out of fear I will be really bad – I used the excuse of small feet, but I am loving the swimming, I had my second lesson last Friday, I am not amazing, but surprised myself, I am not as bad as I thought I would be, still in the slow lane but I am pushing hard to learn as much as I can and hopping I can move up lanes fairly quickly – I will keep you posted whether I sink or swim.

With a few busy weeks racing, there will not be much time for going out, joy as I am trying to return back to my t-total life; it saves my liver and saves lots and lots of money.