Charitable disposition

Still plodding on with back issues and lots of time on my feet as the weeks tick by. A solid, and very wet and blustery 54km or 33.5miles in about 8 hours 15 mins a week ago Saturday was followed up with a swift 15miles the following day in glorious sunshine. Sadly that level of effort wasn't possible the following week due to work commitments during the week, as well as our first foray into the heat chamber at Sheffield Hallam University. It was a very cautious first session with 5 minutes on the treadmill followed by 5 minutes of rest, repeated 4 times - and all done at just over 38 degrees celcius. It was hot, but bearable though I was surprised how much I drank in what was a very light session.

We also held our charity fund raising dinner last weekend. Hosted by our main sponsor, Otto's Moroccan Restaurant in Sheffield on Friday night, a group of 50 kind an charitable souls enjoyed an evening of fine Moroccan cuisine, belly dancing, a charity raffle and the talents of a brilliant magician. The evening was a great success, and we added a further £725 to our fund raising total, which now stands at over £3,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support and the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice.

Moroccan evening at Otto's

Sadly, it seems I enjoyed the evening a little too much and was very much the worse for wear on Saturday which, combined with the fact I had friends from Kent up visiting made for a training-free weekend. Apart from the obvious groggy and hungover sensation it was surprisingly nice to have an entire weekend of not putting on trainers and heading out for long hours.

Such thoughts need to be banished for now however, as with only 6 weeks to go I'm about to head into my two longest weeks training of the whole preparation. I'm aiming for over 100 miles per week in the next two weeks, plus some turbo sessions. That's a lot of time on my feet, with some critical sessions in there including what we're calling our Peaking in the Peak weekend. This will represent our final long back to back training sessions before heading off for the race. After that, my baby should be born, and I'll be focussing on heat acclimatisation, maintaining fitness and preventing further injury.

To that end, I'm also off to see a pilates specialist this week to see whether they can offer any better or more effective remedy for my back which, although seems manageable for now isn't really getting any better.