April Round-Up

This month has been quite a different one, with the introduction of running to my regime.

My cycling has suffered a little but as much as having sore legs from running the weather has also been a major player in hindering my bicycle mileage.

Despite this I managed 11 rides and covered just shy of 148miles.

The longest rides were during the Easter weekend with a 22.1miler on Good Friday and 20.09 miles on Easter Monday. There has also been a tough 15 mile session on the Turbo (as it was too wet and windy outside) as well as the shortest of road rides. (The shortest in a very long time.) It was windy! Far too windy! I was on my way to meet Mikey from work but ended up turning back as in the first few miles I'd been nearly blown off three times. I got back home frustrated and with only 4.64 miles on the clock. 

April also saw my introduction to Strava and Garmin-Connect, which has helped re-motivate me and encourage me to get out there and do something.

So, as well as the rides, I have been running.  So far, me and my Mum have managed to do 8 runs! I use the term "run" very loosely as it is quite a slow jog.  As part of the Couch to 5k plan we did 4 runs at Level 1 which is alternate 60 seconds of running and 90 seconds of walking - eight times (for 20 minutes).  The first few attempts were easy-ish but sadly then we met a wall as my Mums dizziness reared its ugly head and she needed to stop and sit on the floor - before she fainted!

Despite not completely conquering the first stage we decided to move up to stage 2 which involves alternate 90 seconds of running with 2 minutes of walking - a total of 6 interval runs.  Despite the longer runs, it would give us more recovery time.  Surprisingly I found this stage much easier than I expected.  Even more shockingly the last two runs have involved some extra running. Today because our final run was interrupted when passing Mums colleague who wanted to chat - so then to make sure we had run enough, we ran for an extra 90 seconds.  Then a few days ago we squeezed in an extra 60 second run - when nature called and I wanted to get home quick sticks. ;-)

Overall during our running training 19.8 miles have been covered - obviously not all of this has been running but a large majority of it has and it will soon be time to kick it up to the next level.  This however, will not be done until my Mum feels confident to do so - as after all, I am running for her. I only started running to help motivate her.   Without her wanting to do it I wouldn't be running at all. So we run at her speed and we will go to the next stage when she is ready - or maybe when I feel like I need to push her to the next step. ;-)