Relax
After 4 good races in 5 weeks it was time to take a break from focusing heavily on race preparation. My mind needed to move away from constantly making sure every session had a target, analysing paces versus effort and pushing to hit difficult target times. Plus various parts of my body could do with a break from the higher volume of faster running. So I took that mental break and went out for a few easy runs with the idea just to enjoy them. If I didn't want to run, then I didn't, if I wanted to go longer then I did. I also snuck in a swim and returned to some basic weights. As the week progressed all the niggles I had been developing from racing dissipated and my body was feeling recovered. Interestingly over the week I still covered 84km, and it felt a lot easier than my recent 70km weeks. On these runs I made a point of venturing off my usual routes. I found a couple of extra links between some of my favourite trails. One run I enjoyed especially was a long effort ba...