Wine, running and plenty of sweat!

Its still been difficult to get the miles in due to work commitments, and too many social commitments, but hey such is life. I’m sure we are all facing the same issues so shut up and put up right?
Training has been carrying on roughly about 50 miles a week, with cross fit sessions included, so I’m counting this as training smarter & harder, not just doing longer junk miles. I also got back on the road bike after a 2.5 month absence. I only went out for a 30 mile circuit from Didsbury over to Alderley Edge, up the Wizard hill and back to Didsbury. I could certainly feel it in my little runner legs from those hills, and they weren’t even major!
Had a great ‘fun’ marathon last weekend, The Bacchus Marathon, which is a 2 lap circuit through Denbies wine estate in Surrey. It was brilliant fun, wine tasting every 2 miles over a gorgeous part of the UK. Similar to Marathon du Medoc which I ran a few years ago, but certainly enjoyed this a lot more due purely to the fact that I am so much fitter now, so running and drinking, whilst not ideal training, is absolutely doable with a better level of fitness. So much so that I was dancing at the end, and even ran 1.5 miles back to the hotel afterwards. I ran this with hubby and a friend, Barny. It was Barnys’ first mara so we took it easy and enjoyed the breaks to taste the wine and have some banter with the super friendly marshals on the way around and to get him around, mission accomplished. 5.5 hrs in total, so not a marathon PB, but this course is not designed to be raced, just enjoyed. It was a wine marathon PB though, Medoc took us 6.5 hours! Funny moment along the way, or rather felt a bit ashamed of a fellow runner who was running the half marathon, obviously racing (flogger, this isn’t really a race!) was really rude & unpleasant to some of the marshals as they didn’t tell him soon enough he had to turn around at that point, cost him seconds….oh my days! If you’re after a PB or a place got to a real race, leave the fun ones for….fun!

Due to the slower pace, my Compressport compression calf & quad guards, or was it the copious amounts of wine? My legs felt AOK on Monday, had a little run in the afternoon and tried out my first ever Bikram Yoga session. Wow! That is really hot! 90 mins of sweating hardcore! I was a saturated mess of sweat within the first 15 mins. This is definitely going to help me acclimatise for the Kalahari. Tried a second session on Wednesday night, straight after a 10 mile run in the morning, and a cross fit session in the evening just before Bikram, which probably wasn’t the wisest idea…headed in there pretty shattered & dehydrated. The room was extra hot which happens apparently due to conditions and I only lasted 60mins and had to leave. My hands and feet were white and I had the shakes. Consumed about 3L of fluid in the next hour! Made it back for another session on Thursday morning, making sure I had an early breakfast and plenty of fluids, and lasted this time. So 3 sessions in my first week, and feeling good for it, my flexibility is non-existent but this can only get better right.
Bit too much social activities coming up this weekend, with a birthday dinner, followed by a wedding on Saturday, but a half marathon on Sunday to try and flush it all out!