Lighting Matches (20WTG)

Cycling: 279.89km (174.63 training + 105.26 commuting)

Running: 11.48km

Swimming: 1 session

That weekly tally doesn't look too extreme.

This statement illustrates two things:

a) I have seriously shifted the goalposts on my own personal definition of extreme.

b) Numbers don't always tell the whole story.

I don't really need to discuss Point A. For those of you who haven't succumbed to the call of endurance sport, you have long been watching me spiral into the world of madness. For those of you who are, you know what I mean. Also, there is always a crazier person than you kicking around (see the bloke who was the best man for my cousin's husband when they got married last year).

Point B is more interesting. Those 175km odd of training km consisted of a 1-on-1 coached session where I smashed myself, my first ride with the Rapha cyclists where I smashed myself, and a 110km sportive where I smashed myself and climbed over 2,000m of hills. Likewise 5km of the running was spent running around in the mud, up hills on Hampstead Heath, and that hour is probably one of the hardest (and most fun) I had all week. Definitely harder than an easy 10km road run.

A cyclist friend put me onto this article last year after a discussion about rest days, recovery and tapering, and it has stuck with me. After a rest day (once a week usually) or rest week (not really a rest- my first rest week program was a pretty severe disappointment) instead of feeling fresh and raring to go I often felt sluggish and tired. So with a lighter week last week on the back of THE MOST MASSIVE WEEK EVER I was interested to see how my body reacted.

Let me point out first of all that I have been doing this stupid thing of pretending to have a life, whilst training. So instead of doing what would be sensible, and going home straight after work/training I have been going out for dinner, catching up with friends, or in preparation for a five hour cycle on Sunday, staying out til 1:30am and getting up to ride at 6am. This probably does not classify as rest, but you have to work with what you've got.

Let me also introduce you to a few tired Ironman cliches. Meaning much the same thing "going to the well" or "lighting a match" refer to the idea of drawing on this special reserve of energy built through training, when you need to shift up a gear or surge or something similar. The catch is it is often hard to know how deep the well is, or how many matches you have to burn.

So this week I went into my training and kept lighting matches. When I went to sprint on the bike on Monday and Thursday mornings I expected the body to rebel. But it performed. When I went for the sprint up the hill on the weekend I expected the legs to give in. But they didn't. And I sure as hell didn't expect to be able to put the hammer down or climb the hills at the Hell of the Ashdown sportive yesterday, but I did and my legs came with me. Come Monday I do feel like falling into a heap, but I feel like that has more to do with not spending sufficient time with my eyes closed, and that physically I am holding up quite well.

If I sound amazed, it's because I am. I am amazed at what training, hard work and grit and determination can deliver. And for someone who spent a lot of their teenage years and early 20's despising or at least severely disliking their body, I'm amazed at what it can do. So beware people, it started with the Couch to 5K running plan for me. Once you start pushing to see where the boundaries are you might find that they are further away than you ever imagined.

PS- Big thanks to Andrew this weekend for pushing me hard to the HOTA sportive, and to my lovely ladies who came and celebrated Valentines Day Friday night and raise some funds for the William Wates Memorial Trust.