With one month of the year down, it's about time I reported back on what is going on in the Mad Ultra-Mummy's life. January can be a pretty busy month workwise, and generally leads into a hectic February. This year, although January has been a tad quieter than normal, February looks set to be its usual busy self, so I am bracing myself for some long workdays and planning ahead to shoe-horn my training in where I can. January's training has comprised of daily short runs, mostly between 3 and 8 miles, in an attempt to maintain my fitness whilst recovering a little bit of my long lost speed. Nothing too focussed, as I felt I still needed a mental break after what the end of 2016 threw at me, but short runs, with the odd sharp-paced one thrown in. It seems to have worked, with my average paces looking far more respectable than they did during 2016, and with my running VO2 Max (a measure of my oxygen uptake) back up into the 50s for the first time in a good few years. Alongside the daily runs, on a weekly basis I have been fitting in a couple of spin classes (for a balance of training in the legs, and additional cardio benefits) and at least one upper body and core training session to start to build the foundations of an obstacle-racers body! I can't quite believe that we are only five weeks away from the first challenge run of the year – The Mighty Deerstalker - a night time adventure race in Scotland! By way of a warm-up, we ran the Stourbridge Stagger today. It's a roughly ten mile (actually closer to 9.5 today) hilly, muddy mainly off-road run that is a staple part of Ian's and my annual running schedule and today we ran it with Mark and Rachey respectively giving them their first proper taste of trail running. We all had a good run with the boys finishing at a blistering pace and the girls giving a pretty good show of themselves. It felt great to be back out there 'doing my stuff'. Physically, it certainly feels like 2017 has started the right way. All the foundations are going in well and the body shows no signs of malaise (keeping everything crossed as I type!!!) . Mentally, I think I am starting to climb out of the trough but still don't feel able to extend my engagement to a larger circle of people beyond my nearest and dearest. I am fortunate that all of my clientele are a fabulous bunch of folks who are a joy to work with and so I don't struggle during my workday but the whole social media thing is still eluding me. So I remain apologetic to anyone who expects me to interact with them via Facebook etc... it's just not my thing right now... sorry. If you feel able to sponsor me for this year's crazy challenges, I am fundraising for The Alzheimer's Society. Both them and I would really appreciate any support and encouragement you can give. There is a fundraising button to the right of my Blog page! Thanks.
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