Whizzing round the Woodfords

Tonight the Triathlon Club ran a timed session. Timed sessions are designed to be a race against yourself but of course really everyone secretly knows that you're racing against each other. I do actually race against myself and dream about the day that I'll be anywhere near fast enough to feasibly race against any of the others. It's always a surprise who is going to turn up and tonight not only was I the only girl but I was the least fit by a long way! C'est la vie, loses make you stronger I suppose.. character building and all that jazz. Hugo, who I have mentioned previously, was not racing this evening as he was a bit injured, bless him. When he said that at the start I disregarded it completely because when most people say they're going to "take it easy" they still go out and completely annihilate me. I expected him to speed off and very quickly become a speck on the country road horizon. Once we got started, I was huffing and puffing and pushing and heaving as hard as I could. Within moments everyone had overtaken me, except for Hugo, hmm.. very suspicious. After a few minutes I heard him behind me. Turns out he was in fact telling the truth and was taking it easy. So whilst I was pushing my body to it's very limit, swallowing flies and trying to ignore the sweat beading down the back of my neck, injured Hugo was cruising easily behind me enjoying his recovery session. Luckily for me though, he started to offer snippets of advice. My gear selection was all wrong so that changed, and I was actually able to go quicker - amazing. Little changes that he was suggesting were making a big impact, and the friendly encouragement was helpful too. I ended up (just) catching the next guy in front of me about a mile before the end and with burning thighs and a massive smile. All in all a super session, and probably my fastest laps of the Woodford loop yet, hurrah! As I was filling this session into my training log I realised we are now in July and I glanced back over my June training to see what I had acheived in the last month. I was quite surprised to that throughout June I have run 72.87 miles in total! For someone who struggled after one mile not too long ago I was very pleased with that indeed. Stay tuned for more fun training stats! Until then, sleep and a rest day.. and as it's the weekend, maybe a slice of cake. Or two.