Trans-alpine challenge by doc_s

Just a quick update on the week so far, I feel there's finally light at the end of the tunnel, very little training to do then it's time to taper.... yipee. I'm feeling in much better shape this week, back to my normal self and not so likely to burst into tears or keel over with exhaustion.

Monday was a recovery run at club, the boys set off at too quick a pace for me so i bailed at 6 miles, i would have run further on my own but i just couldn't keep up anymore. There was also an article in the Evening Times, I think I'm starting enjoy all this fame and glory, LOL! The guys at club thought it was hilarious- it says I have previously done 'small runs', the way it's worded you'd think I was a complete novice who'd just shelled out on my first pair of trainers.

Tuesday saw me do my interview with Radio Clyde, thanks Muffs for your message, I read it just before I arrived and it turned me into even more of a jibbering wreck than I had been. I'm not actually sure what i said, I think it was ok but in my nerves completely forgot to ask when they are going to air it and to mention the online donation page- doh! The lady did say it would be before my charity night and they were hoping to run with it as a bit of a story, getting an update from me at different stages of the race, which is very encouraging as any publicity may help to bring in some funds. After that I was in the mission for a few hours, which helped cheer me up. I've been quite distracted over the past few weeks, trying to print off letters and phone/email people for fundraising stuff while I'm there so it was great to just have a few hours to talk to the clients and help out during lunch service. I never feel that I do anything spectacularly helpful when I'm there and giving up a morning per week hardly seems enough, so i hope the fundraising for the race is a success. The advantage of doing it for a small charity that I know well is you can see where the money goes and know it is making a difference, even if it's not a kings ransom. Tuesday evening saw me back on the Kilpatrick hills for an hour and a half, happily I managed not to get lost and felt I ran at a decent pace.

Last night was back to running club and I had been up late baking again to sell some cakes to my running compadres to raise some extra pennies. This week was a victoria sponge, rocky road, chocolate brownies, apple, cinnamon and raisin muffins and coconut slice. The session was supposed to be a 20 minute out and back, not really appropriate at this stage of the game so a few of us headed out for 13 miles. i was promised 7 and a 1/2 minute miles, surprise, surprise, that was complete nonsense, and despite my loud protestations we zipped round most of it , not a kick in the shirt of my race pace. As a result I ended up with bad bout of runner's tum, necessitating a quick detour and a slower finish. So just over 12 miles in 1 hr 28- not really my idea of a long SLOW run!

I'm on-call tonight so no running for me but i did an hour on the turbo trainer when I got home, brilliant as it gave me an excuse to watch celebrity masterchef, if there is one thing I love more than running/fitness, it's food! Some of the stuff looked amazing. I'm off to bed soon as I may get called out during the night so i need to grab some shut-eye, although I never sleep well on-call, constantly dreaming of ringing phones, drives me mad.I got a new gel cover for my road bike saddle this week and I've got some big hills planned for over the weekend so I need a good rest.

Hope you're all having a good week x