Today's Resting

[Graham Breeze]

I have taken heed of your warning AK.

I fancied some cheese and biscuits this evening and found a Garlic and Chive soft cheese mini roule in the fridge. Yes, it looked as good as it sounds, and as I was about to spread some on a biscuit I thought, how long have I had it?

Use by 06/01/22 was the answer.

In the bin it went and I had to make do with boring Cheddar!

Thank you AK

I think I'll buy some shares in Kraft.

[anthonykay]

I had very mild common cold symptoms from the middle of last week, but enough for me to replace Friday's planned hill reps with a walk/jog up Beacon Hill. It developed into a very uncomfortable cough yesterday, but a Covid lateral flow test was negative. Feeling a bit better today, but I have abandoned the idea of doing the Wardle Skyline race on Saturday.

[Travs]

I ended up having a day of total rest today. I knew the morning run was out of the question as I had to go into the office.

But things didn't run as scheduled in the office and my eating was all over the place, so gym session then went out of the window. Did consider a brief treadmill run, but also got quite a large blister/hotspot under the skin on my heel from the weekend, and with a club session tomorrow night and a big weekend coming up, decided it was better to just abandon all plans today.

[anthonykay]

I haven't run for the last two weeks, and I don't plant to for another three or four weeks. Why?

I have had a period of eight and a half months of training and racing (10 races, including 6 from the FRA or WFRA calendar), without having to take a break for injury. This is unprecedented since I restarted racing on the fells in 2014. The Scafell Pike race two weeks ago felt like some sort of climax to the season. So, going against the normal runners' practice of continuing to train and race until either getting injured or feeling stale and losing motivation, I have decided to take a break from running, after which I should be able to restart, feeling refreshed and eager for new challenges. Meanwhile, I'm not being a couch-potato; I'm still going for brisk walks, and my cycling mileage, which has been very low while the running has been going so well, is increasing. I'm not sure what my next race will be; maybe the Baslow Bolt, but more likely the Gaddesby Gallop.

[Travs]

My clubmate takes a prolonged break in late summer every year, of 4-8 weeks, (although he's taken 10 weeks off this year due to an injury). At least half of that time is total rest, then the 2nd half of the break includes some cycling, aqua-running, etc.

Of course it is a little simpler for him being purely a track and XC runner, so fits into the gap between the end of the track season and start of the XC.

[mr brightside]

I'm always keen to never rest for very long, or rest totally if avoidable. I've found it very hard to get through all the connective tissue problems around my knees on the restart. Once I'm going I like to keep going.

[anthonykay]

So now I've got two reasons for not doing the Bamford Sheepdog Trials fell race. There's my Achilles tendonitis, and now I have tested positive for Covid. Symptoms started yesterday evening, and are fairly mild so far: coughing, runny nose and slight headache; but I can still taste my food, and there's no fever. But given that you can be infectious before having any symptoms, I have probably been a super-spreader over the weekend: singing in a choir concert on Saturday evening (about 20 people in the choir, and maybe 50 in the audience), and then being in church with about 200 people on Sunday morning.

[Travs]

Anthony, does attending church have an effect on being able to race on a sunday? Trying to think of all the races where i've seen you, and they have generally been saturdays...

I'd imagine the fact you travel to most races by train would have an equally big effect on your sunday morning racing....!

[anthonykay]

Anthony, does attending church have an effect on being able to race on a sunday? Trying to think of all the races where i've seen you, and they have generally been saturdays...

I'd imagine the fact you travel to most races by train would have an equally big effect on your sunday morning racing....!

You've hit the nail on the head there. Sunday morning train services are useless for travel to races, so on the odd occasions when I have been to a Sunday race rather than church, it has either been when I have gone away for the whole weekend (e.g. when I did Pen y Fan a few years ago), or a local race that I can cycle to.

[anthonykay]

I've got over the main symptoms of the Covid, with just some catarrh to annoy me. My energy levels are getting back to normal, but I need to be careful and not exert myself too much too soon. So today's walk was just up to the Outwoods, at a moderate pace.