Well it’s been a long while since my last post about my Death Race training. And for good reason. It’s been sucking!! My back problems got worse, it went from hurting during the night/days after a long run, to hurting during my run. In the end I had to stop during a 13km run because I realised it had gone beyond discomfort and was a serious issue. So I decided to take a break from running, and concentrate on doing lots of stretching do ease my pain/tension in the lower back. Then I planned to ease back into the running, gradually increasing the days per week after a good two weeks rest. Luckily this rest coincided with a visit to Canada from two of my English friends. We spend 10 days doing downhill skiing, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing etc in Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise and Panorama. So I kept in fairly decent shape with all that ;)

Well back from my trip, I did a couple of runs in the first week…nothing too long. I also have started to mix in some biking so I can limit the running days to two per week for now. My strict running schedule I was doing has been thrown out of the window for now…and I’m just trying to listen to my body. You can see what I’ve been up in my Death Race training diary.

I am starting to lead into a more strict workout regime because I think my back is feeling pretty good. I aim to have one long run per week (13-16km), one short run (6km), and one long hill session (1hour), and hopefully I will also mix in one long bike ride (40km). My times are still pretty good, despite the gap in running for a while. I managed to get PB for both 6km and 13km this week.

The moral of this story is the importance of stretching.. I would always stretch for 5mins before and after running…and I got injured. Now I stretch for around 20mins before and after running, and every day. It really does help kids!

I’ve also found my team on www.godeathracer.com (a forum for Death Race runners). We have the wicked name of Dazed and MORE Confused….the second team to Dazed and Confused. I am running the Hamel Assault, Leg 4, because I fancied something hard (I wanted to do two legs but with back-issues I don’t think it’s wise). I think my leg strength is good compared to my general long-distance running, so will be suited to the big climb. A buddy of mine is down for Leg 2, and I don’t know the other 3 team members. Hopefully will find something about them soon!

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