Started the week after the Canalathon 50k with a distinct lack of muscle soreness. Nothing. Some trouble sleeping, combination of tiredness and jittery lack of attention span during the day, general post-race stress I guess.

Monday I took off running in case there were some delayed pains, walked to/from work by way of recovery. Tuesday and Wednesday I had a couple of great runs, feeling energized and surprisingly quick, unable to take it easy. No DOMS.

So Thursday I went along to a session at the Meadows to try and put in a little speed but take it relatively easy. Dropped back a group or two for a Fartlek session, and it felt both easy-paced and hard work at once.

Road Relays

Sunday was the 6-stage road relays, and after some confusion and organisational faff I ended up with a 5k leg. As always with a relay timing is interesting, and I was trying to work out when to go warm up and when I needed to be ready to start. A decent feeling warmup along a nice riverside path; as I returned I realised I wasn’t 100% sure of what turn-off to take, if my timing was wrong I’d miss the changeover.

Fortunately I arrived at the start line in time to stand in my vest for 10 minutes as the rain started. Started off with nobody in sight, and by the first corner was rather aware that running was not easy and it was hard to keep up a decent pace. The course is odd, twisting around corners, climbing over bridges, though with some nice paths to run along too. But my legs were badly feeling the effects of the ultra, there was nobody around to race, it was hard work. Pushed myself around to a harder than it should be 18:00.

Had planned to make a longer run back towards town after the race but it wasn’t an option, just permeated by a deep tiredness.