Business as usual

After yesterday's nightmare at Sedbergh 3 Peaks, I was keen to get my running back on track. When you have a day like I did yesterday, you can't wait for the next race or training session to come so you can put things right. Still slightly angry after yesterday, I went off on today's training run with intention.
I did a nice steady 15 minutes with a mate and then went off for a Fartlek session in Skipton Woods. Fartlek, meaning Speedplay in Swedish, involves alternative bouts of running at different speeds with little structure, depending on how you feel. The thing I like about Fartlek sessions is they are much less pressured or threatening than more structured Interval based sessions, yet they can result in just as much hard work. Today I used landmarks in Skipton Woods, like park benches, trees and bridges to start and finish my efforts as well as the odd natural feature, such as a hill. The length of efforts varied from around 20 seconds to over 2 minutes, but I reckon I did around 12 efforts all together in half an hour. I tried to avoid any hills, including Park Hill as I thought this may trigger the back spasms again. The back held up well overall; there was the odd tightening and the like but nothing as alarming as yesterday.
I finished off with 15 more steady minutes, topping the time up to an hour and the distance to around 7 miles. A good day's training after a bad day yesterday. I felt nice and strong throughout which was pleasing and despite my legs feeling stiff this morning, they were fine whilst doing the session.
Saturday is of course Northern Schools, which Ermysteds regard as a big fixture in the calendar. I guess it's a good chance for the team to win another prestigious event and we also look to retain the 'best overall school' trophy which we won last year . I will give it my best shot and we will see where that takes me.