Christmas cheer

Its nearly here, starting to feel pretty real, Christmas is definitely just around the corner.

Life is about to take a very substantial step in the direction of festive. Last weekend was all about Christmas parties, but that was just the dress rehearsal, this weekend we are doing it for real.

For me it all kicks off today, with some Christmas drinks with some of the folks from Break Your Limits followed by the first of our family Christmas dinners. Tomorrow is the Break Your Limits Christmas Ride and then a bit of Christmas downtime, which I guess you could say will be the calm before the storm. On Sunday we obviously have the main event and we will be diving into two days of family gatherings, present giving and eating. Phew. Should be a bunch of fun.

The festive period doesn't necessarily mean no training though. As I have said we have a bit of a ride planned for tomorrow and I may even try and get in a sneaky run on Christmas Day, although that is very much a play it by ear type plan. Training on Christmas Day is always a tenuous possibility at best, which is just the way it should be. The Christmas training really began today when we had this sight great us down at the pool.

Swimming Santa

While we had Santa as a coach, he wasn't giving away an easy session, with the swim still up to its usual tough standards. The gift in this session came at the end with a particularly nasty surprise 800m. The 800m wasn't too bad as each lane did it together as a group, lane against lane, with varying handicaps etc to make it fair. The fun bit was having to get out and dive in again at the end of every 100m. Cardiotastic. Sort of fun though.

While Christmas isn't until Sunday, I actually got an early present last night in the form of a decent run. Yesterday I mentioned that running still wasn't feeling great and it wasn't all that much fun at the moment. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to running last night. I knew I needed to because I need to keep moving and taking a break from running will only make returning harder. But, as I have said, running hasn't been that enjoyable lately and so I wasn't particularly looking forward to the session. Lo and behold though, once I got going last night I found that running felt just that little bit easier. Still not easy and my heart rate was still a bit high, but it was certainly easier than it was on Tuesday, and as a result quicker too. Hopefully this is a sign that the body has taken that next step towards returning to normal. I will be very happy if it is. I guess the next test will be a run on Sunday, if it happens. If I do get out for a run on Christmas and it feels good then that will be a very welcome gift indeed.

Now, let the eating begin.