I'm afraid I wimped out and just did 6 rather than the full 7 miles - still feeling quite tired and not very energetic, very different to this time last week.
Hopefully by Sunday I should be feeling I've got a bit more oomph! I've got a few friends from around the country that are also running the MK 1/2 on Sunday too, so it will be great to get together for the first time this year. I've just been looking at the course profile today and most of it looks okay, nicely downhill for the first 31/2 miles and then pretty much flat until mile 12 with a nasty hill for the last mile. Oh well nothing's perfect ;-)
When I set off this morning I knew it was going to be a tough run as I was feeling tired even before the off and in my head I could see it being shortened to a 6 mile run. I guess I was still tired from the 2 runs at the weekend, the first one just being plain long and the other strenuous, pushing myself up and down the those Winchester hills and of course I topped it all off with 6 hours of driving and 12 1/2 hrs on my feet yesterday at work. See I've got my excuses all sorted ;-) The first mile kept to pace and it all went downhill from then on. I guess I just hadn't reckoned on the weekend taking so much out of me. I'm going to take it nice and slow tomorrow and then hopefully will feel fairly rested before the dreaded hills on Thursday.
Although I do say so myself, I really think I deserved today's rest day after running 17 miles followed by quite a hilly and fast (for me) 10K. Because the running club do hill sessions on a Thursday, I'm going to do Tuesdays run then and instead do Thursdays run on Tuesday. I've registered for the Milton Keynes Half Marathon on Sunday so am doing that in place of the 17 mile run (which I did last week).
With any luck next week the runs should be back on course :)
An hour or so after my 17 miler, I set off for Lou's in Southampton, so we could do the Winchester 10K in the morning.
Usually after a long run, I have a rest day, but not this week! There were 2 reasons for this run, one was that it had been my first sub 1hr 10k when we did it a couple of years ago and I remembered it being an attractive course so I thought it would be good to give it another go. The other was so that I could support Lou around it because she's had lots of problems recently with her running and had to cut back on her distances, not having run a full 10K for a year or so, due to grief she's been getting from her legs and I thought Lou would want to take it fairly carefully. So my thoughts that evening after a couple of glasses of wine and a chat were of a nice 10 - 10:15 min mile run. Of course I completely forgot to take into account firstly - my fading and idealised memory of the course and secondly - Lou's tenacity and strength - Oops! Big Mistake! Most of the run I stayed between 10-100ft behind Lou (depending on the length and steepness of the hills which I had erased from my memory ;o) ) with the idea of trying to keep the pressure off, so she didn't feel the need to work too hard and end up hurting her legs. With 300 metres to go though, I leveled up with Lou as we were heading down the hill to the finish and said to her that I'd got there for her sprint finish (which she never fails to beat me with) and sure enough with 100m to go, even though dying inside from the stress of the whole run, she set off like a rocket to the Finish. I could never ever beat her sprint even if I'd been fresh as a daisy, I'm a real wimp when it comes to sprinting. So we put in much better times than expected (both beating our previous course records) especially Lou with a fantastic time and awesome sprint.
Not that I'm suggesting Lou is a big black Jamaican guy, but she is bloody fast!
I missed out Friday's 3 mile run as my arms and legs were killing me from a windtunnel session on Thursday at Bodyflight (hadn't jumped or flown since October) and it didn't seem unreasonable, as I reckon the effort put into the tunnel was probably more than the 3mile easy run that was due anyway.
I was still aching on Saturday morning so I set off primed with paracetamol, a couple of energy drinks to keep me hydrated and gels to give me an energy boost if I needed it. It was another beautiful blue skies day though, so apart from the initial aches didn't feel too bad. As it was a long run, I didn't really want to carry 2 drinks the whole way round so I put one under a tree just after the start so I could collect it as I went past on the loop back. I was fuming last year when I left a bottle in a bush at the side of the road and went to pick it up 12 miles later to find that somebody had pinched it, so this time I hid it with a covering of leaves. But I didn't take into account my own renowned memory of a gnat and when I came back through, I couldn't figure which tree it was Doh! I don't have these blonde highlights for nothing! From about 9 miles onwards my feet were killing me though, the same toe and transverse arch pain that I had earlier in the month :( . I thought it would have self-resolved by now, so I'll have to try some more padding in my trainers and if that fails maybe see a podiatrist. It was 15 sec/mile slower than last week (I think I lost a bit of time trying to figure out where my lost bottle of drink was though ;o) ) but all in all not a bad run really.
It's been a busy ol day - I had a study day for the first half of the day and then a meeting in the afternoon, but managed to squeeze my run in before setting off for Bedford and my first wind tunnel for a session for 4 months, drying to dust off the cobwebs before starting jumping in the Spriing. The run was a good one and I kept up the brisk pace for the whole 2 miles. 2 miles didn't seem too long to keep up the pace for and my GPS was actually telling me to slow down. I think it may have a problem and be out a bit but it would be really nice if it was right.
I so very nearly talked myself out of my run today - An overcast, wet and windy winter's day, not the kind of day you want to leave the house for if you can help it and even less appealing if you've got to run 7 miles in it. But as is frequently the case, the fear of failure won. It's always been quite effective in making me do things that I really don't want to do (it's even made me jump out of a plane on the odd occasion! ;o) ).
I eventually set off with the intention of probably only doing 5 miles, (at least I'd be making the effort) but somehow ended up doing the full run. As it was a slow run, pace wasn't such a priority and so I tried to keep myself occupied and perhaps enlighten my mind a little my listening to a couple of the Little Atoms Podcasts.
Procrastinating as usual and putting off my interval run, I finally got it done, just as the sun was going down.
The plan was for 12 x 200 metre intervals at 7:53 minute mile pace. Only 2 were slower than that (the first 2) and 7 of them were actually faster than 7:30, so that was brill, although I suspect that the GPS on the watch might have had problems recording such short intervals accurately.
This is the general plan for the coming week, although it looks like I'll be missing my second rest day as I've signed up to do the Winchester 10K with my matey Fuzzy Lou on Sunday (a run we did together a couple of years ago). So I'm going to have to bring my long run forward to Saturday. I'm also going to do next week's long run this week (which should be a 17 miler) as I wasn't able to schedule a Half Marathon until the week after when I do the Watford Half.
Days like this were made for running! I'm not generally one of those people who run simply because they love it, I run to keep fit, healthy and let myself eat donuts and naughty food without putting too much weight on (and even that has been a bit of a challenge recently, as the stone I put on in weight at the end of last year had been so difficult to shift, I hate to think how much weight I'd have put on if I hadn't been running) but today it was a pleasure - fresh clean air, beautiful blue skies and good music, couldn't help but be enthusiastic.
I set off out of town with my ipod playing for my 15 mile run, always a little bit of a struggle at the start till I get going, but after about 2 miles this song started playing with it's upbeat tempo and it set me off for a sub 10.0 minute mile (just 9:59) up the long slow 3 mile hill around Hucknall - I was sensible on the downhill leg and didn't go too fast managing to sustain an overall pace of 10.01 which is good for me as I normally run too fast at the beginning and can't keep it up for the last half. Thats 34sec/min/mile faster than my long run last week! :) Unfortunately I hit one of the buttons on my Garmin in error so it missed out a couple of the downhill miles and I had to work out the distance & pace manually, but that was the only downside of an otherwise great run.
As for the coming week, it's going to be a busy one, the plan is to do my long run on Saturday as I'm planning on doing a 10K race with a friend (the lovely Fuzzy Lou) down in Winchester on Sunday - just praying it's not too fast as I think I'll be pretty shattered after the scheduled 17 miles!
Anyway quote for the day "I'd rather be a comma than a full stop!" Too much to do than sit at home and watch the world go by ;)
I was planning on doing the ParkRun this morning, but mis-set the alarm clock and overslept. Not such a bad thing though, as the run was supposed to be an easy 3 miles, and if I'd done the ParkRun I know I would have tried to get a PB (personal best) which would have meant running full out. So I compromised and did an easy 4miles, which made more sense as I've got a long slow run in the morning and don't want to be too tired. The weather was really mild and it was actually quite a pleasant run, I might not say the same tomorrow after my long run ;-/
Just received an e-mail today from Virgin London Marathon saying that's how long it is till the start line, gulp!! That sounds far too soon and 9 weeks doesn't sound much better either.
The good new this week is I've worked all my shifts now and have got a week's annual leave too, so hopefully it'll make the next week and a half a little easier. I did my steady 6 mile run this morning, the weather wasn't too bad and my plan was to stick to a 9 minute mile and was just outside that with 9:05 min/mile, so not so bad really - not sure it's enough to get me around in 4 hours, but i'm going to give it my best!
Finally getting around to my first run after a hard 3 days at work. Still quite achy and wasn't really looking forward to it, but the weather was lovely, a tropical 10°C!!!! so set off on my way.
It was an interval run designed to improve my speed and pace, with short distances at a fast pace and slow recoveries in between. Unfortunately when I downloaded the plan from Runnersworld direct to my Garmin GPS, it was actually different to the scheduled run I was expecting. It was supposed to be 10 intervals, but I ended up doing the 8 intervals that were on the watch. I hit the pace on 5 of the intervals and the others were a bit slower, but overall was quite happy with them, considering I'd not done a run since Saturday and have been aching back and feet since then and I think I made up the difference though by going for a 10 mile+ walk with Sarah this afternoon, along the Trent and canal.
Looking at the forecast I've got a few milder days coming up before it starts to get cooler again at the weekend, so had better take full advantage of them although I am working another long shift tomorrow.
Lots of running around (not the training kind) today sorting out Harry's birthday present, so didn't get out as early as I wanted to (which was a pity as I'd hoped to get out there before it started getting colder again) . The first 8 miles were pretty good, but my transverse arch (ball of my foot) started getting painful at that point (which usually happens at the 6 mile point, especially when I wear in a new pair of trainers) and then to be honest, I lost interest and plodded the rest of the run (afraid I'm not feeling very inspired at the moment) I think if it had been a race or if I'd been running with somebody else I'd probably have been a bit more motivated.
Right I'm off to bed now, I've got 3 long days at work, so probably not running again till Wednesday.
I really had to force myself out of the door today, feeling quite down - disappointed that my last 3 runs haven't been what they should have been, legs and back still hurting from Sunday's run, and shattered after my night shifts - plus it's sooo cold out there :( . Why would any sane person want to spend even 5 minutes running with that? If I wasn't trying to raise money for Epilepsy it's times like these when it'd be so easy to stop, rest and wait until the weather gets better in the Spring. The brisk wasn't so brisk and was a minute/mile slower than it should have been. The only good thing about today was that most of the pavements were finally clear of snow.
I've had to rearrange the schedule because my shifts at work have changed and I'm now having to work long days Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, so will have to squeeze Sundays long run in tomorrow. Not looking forward to those13 miles :-/
I spent Tuesday in Sheffield with Sarah where she had an open day and interview for University. All went well and she's got another offer to add to the other 2 :o) But we didn't get back from there till later and so not much time to get my run in before starting my night shifts.
I managed four of the 8 x 2 minute hill runs, before I had to head home before starting work, but at least it was better than nothing.
The following evening waking up after my night shift, I woke up with a really sore back but went out for my 6 miler but only managed 3 decent miles before stopping. I'm sure part of it's due to my back pain I've had since Sunday and just the awkwardness of running on and trying to avoid the ice on the roads. Being on nights is not helping at all either. I can't wait for all the snow to go, it's making running really hard and really bringing me down.
Legs and back still feeling it from Sunday. That running in snow is hard work. Looks like I'd better get used to it, although I think the snow is in danger of changing to ice, so it might get a bit tricky. Fingers crossed that it disappears soon
With the Watford Half cancelled, I still needed to get out for a long run, so I dusted off my trail shoes for their annual airing and put all my layers of clothing on and set off for Wollaton Park. The original Training plan run for today was supposed to me a slow 11 miles, but I'd built it up a little longer so I could do fit in Watford as part of the training, so when that was called off my aim was to revert to the original run. I knew it was going to be tough running on the snow, but it was such hard work - it was horrible and I was exhausted at the end of it.
If it had all been nice and compacted it would have been fine, but it was totally uneven, some parts had been well worn in and others were totally untouched snow or just the occasional footprints through it. Some of it was already defrosting slush and some of it was just deceptive pools of water covered by a dusting of snow. Within the first 2 miles my feet were soaked (I guess that waterproofing I put on my trainers last year has worn off :-/ ) My legs were killing me by the end of it and had a lovely long soak in the bath afterwards,
On the positive side, it was a gorgeous day and nowhere near as cold as it was yesterday. It seemed like everyone in Nottingham had gone out to Wollaton with their trays and sledges (a much more sensible idea than running in it ;-) ) one guy was even crosscountry ski-ing. I know it wasn't as far or as fast as I was supposed to run, but I reckon my legs definitely had to work harder in the snow and nobody said it was going to be easy so it's had it's benefits.
It is soooo cold out there! We went to the shops this morning and Iwas really taken by how fffffreezing it was and that was only from the car into the supermarket, so I wasn't really looking forward to the run today, even though it was only a short distance. I finally managed it though, but only once I'd got my extra layers on, including an additional pair of running leggings, gloves and hat. Just as well really because as I stepped out of the door it started snowing. I got a few odd looks, but actually once I got going it wasn't too bad, at least it was getting me warm.
It looks like the snow's starting to settle on the ground at the moment, but I'd be surprised if it's still there in the morning. I've just had a phone call from my Mum saying that her cousin says it was -8°C in Watford today, should make for an interesting run tomorrow. I'd better make a start on my carbo-loading with some pasta.
After a good day at York University (it looks like Sarah's got another offer - Yayyyy!!!! :D ) by the time we got home , my stomach was churning and I was absolutely shattered (late night on Wednesday watching Snow Patrol at the Arena) so really didn't feel like a training run let alone, a hill session with the club. Instead I put it off till today, and although it was freezing cold, the sun came out and I had a really pleasant run.
Just a gentle 3 miles tomorrow before heading down to Watford for the Half Marathon on Sunday
My new trainers have just arrived and I feel like I'm running on marshmallows, they're all bouncy! After a couple of years away, I'm back to the Saucony Pro Grid Triumphs. I'll gently wear them in, but will stick to the old ones for the Half Marathon on Sunday, a bit far to go in new ones.
and look! they've got gold flashes - I'm bound to get faster now!!!!
It was actually quite a pleasure to get out there and run today, a Slow 5 miles but not too slow
Sounds a little rude, but is actually Swedish for Speedplay. It's a bit like the quick interval sessions but you choose how fast and how far you go as you go along, so I did a general mix of different distances and speeds on the flat and up and down hills. Quite a good run as they go but I noticed the chill in the air that'd been forecast.
I just checked out the latest forecast for Sunday's Half Marathon and it's:
