Loch Ness Marathon Training week 6

Another solid weeks training with an extra thrown in for good measure!


Tuesday was speedwork night and the first time ever I have done 400m reps. I managed 9 x 400m with 200m recoverys averaging about 1 minute 50 sec for each with worst of 1.57 and best of 1.39 with the encouging thing being that I got faster as the session went on.

Then on Wednesday did an easy 7 miler in nearly dead on an hour which was very pleased with as that means I was going 7 miles per hour! :-) Then Thursday it was a 4 mile tempo run with some hills with 1 mile warm up, 1 mile warm down.

Friday was a rest day then on to my most strenuous weekend this year by far. On Saturday morning did an easy 4.4 mile. Followed by climbing Beinne Chabhair in the afternoon which was by far the toughest hill climb I have done but felt surprisingly good reaching the summit. It was challenging because of the eroded path on the way up beside Beinglass falls for starter so it was a steep gradient. Then when we reached the top of the first steep bit we followed the burn up a gradual incline which was extremely marshy! On the way up we were jumping over the really marshy bits but by the way down we stopped caring and just ploughed through them. Then the path veered left up a steep hill. At the top of the hill there is a ridge which goes up and down constantly until reaching the summit of Beinne Chabhair. Luckily the path got better and less marshy the further up we went. Just to give an idea of how hard this mountain is though. Although it says its 930 odd metres, there is over 1000m of ascent due to the down hill bits on the way up. Also I climbed Ben Lomond this year in 3 and half hours (2 hours up, 1 and half down). This took 4 hours to go up and 2 hours 40 to go down! and we really were not hanging about on the descent. So with 20 minutes at the top to admire the breathtaking views where you could see as far away as Glasgow, all in all was a 7 hour round trip. With a well earned meal at the Droovers inn down the bottom where we parked.

So Sunday a few people had there doubts I would be able to do my long run with yesterdays long day. But although I had a wee bit of stiffness in the morning it went well and managed to average 10 minute miles for the scheduled 16 miles. So over the weekend I managed almost 30 miles altogether! Actual running during the week was a record high of 38.4 miles, so Overall a very good week and a much needed rest day tomorrow!