Well after last weeks awesome week I was wondering how to top it and have to say I came pretty close! On Monday night I was feeling it a bit from Sunday's long run so I just opted for half a circuits session, so did six circuits instead of twelve. On Tuesday night I try to avoid what I'm doing on the Thursday with the club if possible. It is more difficult at the moment because the I don't have a copy of the future Thursday training schedule but I have requested it so hopefully will have it soon. Since I didn't make last weeks session I found out what they did so I could do it on Tuesday. The session was 5 times mile reps which I did up beside Clarkston. I took the first few easy just to ensure I finished the session, so I did them between 8.00 and 8.20 for the mile. The next couple I managed to get around the 7.40 mark and the last one I did in 7.12 which was pleasing. I normally do this session faster with the club but this route is slightly more hilly and its harder to push yourself as much when there no other people about.
On Wednesday I had planned to do an 8 miler but decided to just do an easy 10k as it was really cold as there had been a thin layer of snow. It was nice though running through the fresh powder and being the first to trample over the snow. Hopefully I'll get an 8 miler in this week. On Thursday night I was just pleased to make it to the club to be honest. It has been 3 weeks since I've been, due to holidays and trains being late. So it was good to catch up with folk and also speak to a few I have not spoken to before. The session was one of the toughest sessions they do. Firstly it was 5 times just less than 1/2 mile reps was first. I was running strong in these and generally I was running between 3 mins and 3 min 10 seconds per rep. So I was pretty consistent. Next up was 5 times long hills. I love the hill we do here and I'm pretty good at pacing it. Then next up was 5 times 1/4 mile reps. Due to time though and people needing to go, we only did two. I was half tempted to stay on and finish the session as it would only have taken another six minutes. But I go to the club half to get a good session and half to meet more running folk. So decided to be sociable and run back with the guys. Still got a really good session in anyway!
On Friday I had my day off. Saturday morning, I got up too late to run to the Park run, so I just drove and parked outside the park and ran the 1/2 mile in. This week I was Numbers assistant, which meant I handed the Numbers person Sophie a stack of numbers at the finish every time someone crossed the line. After last weeks record number of people turning up of 267, it was yet another record week with 269 people this week! Not only that but my brother and his fiancé were also running this week with Nic finishing just ahead of Ken. The winner of this weeks park run was Jethro Lennox in 15.31! This was his 3rd park run and before this week he had never won a park run but has come second twice. But if you look at hill racing websites and loads more races he has won, it really is amazing what he has achieved and finally he has got the Glasgow Park run to add to his list of accomplishments. Due to not running till the afternoon I decided just to do an easy 3 miler which was a nice run but uneventful.
On Sunday as normal I woke up late so didn't start my run till 1pm. I went into it with the same approach as last time, just see how far I can get. As always though I had a target mileage and it was 17 miles. I started the run heading into town then back then out towards Pollock Park. I had initially planned to do the same route as last week with a bit extra. But while I was out I thought, I've never actually ran through Bellahouston Park apart from during the Great Scottish Run, so I decided just to keep going once I went through Pollock Park and ended up doing a big massive loop back past Silverburn. I try not to look to much at my watch for mileage but once I completed my loop I needed to work out the next loop and how far I still needed to go to do 17. I was delighted to see that I had done 10 1/2 miles and still felt strong. I got to Eastwood toll and knew it was only 3 miles from their to home. I had 4 1/2 miles still to go, so I made a loop of what I thought was 1 1/2 miles up to beside Roukenglen and somehow it was exactly 1 1/2 miles. So just had the 3 miles left of which 2 1/2 miles were downhill or flat. So I made it! 17.3 miles, and at this stage in my marathon training it is such a confidence booster. I'm planning 19 now for next week and that will set me up nicely for the 20 and 20 mile plus runs in March.
I also found out this week that I won't be able to do the Goatfell hill race as its on the same day as my friend's wedding. So I need to go back to the drawing board for May. The obvious replacement would be Ben Lomond. But a) it's a week earlier and would rather have at least 2 weekends training on hills before I did a race. B) I would rather get some experience with easier hills first. I might be doing the Kintyre relay with the club but that is a big maybe in early May. Other than that I'm pretty open as to what my May race is, come road or hills. I know there is the Scottish half marathon in late May so that is an option if it doesn't sell out. Failing that there is always the Park run! However the thing is since I'm not doing Ben Lomond or Goatfell in May and there are no real other options for medium hill races. It means that the Glen Rosa horseshoe which I planned to do as my June race I think I won't do, as it’s a big step up from Tinto hill race being a long hill race and Tintos a short one. I'm not as concerned about June though as there is tonnes of other races I could do eg on the hills there is the Glas Tulaichean uphill race, Yeltholm or even the Kilpatrick midweek hill race. These are all in the same week so could only really give one justice but they are all options. Also there is the Dunfermline half, East kilbride half and 10k along with plenty more events.
So a 42 mile week in the bag and here is to another good week; fingers crossed!
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