WOW!!! What a week, after a toughy last week mentally. This week pretty much every step was a pleasure.
After having done my long run on the Saturday last week, meaning Sunday off, I was rested and ready to go on the Monday. I did an easy 10 3/4 miles, The Mearns still had a bit of snow on the pavements so that made it a bit more challenging. But overall a very comfertable run and a good start to the week.
Tuesday's run I was both nervous and excited about as I have never done a tempo run longer than the 12.9 miles the previous week and this week I was going to attempt 15. Due to the snow and other limitations, I wanted a route that avoided the snow as I was going to be going at a faster pace. I didn't have a set route but I had a good idea of where I wanted to go. I decided in order to get the mileage up I would do loops every now and then, these ranged from 1/2 a mile to 1.5 mile and I think I did about 5 of them all together. These really helped breaking the distance up and meant I was only focusing on the loop I was on or where the next loop I was going to do. Overall this was an absolutely brilliant run and I thought I could have gone on. In the end I averaged 8 min 15 second miles and the last 2 miles I upped it to well below 8 minute miles. So I managed 15 miles in just under 2 hours 5 minutes.
Wednesday not surprisingly I was a bit stiff, so I just did my 10k loop. To my surprise I found it really easy! At the end of it I felt like I did when I was starting which was encouraging.
Then Thursday's club session which was Davieland hill reps which is 320 metres up a gradual ascent. We did this session in January and I was amazed by how much my group had improved and myself. Last time I was averaging 1.34 minutes per rep with a best of 1.29 and pulled away from the group in the last 5 reps. This time we were all together the whole time which was great and so motivating to push myself even more. This time for the first five I averaged between 1.25 and 1.30. The second 5 average was 1.22 with the second last rep and last rep being 1.20 and 1.18 respectivily. The last rep is equivalent to 6 minute 15 second mile pace! I found my tactics really worked. I positioned myself at the back of the pack then try and catch up with the two fastest in the group Steven and Colin by the top of the hill. Which I did for most of the reps except the last one where they both ran out there skins and must have been somewhere between 1.10 and 1.15!
Friday was my day off, then Saturday I parked outside Pollock Park and just ran the half mile in and out of the park run where I handed out the numbers this week.
Which sets the seen nicely for Sunday's epic! For the first time ever I actually managed to get myself up in time for the long run with the club. I ran the 2 miles up to the club and got there with 10 minutes to spare. When I got there I was the only one there and I wondered if I was going to be running alone again. But gradually everyone came and there must have been between 10 and 15 of us. There is an in joke in the club about doing the dams route which is the hardest route they do, so they always say stuff like 'dams route this week'. But this week it really was! So 15 miles and its pretty hilly but a very beautiful route as the snow still covered the fields and the resoviour was still iced over. I got chatting to quite a few folk which made the miles fly by. When we finished the dams loop we still had 4 miles to get back to the club but it was all down hill. This is where everyone took off apart from Steven, Jacqui and myself. They are both doing Lochaber too so wanted to get a 20 miler in. I was happy with this as having all ready done 2 miles that would give me 22. So we took it a bit easier, had a toilet break at the club which by now I had done 17 miles. Then set off on the last loop which is also the club handicap route. My legs were feeling tired but at the same time I felt like I could keep going. In the end it was about 21 1/2 miles but that'll do nicely!
The thing that was even better about this run was the pace is slightly faster than running on my own and I ended up doing 21 1/2 miles in 3 hours 10 minutes. This is sub 9 minute mile pace and Sub 4 hour marathon pace. To put this into perspective last week I did 20 miles in 3 hours 20 minutes.
So overall I am absolutley delighted with this week and it will be interesting to see how I recover from this long run. This is my highest mileage week ever at 62 miles and that was cutting out miles to make sure I didn't over do it.
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