A nice solid week this week.
It started off on Monday with an easy 10k. I was loaded with energy after not doing anything on Sunday so it felt like I was holding myself back the entire time as my legs just wanted to go fast. I was pleased with the effort and was about 8.15 pace. I am trying to increase the easy pace to about 8.30 minute miles but I think this run was an exception as usually I wouldn't have as much in the legs as I did that night.
On Tuesday I was toying with the idea of keeping to my usual theme for the day which is tempo Tuesday - either a shorter tempo at wanabee half marathon pace (7.15 min miles) or a longer tempo at wanabee marathon pace (8.00 minute miles). Then I thought, hang on I haven't done hill reps since February! Can't have that, lol. So I was off to what I thought to be one of the toughest hills in the nearby area which was the 1st of the Merries. Although there are shorter and steeper Merries; this one is long and has steep bits, so best of both worlds. I was thinking to myself that 12 reps would be good here. That was until I did the first 2! It was really knackering. I did the first one in 1.34 and the second one in 1.32. So naturally I thought I should be able to get below 1.30 by the end of the session. But at the same time I was thinking how I am actually going to finish this session! So I decided to get to 6 and take it from there. In the first six, I was between 1.32 and 1.36. I decided to have a few minutes break here and prepare for the next 6. I re-adjusted my expectations and thought if I keep under 1.40 great but just to get the rest under 2 minutes would be an achievement. So I thought I'd aim for 3 more and anything on top of that would be a bonus as by this point I was breathing heavily after each rep. I got to 9. Then for some reason 10 and 11 felt easier and I managed all the 5 reps somehow still between 1.32 and 1.36. And for the last rep I got 1.30! So although it felt like a struggle, it was one of those sessions which looking back on actually went pretty well.
Wednesday, I did an easy 10k. Then Thursday, club night, we went down to Linn Park. On the website I am sure it said 2 laps or something like that. But we ended up doing hill reps on grass. So a double dose this week! It was totally different though as we were pushing it up and down then having a short break inbetween. I definetley enjoyed the session a lot more than Tuesday's so may add that to the Tuesday rota, as although most of the time I'll be doing tempo Tuesday, I want to start doing hill reps once a month.
Friday day off. Then Saturday I decided to do the park run. I met up with race director, Alan, at 8.20 where we walked round putting the signs up. Then it was talking to various people, Susan, Tom, Carlos, Martin, Ken and Nic before the start. I just did an easy half mile warm up, then headed for the start line. Plan for the day was to try and do a tempo run at half marathon pace. I didn't want to go all out at this one because last time I found I was slapping too much on the down hills and my shins hurt the next day, so I wanted to be more controlled today. The race went exactly as planned, and almost identical to the one in January - the difference being I was going all out in January and did it in 22.17. Today I wasn't going all out and did it in 22.16! Funny thing is like January's race Ian Goudie finished in the 22.00's and Martin Myant finished just in front of me,exactly the same thing happened today! Anyone looking at the results would think Martin and myself, being from the same club, just ran round together. But we actually only ever see each other at the start and the finish because he goes off fast and speeds down the hills while I am stronger on the up hills. But I was pleased today, as although I was slightly dehydrated due to the heat, I did still have plenty left.
Then today was another hot day. I had in the back of my mind to do a 20 miler today but due to not being use to running in the heat I did think that was optimistic. So I turned up at the club to find there was just the four of us today; David, Jim,Paul and myself. We did the Park run route but this time started at Linn Park then round through other parks and also included Roukenglen park this time. So a good solid 14 1/2 miles in just over 2 hours. I am pleased with this as I wanted to increase my long run pace, so I think it would be wiser to increase it gradually again as there is plenty of time till Loch Ness.
So this week I am up and around 47 miles which is pleasing especially with the quality of the sessions. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up this kind of mileage for a while as it will build a good foundation for Loch Ness. I noticed in my Lochaber training that although I peaked at 60 miles, I only did a few weeks up and around 50 miles so this time hopefully I will be able to be more consistent.
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