As if I’m already a third of a way through my training plan. That definitely scares me a bit. I still have twelve weeks to go, so a good while, but a third of my training is now done and I don’t feel a third ready! I’m definitely worried about my lack of long runs so far (mostly due to racing, but also due to me missing a 14 mile run when I was giving my calf a rest), but my mileage is building up and I guess there’s still time. I’ve just checked back at my plan I used last time round and my longest run by week six was twelve miles (which I did a few weeks ago) and my weekly mileage was still only 26-29 miles – this week I did 40, so I’ve definitely progressed. Just got to trust in the process and have some belief…
Monday – rest
Although Monday was a rest day, I did two Yoga with Adriene sessions (I had fallen behind so decided to make the most of a free evening). Having Monday evenings free is fairly new, and it was nice to have a bit of time to relax after a busy weekend.
Tuesday – 7-8 mile club run
I had a meeting until 5pm on Wednesday, so didn’t manage a yoga session when I got home (although I did get a little lie-in as I went into work a bit later), but I did get on with my physio exercises, and my achilles was starting to feel a bit better, although it did twinge a little during the run. I headed off for the club run in the evening, which we’d been told was 8.5 miles – however after running through almost every ginnel in Horsforth (and some that definitely weren’t actually ginnels), the run ended up being ten miles! It was a good run though, and a reasonably gentle pace since so many of us had raced on the Sunday. There was a big group of us, so it was nice to catch up with people and the run was really enjoyable. Average pace was 9.13/mile.
Wednesday – 7m easy run commute
On Wednesday I had an early morning doctors appointment, so I ran to work a little later than usual – which was less pleasant as there was a lot more traffic (and therefore pollution) than when I run earlier! It was actually a really good run though. I kept reminding myself to keep it easy, and that made it quite enjoyable. Since the run the evening before was an easier pace than usual, my legs weren’t as tired so I was able to run a faster than usual easy pace on my run commute, and due to me running later than usual, it was even light by the time I arrived at work! Pace was 8:52/mile.
Thursday – winter training, hill repeats
Between getting home and running, I finally managed to fit in another YWA session, which was short but very enjoyable, and much appreciated by my legs. My achilles was starting to feel much better, and I was able to start doing a few reps of the physio exercises on my left leg again.
I then headed off to winter training. The hills session involves a warm-up run, then 3-4 reps of the first hill to warm up on the hills, followed by 3-5 reps on three different hills, running between each hill. I did three reps on the warm-up hill, then 4.5 on the next two, then five on the final hill, before we jogged back to the club/home as a cool down. I did have particularly tired legs the last time I did this session, but it was still nice to see afterwards just how much I’d improved in the meantime. It was hard work, some of those hills are really tough! Our coach is fantastic and gives great advice and training, and that makes it easy to a) get a great quality training session and b) to turn up in the first place, as although I dread speed and hill work, I really look forward to the training we get. My average pace for the session, including the warm-up and cool down, was 9:30/mile.
Friday – cross training
Friday morning, I headed to my early morning Yoga Essentials class at Yoga Hero. As usual, it was wonderful, and such an amazing way to start the day.
After work, I spent 30 minutes cycling on the exercise bike whilst finally watching The Psych Movie. It wasn’t a particularly hard cycle, but still got my heart rate up and meant I did some aerobic activity. I did a Yoga with Adriene session afterwards (day 8), which was a very relaxing meditation session, and just what I needed. I also did all of my calf and glute exercises (I have to do the calf exercises four times a day, the glute exercises I usually do first thing but since I’d left super early to go to yoga, I did them in the evening on Friday). I then went to have a nice, relaxing bath, only for the Ocado man to turn up 25 minutes early and cut my bath short! Oh well, definitely #firstworldproblems. I still managed a relaxing evening, watching the rest of The Psych Movie and reading.
Saturday – five easy miles
I had signed up to volunteer at Armley parkrun on Saturday, partly because I want to volunteer more and partly because if I use parkrun as part of my easy run, I tend to get swept up in the running and go a bit too fast. I therefore got up early and was out running by 6:30am so that I could get my five miles in beforehand. I decided just to run at an easy pace and not look at my watch, hoping that it would help me run easy. Well, I definitely slowed my pace – my average was 9:57/mile, much slower than usual. I was actually quite disheartened afterwards, as it hadn’t felt as easy as it should have done at that pace, but then I realised that a) I had run fasted and b) I had run very early, before my heart rate had got up and sorted itself out for the day, so it was bound to feel harder than normal.
After a decent breakfast and a shower, I headed over to parkun where I was funnel managing. For the first time, I stopped behind afterwards for results processing, partly because there had been an issue with dropped tokens which I wanted to help sort out, and also because I want to help out more, so it seemed like a good way to get stuck in! It was nice getting to know people a bit more as well.
Sunday – race – TNT (Temple Newsam Ten) – plus 0.5m warm up and 0.5m cool down
After a terrible night’s sleep, I almost decided not to race on Sunday morning. I got up around 7am, so not particularly early, especially since I had gone to bed around 10pm the evening before. I woke up a lot though and couldn’t get comfortable, so I was not exactly feeling my best in the morning. In the end though, I figured I may as well go – not only had I paid to enter, but it was on my training plan and so I was going to need to do a long run anyway. I knew I didn’t feel so terrible that I shouldn’t run, I was mostly just a bit tired (and grumpy about it). The weather didn’t really make the race seem any more appealing either; it was grey, very windy, and a bit drizzly. Lovely.
I didn’t feel much better when I arrived, but I parked up and went to collect my number. Once I got to race HQ I started seeing other Harriers around, which at least brightened my mood a bit. I should write a report later this week really with all the detail…in any case, once I’d actually warmed up, I felt a lot better.
The race was actually really enjoyable. My legs were in much better form than the week before, and I ran the same pace (I think maybe one second/mile faster) than the previous Sunday but over twice the distance. I kept having to remind myself not to start overtaking people and pushing the pace from 1.5m in, I’m so used to running 5ish mile races at the moment! It was just slightly long (barely) at 10.16m on my watch, and I finished in 1:20:01 (seriously, couldn’t I have found two seconds?!), with an average pace of 7:52/mile. I was really pretty pleased with how it went, and finished the race in a much better mood than I had arrived in. I enjoyed it as well – not so much some of the killer hills – but in general it’s a nice place to run (it’s the same place as the second PECO cross country race, which is so far my favourite of the series). I jogged a bit to collect my bag, as the wind had started to make me cold, then did a bit of brisk walking around the field to cheer some of the other Harriers on.
Before the race
Bit of a gloomy day, but not a terrible picture!
The sun even came out in the afternoon (once the race was over, obviously!), so I managed to get out in the garden and start doing a bit of clearing, which was much needed for the garden and very good for the soul.
So that was week six. Including my unrecorded cool down on Sunday, I ran just over 40 miles in week six and my legs feel really good. Fingers crossed that continues…
jenniferlucie runs 