A quick week 6 round up

Time really got away from me last weekend and at the start of this week, whoops!

The week was a bit up and down.

The good parts:

• On Monday I rode my bike for the first time in almost two years! I went to a session at the Brownlee Cycle Circuit (after huffing and puffing taking the front wheel off my bike and fitting it all in the car), where luckily some lovely helpers helped me sort my bike out (by which I mostly mean putting air in the tyres, as sitting for a long time had left them rather flat!). I wasn’t very fast or confident, but enjoyed getting out and doing something different. And the lovely Julia showed me how to get my bike in my small car without taking the wheel off!
• On Tuesday I led a club run for a group leader who was away, and we ran at faster than my usual easy plod and it felt really good! It was pretty warm, but I really enjoyed the run.
• On Saturday I walked up Pen Y Ghent with some friends from work. I’d never done any of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and it was so nice to be out hiking.
• I did two strength sessions and am starting to feel a bit stronger again.
• On Sunday I did a long run (18 miles) and felt pretty good. Endurance is gradually coming back, and the best part was that I had zero foot pain afterwards!

The less good parts:

• My achilles flared up a bit after the Tuesday club run. It might have been from a slightly faster pace, but I’m also wondering if it’s because I’ve introduced the strength work recently. It was sore for most of the rest of the week, and doing a speed session on Thursday was such a terrible idea.
• I did a bit less mileage than I had planned for, as I decided not to run and hike on the Saturday since my achilles wasn’t great. Luckily, it seemed much better after Sunday’s long run though – so it does seem to be speed and strength training that set it off, rather than time on feet.

I managed 36 miles in total, over four runs. It’s not really where I’d like to be for marathon training, but at least the long runs are feeling fairly comfortable, if not quite as fast as I’d like.