It’s the weekend, so that only means one thing at the moment – time for a long run and this week schedule lists it as a 20 miler. Shifting the day forward to Saturday meant it was to be a very busy 7 days, racking up more miles than ever before.

The route was planned on Friday and thanks to Oliver who had volunteered to accompany me I went towards the river and over to Greenwich where we had planned to meet. He was to join me for the last 6 miles of the run which was very useful.

The run felt tough again, unlike last weekend it seemed an effort to even get to 10miles let alone double that. The run to Tower Bridge felt slow and heavy and unfortunately I had to break for a necessary toilet break in Stratford Mc’ds! The weather was foul with rain and wind not helping the progress and it felt like it was going to be one of those days!

Fortunately, the knowledge that I was to have company at the end pushed me on, perhaps on my own I may have fallen short on the distance as I felt so lousy but knowing Oliver would be there forced me on and into Greenwich. Peculiarly, my splits dropped a bit when I met up, normally I tend to push a bit faster with company but evidently this wasn’t to be the case on Saturday!

The sight of the Tower of London the second time was refreshing as it marked the 19 mile marker and I knew the post run swimming pool @ fitness first was nearby – wooo!

Laura had her uni friends down this weekend, all three of them are physios so before letting them depart I asked one of them to work on my calves which will hopefully help for the training this week!

20 miles completed, only a few more of them to go!

Till next time.

N

The schedule had me down for 11 miles today which meant I had to request a late start to get in the distance in the morning without having to be out of the flat before 7.

Route was as usual heading towards Oxford Circus station, via Hackney, which is as my Garmin informed me today bang on 11 Miles. Having not properly prepared myself right at the start of the week I had to take a pair of trainers and jeans in my bag alongside the water and other normal gibbons. Much like yesterdays run my legs felt heavy and today my splits proved it. I was slow based on my recent norm adding a couple of splits in excess of 9 min miles but the last few miles with a new lease of life the speed increased. Annoyingly I know why I go slow, my stride gets shorter and heavier and hence I get slower and it seems to get worse. It’s only when I actively think about what I’m doing and lengthen out a bit do my splits get better with no real perceived increase in effort. I suspect that is why maybe the audiofuel help as they regularly make me consider my stride!

Anyway, 11 miles in the leg bank which brings the tally over the last 5 days to 37, with my long run scheduled for Saturday it’s going to be another LONG distance week. Tomorrow is a well deserved rest day which I’m looking forward to. 20 miles scheduled for Saturday so will be on my feet for best part of 3 hours. Its gonna be a toughy!

Oh as a final discussion point, when I got to the gym to shower this morning I decided to weigh myself with and without my backpack to see what I was lugging around. Turns out it weighed nearly half a stone and that was with an empty water container. No wonder my legs feel heavier during the week they are carrying more weight!

Till the long run…!

N

Waking up early to head in so I could fit in a 6mile run in I was on the tube by 7:10 amongst all the other early starters – kitted out, all I needed to do was jump off the tube at Ox Circus and I had a 6 mile route pre-planned incorporating Hyde Park. After leaving the tube my legs instantly felt very heavy, my running seemed slow and difficult. Having thought about this since getting into work I remembered having a similar feeling last time I ran an evening/morning session. It’s as if the sleep isn’t enough time for my legs to quite recover.

The run was fairly uneventful, it was a run to serve a purpose of getting miles in my leg and that’s what it did. Even though it felt slow and at time judging from the garmin stats I still seemed to average an 8:30 pace but this time a number of the splits where nearer the 8:40 mark. Considering how it felt when doing it that is quite surprising!

11 miles tomorrow – hopefully legs will be recovered for that run!

N

Having had a recovery day yesterday I was actually fairly keen to get out on another run following the success of Sundays half. Having to be in work for 9 and also as I had my laptop I was forced into an evening run. The schedule listed 7 miles as a Fartlek session so I headed on the tube to Mile End jumped off and ran home from there. According to the Garmin I logged 7.2M so all good there, the run whilst a little heavy wasn’t too bad, obviously slower than Sunday but that was to be expected – however, I couldn’t muster up the strength to do many Fartlek intervals, deciphering the data I did about 5 of them throughout the whole run – PATHETIC!

Having looked at my splits I ran faster than I planned to – averaging an 8:30 pace. It was odd doing that route because it was technically the reverse of a route I do regularly. I have never run it backwards and the usual milestones I had to count down the distances were obviously reversed and this seemed to make a difference. Anyway, home by 7 no major issues with my legs so quick stretch and warm down then a relaxed night before the morning 6miler…

Till next time.