I've still 15 weeks until Race Day so this week was mostly about the mindset of getting back into the habit of running longer and further each week.
This week here is what I had on the programme...
|
Week |
Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
Saturday |
Sunday |
|
1 20/21/25 |
Rest/Cross train |
Run Club/60 mins |
10 mins easy running 30 secs fast running; 1 min jogging – 4 reps 10 mins easy running |
Pilates/Cross Train |
Swim/gym/rest |
parkrun |
90 mins easy |
And here is what I actually achieved...
Monday - 30 mins running short hill repeats - 4.5KM at 6.43 mins per KM - I hadn't planned well, so I did this in the evening after dinner, in the dark, up and down the road that goes up to my house which is about 150 in length. In fact it's so close to my house that people might not even see it on Strava due to my privacy settings - it wasn't ideal for a first training run, but what I did get was the fact I didn't make an excuse *not* to run.
Tuesday - I was down to lead #RunAndTalk with Hyde Park Harriers, but no-one had signed up or changed their mind at the last minute so I ended up running in Group 4 and having a lovely chat and catch up with Grace where we discussed nutrition on long runs. Grace prefers gels with the scientific reason that no chewing means that it doest trick your body into thinking a meal is on it's way. I prefer either Shot Bloks or Kendal Mint Cake...but I'll talk more about nutrition in a later entry, but mostly I'm clumsy and hate the sticky hands that I get trying to take a gel whilst running. EDIT - Grace has kindly read my blog and has kindly pointed out a slight correction - she pointed out that often people struggle with gels more as they *don't* chew and so nutrition arrives into the stomach without the stomach being prepared for it - so key to avoiding stomach issues is to "chew" a little to alert your stomach to nutrition. In Group 4 I paused my watch, so at the end kept running to get 8.8KM total with a pace of 6.33 mins per KM. Why 8.8k? I'm trying to hit a yearly mileage goal of 1000 miles so each day is 4.4KM to hit that target, so I knew I was due a rest day so it was good to get one day ahead.
Wednesday - Work is very all consuming at the moment and so I didn't leave the office until very very late, I could have done a similar session to Monday, but I listened to my body being tired and had an unplanned rest day instead.
Thursday - I try and plan Thursday as a rest day as I'm usually a guide leader in the evenings and I'm very often not able to muster the energy to get out for morning runs (more on that later, but it's mostly due to being on a dose of Amytriptline for migraines so that the first hours of my day I feel like a zombi. This day I had to go to my "Manchester" office which was actually in Altrincham and so I spent over 4.5 hours driving and so my exercise was maintaining my step goal streak walking around outside in the dark after dinner!
Friday - Another rest day, I went to the cinema as a last minute choice instead of heading home - saw "Better Man" - it's worth watching if you haven't seen it!
Saturday - parkrun of course! Whilst Woodhouse Moor will always be my spiritual "home" parkurn and I've never updated it on my profile, I've now done more runs at my *actual* local of Pontefract, in fact I've done 162 there and only 95 at Woodhouse Moor. Ponte is usually an essentially 1 lap route, but it's been on an out and back course for months and I think this time we were about 100m short, still a good run of 4.9KM at an average pace of 6 mins 6 seconds per KM.
Sunday - I had 90 mins in my plan and helpfully so did Alan and so we travelled to Ricall to run a route we've run a few times during marathon training. It's the Solar System route which is around 10 miles long and takes you into York with small models (to scale!) of the solar systerm and positions (to scale) until you get to the sun in York! Today we wanted ease and to be able to control our pace sensibly and so we got just past Uranus before turning back. We covered 13.35KM in 6 mins 35 per Km which was a decent pace for that distance (although if you want a flat route, this is hard to beat in Yorkshire!)
Next week I've got plans to lead group 4 on Tuesday, probably rest tomorrow, but make sure I get in at least one extra run with some intervals as well as parkrun and a Sunday long run.
I also need to make more effort on my sleep as I'm certainly feeling that training for a marathon 14 years plus since I first ran one, I can't function well on the 4 hours sleep that I did in my early 30s!
I will also be setting up my marathon sponsorship page and will raise money for Parkinsons UK and Alzheimer's Research UK as these conditions are so devasting and my Dad has had both for the past 3 years - more research and support is so sorely needed.
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