Another week of trying to get quicker. Work, life and stuff got in the way a little and a weekend away with parents and kids in New Forest looked like limiting scope for miles but managed to get some in.
Monday – Rest day
Tuesday – 6:40 session with Redway Runners – disappointing performance and managed 4miles at 6:58 average, well below what I was managing in training for MK Marathon. Despite a days rest legs just felt dead.
Tuesday again – Steady run with MKLR and managed 8 miles in rain at 7:52 average
Wednesday – Bow Brickhill loop – misty and overcast but managed a decent run, 9 miles at 7:34 average, not far off my quickest.
Thursday – Didn’t manage to run at all. Sat at desk and then went out and ate a massive dinner. With dessert. Garmin tells me my step count wasn’t even a mile of walking. Need to park further from office at work.
Friday – Bow Brickhill loop – lovely clear day, felt good, and despite plans for steady 8min pace we pushed along and got 9 miles at 7:24 average, a massive pace increase. Hooray not slow and fat after all!
Followed up with a cool down run with Bella 2.3 miles at 9:34 pace
Train Fast, race easy VS Train Slow, race fast? A lot of advice on sites and magazines on what your training paces should be. The summary would probably be that I train too fast most of the time. My (unproven) thinking is that I don’t ever want to run a marathon under 8min/mile pace so why should I do short 5-6 mile efforts at anything significantly slower?
Saturday – warmup mile with Bella and then Moors Valley Parkrun with Bella, 3.1 miles at 7:26 pace and probably 2nd or 3rd dog. The RD requested the dogs start near the rear which for us was a mistake as she mostly spent the run trying to weave between the runners.
Followed up in afternoon by a lap of New Forest woods, 2.5 miles at 8:34 pace.
Sunday – early morning random loops of New Forest with Bella. 7.3 miles at 10:04 pace. Was great to run slowly and enjoy the scenery. Perfect running trails and great mornings work. Bella managed to find every muddy patch to drag me through.
Weekly total – 46.5 miles. Happy with that after a sporadic start.
Next week may be tricky as have lots of work travelling, kids birthday parties and family party so running will be firmly in the back seat. I may not make the 200 mile target for July and break by 18 month streak. Partly a relief, partly disappointing.
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