5th week of training and only 3 weeks until London in the unconventional plan.
Monday started with early Spin class then whilst killing time waiting for daughter in clubs I ran a 7 miler with Jonno. The first mile was awful and one of those ‘oh god I can’t even run a mile why am I even bothering’ but eventually loosened up. I’ve definitely found with declining fitness and advancing age I need a few miles to get in my stride.
Tuesday I slept in and missed Spin so did double evening run. 4 miles with Redway 7:30min/mile paced run at a ‘slightly less shit than last week’ 7:23. Followed up with a chatty 6 miler with mates.
The queue to see the Queen’s coffin opened, ahead of the service on the Monday. It’s very popular and a bigger endurance event than most ultras. The average pace is about the same too.
Wednesday I was hopeful of continuing my ‘less shit’ pattern of last couple of weeks but sadly failed and did a pretty slow early morning 9 miles, helping the other runners to get more mileage on runbacks. They did point out that I’d run a marathon distance for the week including 3 runs in 12 hours and that probably wasn’t good training.
London also released their ace guide including the helpful checklist –
Thursday started with Spin then an evening run, plan was for 10 but nobody seemed keen so stopped a just under 7.
Friday I took as a semi rest-day and just Spin at lunch.
Saturday I tried a hard effort at parkun and managed 22m28s which is pretty poor based on previous performances but fastest since June so definitely heading the right direction. I’d like to say I was holding something back for the subsequent race but that would be a lie.
It was also new shoe day as I needed to use my life insurance 50% voucher so replaced my very tired Hoka Rincon 1 with Rincon 3. This was the only colour way they had:
Sunday was a difficult decision. Last year, also in a state of disrepair I ran the 60k Big Bear Ultra two weeks out from London as a final long run, ignoring that it was too long, and it seemed to work well. This year I was even less fit so decided to take the sensible option of the local Redway Runners Old Money run. It’s a choice of 5 or 10 mile, and I decided to run 10 miles first as a warmup, to get a full 20 for the day.
Was very sluggish for the solo 10, averaging 9m51s but kept it gentle effort, my only goal being to get the 10 done in time to register and run. For the race itself I managed 8m09s average, even with getting lost with a group of others. Optimistically I wanted to complete the 20 under 3 hours to be in with a chance of sub4 at London and I just scraped under despite no breakfast and only two gels so hopeful on race day I should be able to push harder.
Total mileage for week – 56, with 3 spin classes
Final long run done, now just……
12 days until London Marathon!
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