After all of the travelling last week, this week was at least going to be a bit closer to home for the bulk. However, with New Years Day in the mix, it was still never going to be a “normal” week.
Monday was a rest day and I really needed it. Fortunately the kids are still off school as I slept through my alarm but only had to worry about getting myself out the door for work.
Generally Tuesdays on the training plan that I have chosen are more speed work. My plan had been to do these of an evening but with it being New Years Day, I wanted to get out of the way. Fortunately one of the roads I regularly run is almost exactly 1 mile long from end to end so the location for my intervals was set. Some runs can be a bit dull in terms of location but are still worth it. The intervals didn’t start too well, I had managed to set my watch at 100m rather than 1 mile splits but I felt good to end the year with a strong run. Overall I finished 2019 with 1,090km under my belt and the target is too be much higher in 2020 given the increased training for my marathons.
New Years Day was always going to be a parkrun day. I decided against going for a double and when my son asked to run as well, I couldn’t say no. It was great to run with him to a 3min PB on the brand new C course at Pocket which has been designed to miss the muddiest sections.
Throughout this training regime I am planning on using one of my “rest” days to continue to see my personal trainer, Kev. I started seeing him last summer after I had entered Manchester. I’ll probably do a blog of my strength and conditioning training at some point but I do enjoy this change of pace and the confidence it gives me.
We were heading up to Yorkshire again for the weekend and this brings the realisation that on a training plan like this, everything does have to be taken into account. To minimise the impact on our weekend plans with the family, I switched a couple of runs around. It was hard getting out of bed on Friday early enough to slot a slow 7 miles but as is almost always the case, I felt great by the end.
This left a faster pace 4 miler on Saturday that I was then able to fit in more easily. That said I did find the pacing harder. In the first week I struggled with keeping at a slow pace but this has quickly got easier. This run was meant to be at around 5:15 and I really couldn’t nail it being too fast or too slow almost the whole way.
Finally, to end the week, it was a repeat of last weeks 10 mile. In future weeks as the mileage ups I may struggle to get my LSR in before the day starts properly but it is nice to start the day refreshed. It also gave me time for a quick couple of cups of coffee before heading back out for Junior parkrun. I do love Junior parkrun and the chance it gives the kids to be active. The only downside is that you still need to be 4yrs old to get a barcode and do officially. My youngest, who I ran with today, has now done several unofficial runs as it’s still a few weeks until he turns 4. However, there’s no holding him back if his big brother and sister can do it, why can’t he?
That last little jog pushed me over 50km for the week, quite possibly the first time ever I’ve done this. Now for a rest day and then into week 4 and another step closer to the start line in Manchester.
- Monday – Rest Day
- Tuesday – 4x 1mile intervals @ 4:45 pace with warm up/cool down – 11.04km
- Wednesday – Pocket parkrun with my son – 5km
- Thursday – Strength and Conditioning session
- Friday – 11.28km @ 5:49 pace
- Saturday – 6.44km @ 5:06 pace
- Sunday – 16.01km @ 5:47 pace followed by Junior parkrun (2km)
- Total – 51.77km
- Overall Total – 135.41km
If you want to know more about my fundraising for The UK Sepsis Trust in memory of my friend Pete, please read this blog.