One advantage to doing these training blog posts for me is having the ability to look back on my previous attempts and see how I was feeling. For example if I look back at the opening paragraph of Week 4 from the first training block:
It’s strange really. After two weeks that included the “disruption” of Christmas and New Year, this was the week I managed have a wobble with my training plan!
Or indeed if I look at Week 3 from the 2nd time I started out:
Week 3 of being back in training and this was the first week that I found a few mornings harder to wake up.
Therefore it really shouldn’t have been a surprise to me that this week would be one full of lethargy. It probably hasn’t been helped with too much football watching which has sometimes prevented the early night I should have had!
After Monday’s rest day I was up nice and early for a speed session on Tuesday. Doing 4x 1 mile up and down the same road is not the most awe inspiring session and with the tiredness creeping in it was harder to get up, but it definitely helps with getting the legs moving at speed again.
On Wednesday I was back in the gym witha session that was more focused on my upper body. This was definitely something I would have never focused on historically. I’m a runner, why do I need strong arms? However, the more and more I do this I fully appreciate the overall benefit to the body and how much it does help my running as well!
Thursday and Friday were then back to back steady state sessions. These are the real bread and butter of these training plans. It’s an early start so out by 6am just to pound the streets but the miles in the legs will help in the long run.
Then on Saturday it was another non-parkrun day (hopefully only 3 more to go). I went out on the route that became my home run last summer. One of the downsides of the gym can be that you end up with aches and pains elsewhere and I did stitch up in my shoulders. Therfore my “official” time was a little slower as I stopped for a good stretch. However, underlying this I did get back under 21mins of moving time again which gives me a lot of confidence.
The week however ended there as I ended up with an inadvertent rest day. Looking at the diary whilst we had a few things in it: cricket for my son, junior parkrun for the other kids and then swimming; there was plenty of time. However, long runs still need to be planned and suddenly I cam to the realisation that my lackadaisical approach the the day meant there was no longer time to run and cook a full roast dinner for visiting family. I was really annoyed with myself as the long run is arguably the most important of the week but at least it was at this stage. I just need to plan better in future weeks (especially as my backup failed as well after I woke up early Monday morning, only to realise that the lack of planning meant my inhaler was in with my inlaws dog and I didn’t want him waking at 5am and waking the rest of the house!)
- Monday – Rest Day
- Tuesday – 4x 1mi – 12.06km
- Wednesday – Gym
- Thursday – 11.23km @ 5:34 pace
- Friday – 6.39km @ 5:12km
- Saturday – Non parkrun 20:38
- Sunday – Unplanned restday
- Total – 34 68km
- Overall Total – 120.14km