When my marathons were first postponed to the autumn I was looking forward to summer training. After months of having to crawl out of bed on a cold, dark morning, doing it when it was warm and sunny would be easy right? Perhaps not!
We had had Pete’s wife stay with us for the anniversary of his death on Monday which was also a rest day for me. Tuesday though was back on to the speed work and I really didn’t want to get out of bed! However, knowing how important it is (and my 5km times attest to this), I got out. You could tell I wasn’t fully awake when I mistakenly skipped a set on my watch before I had even started but once I got going the session went well.
Wednesday called for distance with one of the longer weekday morning runs that sit on my plan. I knew I had an 8:30 meeting so I set the alarm even earlier to be able to run, have breakfast, shower and be ready for the call. However my body was not in agreement. It wasn’t helped by the rain outside (where did summer go?) and I came so close to climbing back into bed. The good news for me is that I fought the urge and soon headed out for 8 miles in the wet. It was a weird type of rain so I didn’t really realise how wet I was getting, or how much my t-shirt was rubbing but by the time I got home, it looked like I’d been shot twice in the chest!
Thursday was another rest day although, with the announcement that gyms can reopen towards the end of the month, coupled with some positive work news, I think I’ll be back there soon.
Friday called for a run closest to what I end up doing when not on a plan. A nice 5 miles at a good, steady pace. It started off dry which was nice but soon the rain started again, it really is like training back in the winter again.
On Friday I also finally got a haircut after several months. I’d sort of got used to the mane but it was time to tidy up. I knew a PB was on the cards for my weekly 5km so I headed out Saturday morning with hope. The first 2km were both at sub 4min/km pace which was a first for me and thoughts of a sub 20 did start to go through my head. Unfortunately I started to fade and had to settle for a 6s PB at 20:15. Good to see that the loss in weight and drag was definitely of help!
Sunday should have closed the week with a race pace 10km. This is a distance that has re-caught my eye recently. When I ran in my late teens my PB for the distance was around 42:30. Starting out running properly a couple of years ago that seemed an impossible target so I had scratched it out with new times sitting as my PB targets. However, with the recent improvement I have seen over 5km, I’m now starting to wonder if an all time best is achievable. It was this desire to try that did mean that after a pretty rubbish night’s sleep, I decided to push it to tomorrow when hopefully I’m rested and ready to go.
So the week overall ends a little light on mileage. It does also end with a little more positivity starting to show in the online runner-sphere that the latest government announcements are starting to look a little more promising. Who knows but tomorrow starts week 5!
- Monday – Rest Day
- Tuesday – 5x 800m fast, 200m recovery – 8.16km
- Wednesday – 13.15km @ 5:30 pace
- Thursday – Rest Day
- Friday – 8.6km @ 4:59 pace
- Saturday – 5km 20:15
- Sunday – Rest Day
- Total – 34.91km
- Overall Total – 173.12km