Stop Press - 50 Mile week achieved

Well finally after weeks of annoying injuries and colds etc the 50 mile barrier has finally been breached:

Mon - Rest
Tues - 7.1 miles
Weds - 12.0 miles
Thurs - Rest
Fri - 7.4 miles
Sat - 10.0 miles
Sun - 13.5 miles
Total: 50.0 miles

Since my last post I ran home from work on Weds and felt generally lethargic all of the way, probably as a result of a long day. I therefore rested on Thurs before doing a 7.4 mile run on my country loop on Fri. As I'm still not running with my HRM I just went at a pace that I felt comfortable with and felt really good all of the way round. I was surprised at the end when I found that I was running 7.13 min mile pace which is a bit quicker than average. I have realised that I enjoy my running more when I'm not with my HRM which I guess is because I'm not checking and sometimes chasing set times.

Yesterday I did 10 miles, 7 of which were on my usual country route before adding a further 3 on a short loop near home. I went too fast and knew the pace was swift after a couple of miles but its difficult to consciously change the pace so just carried on. In the end I was surprised to find I had averaged 7.04 min miles but was well knackered as a result. Today my legs hadn't recovered and really didn't feel like going for a run, let alone my longest of the week. It was one of those runs where on one hand felt comfortable with the pace but on the other felt very tired. My pace was quite consistent and averaged 7.28 min miles. For some reason I was craving anything sweet upon returning back home so guess my blood sugar levels were quite low.

Strangely I achieved the 50 mile total with two rest days this week but was compensated for by longer runs. Looking back at earlier posts its taken some time to achieve - my first 40 mile week was on 1st June and a 46.5 mile week on 26th Aug.

As I've got the week off work next week and I'm roughly six months into training I'll write a review of how I think things are going so far. Watch this space!

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