Another week goes by...

Not a particularly interesting week. Monday was a rest day, followed by 6 miles on Tuesday and Thursday and then 9 miles on Sat and Sun. I did the Sat 9 miles at a moderately hard pace of 6:48 min miles (60:26). On Sunday my legs felt dead so the day before must have taken more out of me than I thought. In the end I just jogged round the same route, but still managed to go round comfortably in 7:24 pace which was pleasing. In the end it was just 30 miles for the week but couldn't really do any more because of work commitments.

This weekend I have the final cross country race of the season at Leek so wont do much this week, just a couple of 3.5 mile runs to keep the legs ticking over.

The main issue for me is that after the cross country race this weekend I have no events planned going into next year. I've been looking for something over xmas, but cant find anything suitable. Any ideas? I have agreed to go for a long run out somewhere hilly on the last weekend of the year with a friend, so perhaps this will break the monotony of running near home by myself.

I'm fairly certain that I'll be doing the Thames Meander (54 miles) on 16th Feb, injury permitting. The 20 miles I did last weekend felt reasonably good, so the plan is to do another 25+ mile run, maybe back to back with a 15 miler the day after around xmas time.

After that I've agreed to enter the High Peak Marathon (7/8 March) which is a 40 mile race around the Peak District so is quite hilly, but the fun part is that it starts at midnight. Its a four man team event, but I'm secretly hoping that our entry doesn't get accepted as I'm doubtful as to whether I'd be fully recovered from the Thames Meander, plus it will in all likelihood rule me out of my first Marathon on 27 April. Its not so much the recovery period, but the lost training time in the run up to the Meander, then post event recovery and taper to the HPM a month later followed by another recovery period before the taper in the run up to the Stratford Marathon.

I've then agreed to attempt the Coast to Coast with a friend from work at the end of May, but the mad bit is that we'll try to cover the 180 miles in five days, four if things go well. For those not aware the Coast to Coast goes through the Lakes, N York Moors and finally the N York Dales so is pretty hilly.

Comments

  1. Steph Cooke4 December 2007 at 09:26

    Oooh I've always wanted to do the Coast to Coast- but maybe not that quick! The scenery will be fantastic!!
    Sounds as though you have a busy schedule, I don't know ifr you're familiar with the LDWA events but these are excellent for training as they tend to be 25/26 mile events over varying terrain, I do quite a lot of these and so does Rich.
    I am looking at doing some 50 mile events next year too not sure yet which ones though.
    Hope you have a good week
    Steph

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lloyd Biddell4 December 2007 at 20:31

    Cheers, I did have a quick nose at the LDWA site, but didnt see much around the Midlands unless I wasnt looking at the right place? Also not sure whether they all allow runners, or whether its just walkers only?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Steph Cooke5 December 2007 at 18:06

    All the challenge walks I've done do allow runners, often the runners start at a different time.
    There seem to be quite a few events in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, plus a couple in Leics, best thing is to keep checking the site regularly.
    I can give you details of any events near you too if you like. Are you West Mids?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Steph Cooke5 December 2007 at 18:12

    Sorry Lloyd- just thought- there are two types of events within the LDWA; Social Walks and Challenge Walks. The Social Walks are just for walkers within the different LDWA groups and the Challenge Walks are the ones which allow runners- you do these at your own pace, with checkpoints along the route.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous21 January 2008 at 21:48

    Cheers for the comments Lloyd, you're right... just need to get a few more under my belt like that. But was really starting to doubt if I cold ever push on past the 16 mile mark, was a real mental varrier for me! Thanks for the support, it keeps me going! Hope all is well with your training too!

    ReplyDelete

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