Back on it
Couldn't be bothered to post last week as it was just going to be the usual mindless drivel.
After the half marathon my legs were fairly stiff so didn't run on the Monday and wasn't going to on the Tuesday either before having a late change of heart. As I've said in earlier posts I've lost a lot of motivation after working so hard for the Draycote Marathon I've been finding almost any excuse not to go out for a run. Anyway this first run was my usual 10k route at an easy 7.12 min mile pace.
The following day I ran the 12 or so miles from work back home. I normally do it in the other direction, at the crack of dawn and with a rucksack. I managed to run home in a record time of 1.21, but to be honest the majority of the difference was due to not wearing the rucksack. My legs felt dead most of the way round and it was a bit of a struggle if I'm honest. I think part of this might just have been as a result of having done a full day at work and the half marathon still in my legs. Still, I averaged 7.08 min miles.
On Thursday I went out on the usual 10km loop again. I was intending to run just under 7 min miles, but as often seems to be the case with me I just ended up going bit by bit faster so it ended up more like a tempo run. It was a good session though and I averaged 6.36 min miles. Friday was another rest day.
Saturday is normally my long run day, but as I'm not working towards any long events at the moment I settled with just under 13 miles but at a decent average of 6.51 min miles. My legs were quite tired early on, but eventually got going about half way in. On Sunday I did the same route, but managed to go a minute or so faster at 6.47 min miles. The total mileage was therefore 49.5 for the week.
I started this week off with my usual 10km route on Monday at an average 6.45 min mile pace. The weather wasn't very pleasant as we had the storm the forecasters had been harping on about for days so ended up being quite wet. During the run I could feel both my calf's tighten up and were quite sore when I finished. I suspect it was probably in part down to the wet clothes and the cold tighten the muscles.
As a result I rested both Tuesday and Wednesday which seemed to do the trick. I decided that if the tightness did not sort itself out by Thursday then I'd just run through it - I don't have any major races planned at the moment and the injury itself are just tight calf's rather than me hobbling about the place. The rest days seemed to do the job until a mile or two into my run on Thursday when it returned again. That aside I did a new route of 10.5 miles and other than my calf's felt pretty good, probably down to the two days of rest and did it at an easy 7.03 min mile pace.
I followed this up on Friday with my usual 9 mile loop into the park at a faster 6.33 min mile pace, although it didn't feel that fast. Only other thing of note was that the wild ponies were on the road side which is the first time I've seen them in that part of the park as its densely forested. I tried to keep my distance as they are quite nervous creatures.
Yesterday I did another newish route (more like putting bits of various routes together) and set off earlyish for me. My legs were dead all the way route and I put it down to the previous couple of days training plus little in the way of breakfast. My calf's were still very tight not helping things. Anyway I did 13.2 miles at an average of 6.55 min mile pace.
Today I did 12.8 miles at an average of 6.42 and felt a lot better, except for the calf's again and now I've got some tenderness in my foot. Total mileage for the week is 52 miles, not bad considering the whole week could have easily been a write off.
I think that I'm back into the routine of things now so hopefully I wont have to drag myself out as much anymore. I've also been thinking that the last couple of weeks training have been pretty poor. Having just looked at my diary I think I'm being a bit hard on myself as this week for instance was my fifth longest week ever and at a far harder pace than other similar weeks. I think my misconception has been down to dropping to only 5 sessions a week (as opposed to 6), and the feeling of having to drag myself out. The times I'm doing are suggesting that my fitness has improved another notch in the last few weeks, so will be interesting to see how I do in race conditions at some point over the next few weeks, assuming I'm relatively injury free.
After the half marathon my legs were fairly stiff so didn't run on the Monday and wasn't going to on the Tuesday either before having a late change of heart. As I've said in earlier posts I've lost a lot of motivation after working so hard for the Draycote Marathon I've been finding almost any excuse not to go out for a run. Anyway this first run was my usual 10k route at an easy 7.12 min mile pace.
The following day I ran the 12 or so miles from work back home. I normally do it in the other direction, at the crack of dawn and with a rucksack. I managed to run home in a record time of 1.21, but to be honest the majority of the difference was due to not wearing the rucksack. My legs felt dead most of the way round and it was a bit of a struggle if I'm honest. I think part of this might just have been as a result of having done a full day at work and the half marathon still in my legs. Still, I averaged 7.08 min miles.
On Thursday I went out on the usual 10km loop again. I was intending to run just under 7 min miles, but as often seems to be the case with me I just ended up going bit by bit faster so it ended up more like a tempo run. It was a good session though and I averaged 6.36 min miles. Friday was another rest day.
Saturday is normally my long run day, but as I'm not working towards any long events at the moment I settled with just under 13 miles but at a decent average of 6.51 min miles. My legs were quite tired early on, but eventually got going about half way in. On Sunday I did the same route, but managed to go a minute or so faster at 6.47 min miles. The total mileage was therefore 49.5 for the week.
I started this week off with my usual 10km route on Monday at an average 6.45 min mile pace. The weather wasn't very pleasant as we had the storm the forecasters had been harping on about for days so ended up being quite wet. During the run I could feel both my calf's tighten up and were quite sore when I finished. I suspect it was probably in part down to the wet clothes and the cold tighten the muscles.
As a result I rested both Tuesday and Wednesday which seemed to do the trick. I decided that if the tightness did not sort itself out by Thursday then I'd just run through it - I don't have any major races planned at the moment and the injury itself are just tight calf's rather than me hobbling about the place. The rest days seemed to do the job until a mile or two into my run on Thursday when it returned again. That aside I did a new route of 10.5 miles and other than my calf's felt pretty good, probably down to the two days of rest and did it at an easy 7.03 min mile pace.
I followed this up on Friday with my usual 9 mile loop into the park at a faster 6.33 min mile pace, although it didn't feel that fast. Only other thing of note was that the wild ponies were on the road side which is the first time I've seen them in that part of the park as its densely forested. I tried to keep my distance as they are quite nervous creatures.
Yesterday I did another newish route (more like putting bits of various routes together) and set off earlyish for me. My legs were dead all the way route and I put it down to the previous couple of days training plus little in the way of breakfast. My calf's were still very tight not helping things. Anyway I did 13.2 miles at an average of 6.55 min mile pace.
Today I did 12.8 miles at an average of 6.42 and felt a lot better, except for the calf's again and now I've got some tenderness in my foot. Total mileage for the week is 52 miles, not bad considering the whole week could have easily been a write off.
I think that I'm back into the routine of things now so hopefully I wont have to drag myself out as much anymore. I've also been thinking that the last couple of weeks training have been pretty poor. Having just looked at my diary I think I'm being a bit hard on myself as this week for instance was my fifth longest week ever and at a far harder pace than other similar weeks. I think my misconception has been down to dropping to only 5 sessions a week (as opposed to 6), and the feeling of having to drag myself out. The times I'm doing are suggesting that my fitness has improved another notch in the last few weeks, so will be interesting to see how I do in race conditions at some point over the next few weeks, assuming I'm relatively injury free.
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