Good Training

Ventured out today to try a 5/5 training run. That being, 5 miles steady at about 7.10 min/mile pace followed by 5 miles a bit faster, around 6.50 min/mile resulting in an overall pace of 7 min/mile. If I can train like this, then I can race too but with quicker mile pacing. It was not a great start. Humid, full of Indian food from last night, tired and under-motivated the first 4 miles were a struggle. Still, I managed to hit the average times pretty well and after 5 miles I was at about 7.14 average. The change-up in pace was actually quite a relief and a quicker foot turnover felt good. If you look at the mile splits, you'll see I was pretty much smack on the original plan with an overall pace of 7.01 min/mile.

Just need to add another 3 miles and increase the pace now in time for a PB :)

What timing!

I set out today to repeat the Tedington run detailed below with the same strategy in mind. That is, first 5 miles around 7 min/mile pace followed by 2 miles at about 20 secs/mile quicker. After 5 miles, my average pace was 7.04 min/mile, so pretty good pacing myself and the following two miles were 7.42 and 7.33 min/mile so again, right on the money. As a template session for my next half marathon, it was almost perfect. The weird thing, it was, to the very second, the same time as I ran it a week or so ago! 49 min 45 sec.

I reckon today was a bit harder though as it was much warmer and I had a pretty tough session on Tuesday so very pleased with the time.

Tough Little Run!

Was late for the Harriers run tonight so I ran from home and intersected them! A tough run tonight, exactly 10 miles and much of it was off-road and included a steep climb up Stockwell Lane. Given those two factors, the average time was pretty darn good. Take out the hill and off-road sections and that would have been a fast 10 miler. Unfortunately I must have been miles away as I missed the signal to hit the accelerator and the guys blasted off without me at the 5 mile point. I managed to get back with them with 2 x 6.20 min something miles. Have sore calf muscles tonight, not sure it that is due to a short run yesterday or some garden digging I did ;) Either way, could do with putting my feet up and a massage.

Rice Crispies await.

Mill Lane

With the onset of lighter evenings and better weather, we decided to return to the 'summer running routes' tonight with a heave-ho up Mill Lane to the Masts on Cleeve Common. Twas tricky work! Mill Lane is a fairy long, winding lane that expires after about a mile and gives way to some gnarly track through some woods before appearing at the top of Cleeve Hill. It's steep, about 25% in places and we overtook some cyclists at the steepest part :)

Legs were a little tired after Monday night's exertions and I tired on the downhill back to base. But overall a good route and nice to get back to some more interesting running routes. I even took my heart rater monitor today to see how close to expiring I could get - pretty close by all accounts! I don't usually bother with the monitor as it usually moves around my chest and gets on my nerves, but useful tonight!

Right, need some Cheerios now.

Cracking Run!

Despite being a little tired and on my feet all day, I decided to venture out and hit a 7 miler running my half-marathon strategy. That is, 5 miles at a steady but reasonable pace, then increase by about 20 seconds/mile (during the half, the final 3 miles will be labeled 'hanging on'). Tonight my plan was to complete the first 5 miles at an average of 7min/mile with and additional two miles at around 6.40 min/mile after that. In summary, I hit it dead on. However, the first 5 were a bit all over the place with the quickest at 6.48, the slowest at 7.22. It would be good to be able to crank out steady paced mile after mile, but I suppose that's the difference between me and a good runner! Next training run of that ilk will be a 10 miler with a 5-5 strategy (5 steady, 5 quicker).

But my goal was completed tonight and it was a cracking evening for a run. During the run I was calculating how I have been finishing races this year in terms of %age. Possibly Bourton aside (and looking back over the last couple of years), I generally finish in the top 5% of the field. That's a pretty good goal to aim at continuing.

Harriers tomorrow night.

3 in a row

Was planning to run for the next three days (6 miles per day) but missed my planned lunchtime run today. So instead I went for a short loop this evening. Probably a bit too soon after eating and I suffered from stitch and very heavy legs. Still, not a bad little outing and the weather was ideal.

Also missed the club run this week so I've put my plans back a bit in terms of getting some quality sessions prior to Tewkesbury. Still got some time though.

Bit Tired

As planned I ran to and from work today, but having a short day at work meant that essentially, I did a 10k after breakfast and then another after lunch! Consequently, I'm a little bit tired now. My poor toes held up OK, bit sore tonight though but no lasting damage. Both runs were reasonable pace surprisingly, even the run home after only 4 hours since the first run was pretty good.

Hope to get out again Sunday and then the honeymoon period is over and back to proper training.