Week Five is in the bag and so is the first chunk of the training plan - hallelujah. As with every thing, breaking it down in to more manageable chunks makes it seem far less daunting and far more achievable which is a good balance in anyone's books.
The first five weeks, up to and including this week, have provided solid foundations from which to build upon as D Day approaches in April. Quite unlike my Berlin preparation, this time round I am not blazing out 14/15 mile runs on the weekend without suitable recovery time and a decent middle sort of distance run in between. As you can see in the handy summary below, Tuesday is most definitely the recovery run (usually at about 9 minute miles), before Friday morning (a.k.a. FRIDAY MORNING RUN CLUB) is the middling sort of distance that I was missing first time round which is ran at a quicker pace circa eight min/miles. Then on Sunday, the bigger one. This will now start to increase by two miles per week starting at 10 miles next week, culminating at 16 God forsaken miles at the end of Week Nine - chunk two.
So, we're 87 miles down at an average pace of 8.23 which is not too shabby. I will be making a more concerted effort to run at 8.30's on Sunday's from next week - it is always a fine line between wanting to run at planned pace vs. wanting to get it over with as soon as possible.
In any case, it is encouraging. As is my general fitness. My knee feels strong - which after the problems that back-to-back runs caused in Week One is as big a surprise as it is a relief. My aerobic capacity seems to have not suffered too badly for the layoff in the second half of last year and I am feeling good on hills. My back is fine now after last week, but it has sparked off my old hip/glutes issue that I've had before. Not a problem when actually moving but standing up and the first 25 yards of walking isn't pretty. I don't think anyone is ever 100% when training like this so it is just a case of managing it and keeping moving.
This week I have signed up for the Silverstone Half Marathon on 12 March (Week Ten) which is a recommended practice run pre-London. I will run this at 8.30s and not do anything daft.
*One quick note, and a retraction I'd like to make much like some shitty rag printing rubbish. Whilst I am not a rag and write the best weekly blog going, I did say back in Week One that writing this gave me 'something to think about out on the roads other than how great it's going to be when Liverpool win the league'.
Ahem.
Well, we haven't won a frigging game since then so I am retracting such a foolish remark, and instead dreaming about winning three points again. Cheers lads, up the Reds, etc.
Run #12 - Tuesday 31st January
No dramas.
APART FROM DAY LIGHT AT 4.50PM.
HAVE THAT WINTER, YOU BASTARD.
(4 miles, 9 min/miles recovery run).
Run #13 - Friday 3rd February
Now, on more than one occasion I have been mocked that FRIDAY MORNING RUN CLUB can not be a 'club' when it is just me in the club. Well lookie here. An actual human, who isn't me, running at 6.40am on a Friday morning.
Great days.
I managed to successfully peer pressure my pal Steve to join my club (he's training for Silverstone FYI, not a lunatic). It was so good to have company on a b-e-a-utiful morning. It was also a solid 10'c warmer than last week's -3'c fiasco.
7.55 miles at 7.57 which is pretty sharp relatively speaking.
Run #14 - Sunday 5th February
Well, first things first. Had a great gin last night.
I did not feel all that great by the time 4pm came around, but thankfully it was only an hour run today. Another one for the 'running well the day after boozing' research files I think, 7.54 miles at 7.58's. Decent.
So there we go, the first five weeks are done and it's gone better than I thought it would. So yay for that. Still a long old way to go, but it's good to start well.
As last week's playlist was so good it has won itself another week. I've also realised how hard it is to build 25 song playlists every week, sooo... it might be a case of updating a core playlist rather than a new one each week. Soz.
Cheers.
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