What a week! I'm really thankful it's finally the weekend and all I have to do is sleep, read my book, walk the dog and do a bit of training. I've not managed any strength and conditioning work this week. It always seems to be the first thing I abandon when I'm busy which isn't ideal. My aim for this week coming is to prioritise it as in the longer term it keeps me strong and injury free.
My last rest day was June 5th.
Sat June 6th - Easy 50 minutes today before my relay leg tomorrow.
Sun June 7th - Today I had 2 hours 45 on my schedule and Tom (Craggs, my coach) agreed we could incorporate a Welsh Relays leg as part of the Welsh Castles Relay (Virtual) for Winchester and District AC. A total of 101 runners in 5 teams turned out to compete with 2 other Welsh running clubs. It was great fun! My leg was 10.8 miles long and had to incorporate 1200 feet of climb. Andy Parkinson suggested a route (check out his interview) and after a 30 minute jog to the start with Minna we set off. Andy flew along and I was on my limit trying to stay in contact. No matter how hard I ran I couldn't quite catch him. In the end I think we finished 30ish seconds apart officially and I jogged home to finish off the run with Minna. The last 40 minutes or so were a slog, just trying to grind out the distance. Kudos to all those that organised it - so much great support.
I went for a lovely walk afterwards around Farley Mount with my husband and some friends - slowly thankfully - and with cake at the end.
Mon June 8th - Recovery run with Ellie. She was very kind and ran my recovery pace. My legs were absolutely wrecked after yesterday. And I spent the whole day starving with hunger!
Tuesday June 9th - I had a day off work today so went to Down Grange in Basingstoke for today's session. The track is open there with social distancing and it's free to use. The session was 6 minutes followed by 6 x 800m with a 90 second jog recovery. I had a really good session overall but I'm not quite sure if my Garmin was a bit optimistic with the paces.
In the evening I ran with Ellie, easy pace, for 40 minutes.
Wednesday June 10th - 60 minutes easy round a hilly route with Ellie again. Great to chat and the miles flew by.
Thursday June 11th - Today didn't start well. Goose, our dog, had liquid diarrhoea around 1am so Tom, my husband, got up to take him out and I cleaned up the mess. We eventually got back to bed but I struggled to get back to sleep. My alarm went at 5.15am for a run with Minna at Greenham Common. The session was 80 minutes with 3 x 10 mins in the second half. It was really good but very windy and quite tough on the gravel surface.
After work I ran 30 minutes easy with Dani, a colleague from work. I had a really sore abdomen all day. Sometimes when I'm tired my gastrointestinal tract is a bit sensitive. Overall a really long day!
Friday June 12th - I was really thankful for a rest day today. I finished work at 2.30pm and by the time I got home I was ravenous so I inhaled a pizza (it was in the fridge!) and passed out on my bed for 2 hours. When I got up I was still hungry and so it was steak and potatoes followed by apple pie and ice cream for dinner and an early bedtime.