I can't quite believe it's been almost 4 weeks since I last posted my training. It's been a tough few weeks! Starting a new job and a new working pattern has been exhausting so trying to fit my training in has taken a lot of discipline and some 5am starts. Thankfully it's still light early in the morning so that's definitely helped. Today (Sat 25th July) it's 8 weeks until the Anglo-Celtic Plate 100km race and the final announcement about whether it can go ahead will be on August 3rd. It's been tough training for a race I haven't been sure will happen. I've tried to take one day at a time, follow the plan and just do the training. Out of the weeks below I haven't managed two strength sessions a week, only one which is disappointing. Sometimes it's too hard to find the time.
I'll pick up where I left off....
Tuesday 30th - Off work from today on this week before I start my new job on the 6th July. Warm up, 8 x 3 minutes (75 sec recovery jog) with odd reps at 10km pace and evens at 5km pace, Cool down. I had a great morning around the park run course at Didcot with Minna. Felt good and increased the pace throughout the session. Sadly I tanked it on the cool down - grazed face, shoulder, hand and pride! I realised a few days after this that I'd had two falls in quick succession in the week before my period when co-ordination and proprioception are at a low.
Wednesday 1st July - Double run day. 60 mins in the morning and 40 minutes in the evening.
- Managed some S&C in the garden for 45 minutes.
Thursday 2nd July - 90 minutes with 30 at marathon pace.
Friday 3rd July - Recovery run for 40 minutes in the morning
- Hour session with Tom Smith - box jumps, plyometrics, drills.
- 40 minutes easy in the evening with strides at the end.
Saturday 4th - Birthday session!! 2 hours with 3 x 10 minute continuous hills with 3 minutes recovery between. Did this session with Minna. I didn't open any cards until I got home so I had lots of nice things to look forwards to!!
Birthday sausages at the Clifton sausage!
Sunday 5th - We stayed in Bristol last night for my birthday so I took advantage of the new location to run 2 hours easy along the two path and around the city. Really beautiful but I did get a bit lost!! Spent the afternoon eating birthday pavlova with my niece and nephew.
Monday 6th - Rest day and first day at my new job. Head was spinning when I came home.
Tuesday 7th - Double run day so a 5am start for 60 minutes.
- 40 minutes in the evening
Wednesday 8th - Met Minna in the evening for a track session in Basingstoke. Brutal session of 20 x 1 minute hard, 1 minute easy - steady. I felt really tired when I started so it was amazing to have great company to keep me going. We tried to swap the inner lane for a bit of variation.
Thursday 9th - 5 steady pace miles with strides at the end with Ellie. I had a bad day so was good to have a moan and my frustrations helped me run faster!
Friday 10th - 60 minutes in the morning
- Tom Smith strength hour
- 40 minutes in the evening
Saturday 11th - Warm up, 5km time trial, Cool down.
I smashed this!! After a bit of faff at the start - I couldn't remember how to program a 5k in my watch so I settled for a 5km rep with a 10 second recovery on the reps bit of my Garmin. I ran 18.55 for the 5km rep - a massive 20 second PB. Over the moon! Sadly my elapsed time (4 seconds of the recovery passed before I stopped my watch) was my reported time for English Athletics after someone complained (*eyeroll*).
Sunday 12th - 3.5 hours! Legs felt it this morning and I didn't drink enough for the hot weather. Ran to Cheesefoot head via St.Catherine's Hill and then around Sparsholt and via Farley back again. Cream crackered!
Monday 13th - Recovery 50 minutes
Tuesday 14th - 60 minutes in the evening
Wednesday 15th - Rest day instead of a session day (shifted to Thursday and then to Friday). I asked my coach Tom Craggs to move my week around as the combination of work and training had left me feeling pretty broken. Managed 1 hour of S&C in the garden before work.
Thursday 16th - Still shattered so moved session to Friday and ran 60 minutes easy instead.
Friday 17th - Off work today so drove to Basingstoke and did a mega-session. Warm up, 10 x 3 minutes hard, 3 minutes tempo, Cool down. Totally smashed myself but got some great splits. In the last few reps I felt a bit woozy but managed to hold it together. Really proud I managed to do this on my own too. Stopped for a chocolate milkshake at McDonald's afterwards and it was soooo good.
Strength session with Tom Smith afterwards and then a chilled afternoon getting my hair back to blonde!
Saturday 18th - 90 easy, mostly off road with Minna. Really chilled. We were both knackered so the chat came and went. Had a nap when I got home.
Sunday 19th - Warm up, 10 miles targeting 6.56 pace, Cool down. Really pleased that I managed this considering how I was feeling. I don't often look at my watch during a session but I realised half way through it was stubbornly stuck on 6.47 pace. Squeezed it a bit to hit the goal pace.
Monday 20th - Double day. 50 minutes in the morning and 45 minutes at night.
Tuesday 21st - I asked Tom Craggs if I could join Dave Vosser's group for the WADAC session. I've trained with this group until coronavirus hit. It wasn't exactly a session for 100km training but it was super fun and full of lactic acid! We did 3 sets 5 x 60 seconds with a 50m walk between reps and 3 minutes between sets. I could take the tin-like lactic taste after 2 reps so perhaps went off too hard. So lovely to train with a group again.
Wednesday 22nd - 80 easy minutes, mostly on grass. A bit of a slog today! Ended up counting down minutes in a effort to keep moving!
Thursday 23rd - Double day. 55 minutes in the morning and 40 in the evening with some strides at the end. My husband is away this week so I'm on dog duty morning and evening. Tried to get to bed early the night before so the 5am start wasn't as bad as I feared.
Friday 24th - 90 minutes with 2 x 15 minutes continuous hills with a 5 minute job between them. Did this session with Ellie. Really appreciated the company after another tough week. Running is definitely my therapy!
I saw Tom Smith in the afternoon for another fantastic strength session.
In the evening my husband and I went for cocktails and food at The Ivy in Winchester as a treat (photo at the top). Really good to just chill and attempt to forget about all the stresses and worry.