On Monday I went on a lovely off road run with a friend who is a very good runner! Before I went I felt slightly nervous that her pace would kill me but I needn't have worried.
We met at 9am and she drove us to Staveley where we were starting our run.
It was a lovely clear sunny morning and life felt good. The first mile and a half or so was on road!
I found the road bit difficult for two reasons, the first being I was wearing my trail trainers which have a very hard sole and big lugs which don't make them very comfy for running on the road and secondly the road section was all up hill!
I was pleased to make it to the top where we turned off the road onto a track which was fairly rocky, uneven and very boggy in places so I had to concentrate on my footing as well as trying to take in and enjoy the beautiful scenery!
Splooshing through streams and puddles made me feel like a real hardcore trail runner!
There were numerous gates on the route that we had to stop to open so I got several excuses to have a breather - thankfully they weren't stiles!!
I thoroughly enjoyed the run and we got back to the car after running 9.31 miles at a 10:22 minute mile pace which I don't think is too bad for such tricky terrain!
Later on that day I went for a maintenance massage with my Physio and by gum did it hurt! I'm not sure whether my muscles were particularly tight because I had just done a 9 mile run or whether they were just in need of a massage!
Then on Monday evening just to finish my body off I went to the Tri Club Swimming Training session. We started off doing technique training and lots of drills before going onto Open Water Skills such as deep water starts and mass swimming!
Last time we did this I absolutely hated it as I was terrified of getting kicked in the face or elbowed but I actually thoroughly enjoyed being in amongst it all and fighting for my space!
Altogether I did 1650 metres which is 66 lengths or a mile.
On Tuesday I got it into my head that I wanted to see if I had got any faster over the course of my marathon training. So I set out to do a 5K route that I have used before as a timed run. It was another sunny day but was still fairly cool!
I really enjoyed pushing myself to run fast despite my legs feeling slightly tired from the trail run yesterday. I was delighted when I got to the end and had actually run it 17 seconds faster than I did 6 weeks ago. My 5K time this time was 25:01 with an average 8:01 minute mile pace! I would love to get that down to a sub 8 minute mile pace!
Today I had planned to do my long run this week as we are going to a wedding on Friday and have a very busy weekend. However, once I had studied the weather forecast and discovered that the weather was turning horrendous today and was due to last a week I quickly had a change of plan and did my long run yesterday instead!
My marathon plan is always talking about running on tired legs and yesterday I certainly did that!
This would be my third run on consecutive days and I think my legs were wondering what I was playing at!
However, after porridge for breakfast I set off with my energy drink and gels ready to conquer my long run! I had a 15 mile route in my head and was keen to keep at the 9:20 to 9:40 pace my marathon plan suggested for this run. Again the weather conditions were perfect with the sun shining through the clouds but with still a chill in the air!
For the first time in a long time I decided to try and distract myself by listening to music whilst running and it seemed to do the trick! I really enjoyed this run and I didn't get that awful dead tired feeling I have had during recent long runs!
I was delighted that I managed to keep to a 9:40 minute mile or faster pace during the entire run except for mile 13 when I slowed down to a 10:14 minute mile but in my defence that was because I was faced with a massive hill!
I ran 15.06 miles at an average 9:29 minute mile pace so smack bang in the middle of my goal pace which I am delighted with especially with having tired legs!
Yesterday afternoon I had forgotten that I had a date with the gym! I did consider cancelling it but decided not to be such a wimp!
Last week I had a personalised fitness programme written for me and I had to go today to test it out with the instructor to make sure the weights and number of reps etc were appropriate to my level of fitness.
I was really pleased that I had said that I didn't want to use the treadmill as I think I might have cried if I had to do more pounding! In the hour long session did some rowing, cycling, time on the cross trainer and arm cycle as well as using some of the machines for arm and chest exercises and some free weights. I was absolutely spent by the end of it but survived!
I made the right decision to do my long run yesterday as the forecast was right and we have had torrential rain all day today along with high winds! I wouldn't have fancied running 15 miles in those conditions!A perfect day to have a rest day!
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