A great training week

After the 10k race, I had two weeks off work, and the guy who writes my training plan clearly (insanely) decided that would be a good time to increase the intensity a wee bit, as we move closer to the half marathon. On paper, the week immediately after the race looked pretty daunting. In reality - well, as I'm trying to speak in a more positive manner, and give myself appropriate credit... in reality I smashed it! I was surprisingly awesome, stepping up to the mark and getting it done. :-) Gave me a huge motivational boost, and I take it back for calling it insane! Haha. He knows what he's doing.

The 10k race (PB) was on the Sunday, and I had a rest day on Monday. Tuesday was speed session day, and was the same pyramids session I did 6 weeks previous. Taking out the 1km warm-up and cool-down, I ran 3.04 miles in 32 minutes (equal fast intervals and recovery) - the fast intervals averaging 9:26 pace, and the recovery averaging 11:58. 6 weeks earlier I'd covered 3 miles, with the fast intervals averaging 9:30 pace, and recovery averaging 12:12. It compares well albeit fairly closely, but of course 6 weeks previous I hadn't ran a 10k PB time two days before. I'm happy it shows good progress - though it was tough going for sure!!

The very next day I ran a 6k recovery run - the 'easy' pace I was aiming for is around 11:45 /mi to 12 mins/mi, but this day I felt comfortable and without much effort I averaged the run at 11:36 /mi pace. Nice! No leg soreness either. So then the following day, it was my long run, moved forward to the Thursday because of Glenmore crewing due to be taking up the weekend. 10 miles, with the instruction to run at easy pace but try to pick up to around 11 mins/mi pace for the last couple of miles. In actuality, this went so well!! I was completely stunned to manage an average pace of 11:22 for the full 10 miles; 9th mile was 10:55, 10th mile was 10:24! I'll be honest, that struck me as complete madness, haha. I finished with jelly legs, having pushed hard at the end, but really happy with the result, and grinning like an eejit. ....maybe running doesn't suck after all? (Don't tell anyone I said that.) Anyway, that gave me a real positive boost for my half marathon in October - if I managed to average 11:22 pace there, I would smash the sub 2:30 goal!

The day after the long run, while I was up in Inverness, the plan called for a 5 mile run, a back-to-back to test my legs at the end of a tough week. I was hesitant, but decided just to get it done early - pace was unimportant... so once again, I was floored when I managed to run the 5 miles at an average pace of 11:32. My legs felt fine, and I'd finished 4 great training days having ran 23 miles, and including the race and rest day, over 6 days I'd ran over 29.25 miles - my heaviest training week ever, and one of my most positive and motivating!

The following week, after Glenmore (and on a high from all the amazing, inspiring performances from the runners there) I had another big training week - and some more really motivating runs. My long run, however, was cut short after 7 miles when I slipped the side of my foot off a loose rock, and rolled my ankle a bit. I immediately stopped running, and slowly walked back to the car with my ankle feeling sore. Two full rest days followed, and this week I started my training tentatively to feel out the ankle. Thankfully, no problems whatsoever, and after 2 full rest days, it appears I was practically straining at the leash, as I ran an 'easy' 5km in 32:30, which is pretty much my 3rd or 4th fastest 5k time ever! I couldn't quite believe it. Another great wee boost, but more so because I'd worried that the disappointment of not finishing my long run a few days earlier would have messed with my mind a bit.

Anyway, I wanted to write this post because I'll admit I've not always been the most positive about my running, and what I'm achieving. Even the first draft of this post included lots of self-deprecating snippets, like 'I know that doesn't sound fast to most of the readers, but it's super fast for me...' - which I decided to remove, because hell, I don't compare my running to anyone else, I compare my running to me-from-the-past. And I'll tell you something for nowt: me-in-the-present is kicking ass. :-)