Sorry, I'm a bit late this week! Our broadband is doing a great impression of our currently sleeping tortoise!
So...Week 14 has gone and I only have 5 full weeks of running left in my plan 😱 Also, only one week left in this section of my plan before the final cut back before the final push - where has all that time gone?
The last week has probably been the longest mileage I will have out of my plan. I did one impromptu run and I also did parkrun which I had planned to drop this week but International Women’s Day persuaded me to do it, and I’m very glad I did.
Run 1:
My lovely 20 minute recovery run with eldest kitten. Very slightly longer than last time and he did manage to run the whole thing without making excuses to look at something. Before we went out I’d had really tired Achilles and hamstrings from the previous day’s eight miles but this run did just the job to ease it all out.
Run 2:
My midweek run coincided with Katnap's birthday and we both had the day off. So we had the lovely treat of running in the daylight, it didn’t rain and of course, we got to run together. This is the last long Wednesday run of my plan and I made it up to 10k from 9.6, just because… 10k seems relatively easy now, which is just how it should be. After our run we celebrated at the local Greek restaurant where they presented Katnap with a balloon and chocolate chip muffin and sang ‘happy birthday’ to him!!!
Run 3:
I went to the gym a day early as I was having my hair cut on my usual gym day. And as it was the first day of the VRWC qualifiers I decided to get it out of the way early and did my 3k in just under 20 minutes. ‘That should do’ I thought and I waited for it to come up on the feed…
Run 4:
Parkrun. To parkrun or not to parkrun that was the question… I had a 9 miler the next day, did I really feel up to the challenge? Well, it was IWD so I had to really. I’ll just take it slow…
I had a problem, my watch wasn’t feeding through properly, what was wrong? No map on Strava, the distance is all out and I seem to have run really slowly (I didn’t think I’d run that fast), and then I worked it out: I’d done some yoga earlier on in the week and to get my bpm on Strava I’d switched the GPS off, but it didn’t switch off properly so I’d fiddled with it and I hadn’t switched it back on again. So according to Strava I’d done 4.66km in just over 29 minutes, and when I’d checked my pace it was always well over 6 mins/km, so it was a huge shock when my official time came through: 27:27 was my official time, I think this is my second fastest time, so much for taking it slowly 🤣
However, how was this speed going to affect my next run? Would my Achilles be complaining again?
Run 5:
Nine miles completed with Katnap for company, not too badly, even did a sprint finish. Achilles behaved himself although Katnap's leg needs a bit of a pummel to get it in trim for the HM we think. We did eat very well the previous night and I made sure I hydrated properly for once. We also gave up on the Kendal Mint Cake this week and just stuck to water and apricots. Tried the hydration vest out again and it was fine. First run without a bobble hat in a while and I was even able to take my gloves off and stash them in the vest. Spring is coming!!
Funny thing is, out of all the runs I’ve done since Thursday, only my nine miler has turned up on VRWC. That is 8km that won’t be going towards our total unless I nag. I am not impressed. Thank you to linda9389 for listening to me let off steam about it!
One thing I have done this week is a lot more yoga. I’ve found some smashing Yoga With Adriene routines that have really complimented the Monday recovery run. I think this is definitely the way forward over the next few weeks.
I’m truly getting more and more positive about it all now and I’m getting really excited about the thought of my race number dropping through the letter box in the next few weeks! Bring it on!!! 💪💪💪
