Last Day of May

Nice little session this am - warm up gentle and cool down gentle and 5km at tempo - 14 sec per Km faster than 3 weeks ago - still edging forward I know there's more in there too.

Time though to reflect and plan

Reflect

May goals

50km per week -done

2 sessions per week - done

some early morning sessions - done

hrm used done

eating better (3lb lighter)

I think I need to develop a bit of aggression/edge in some of my running

Sometimes running the clock and previous times pushes me

If I need to be slower/recover - hrm helps me behave.

Enjoying running.

Rest Day

So having had a good effort with Harriers on Tuesday I was planning a rest day Wednesday - then the call to arms. My old mate Rhys phoned - "can you make up a relay team?" "how desparate are you?" "desparate" - somehow I knew that and perhaps was influenced by the the promise of a post run beer. So I crossed to the other side and teamed up with Rhys and his Bingley Harriers team mate Mark.

We set ourselves up in reverse age order and met up just before the start, after a quick tactical talk - Rhys 1st, me 2nd and Mark 3rd we set off. Rhys did a tidy 21mins, I set off as the rain appeared, a tough, tough climb, nice run across to Badger Stone and then (what on earth was I doing up here with road shoes on!) a slip slidly bambi on ice descent before the trail to the handover, now a bit wet. 2 passed me I passed 4, so I'll take that at 20:20. Together after a good run from Mark we were just over 60mins - and vowed to return next time to take it under 60.

Fine hour or so rehydrating and catching up at the B'a T'at.

Fun if different way to rest.

Hot,fast and sublime

Guilt got the better of me sat afternoon, so I set off on what was meant to be a long run, but the heat and humidity was just too much so I called it a day at 10k, and I was so hot and sweaty.
Pre 6am start Monday am for effort session, 15sec per k quicker than same session 3 weeks ago, still edging forward.
Tonight Harriers a bit thinned out as many on first away run of summer, I didn't fancy the pain of the faster group or the slowness of the slower group so volunteered to lead "nigels" group. 6 of us set off from the club then along the trail race route. Brian joined us after 1km with the suitable handicap of having done some epic boating felll running nonsense all weekend in the highlands (still tiggrish). We ran as a tight group, so no waiting,regrouping, enough chat and humour and a joyous run just under 15km.

Trail race in Google

Entry form for race running coming Sunday

Recovery Ilkley Addingham 2 bridges

Feelin those hills at the moment, nice steady loop from the tennis club and to Addingham and back whilst the boys hit squash balls. All zone 2.

The uphill bits I was feeling in my legs - so will call tomorrow a rest day.

I've a busy weekend ahead so will probably do 22km slow run Friday am as session 2 of the week and then put my shoes away til monday having got my 50km for the week, so have a good rest before giving it some extra effort next week - at least that is the plan

Nice up here tonight

Harriers run tonight, a sunny slightly sticky night with no wind, to stay down in the valley or run on roads would have been to be ungrateful.

Nigel led a sizeable and social group out along the dales way to Addingham and then I have no memory of how we got the to some fields the other side of the main road as we meandered up through more fields and up to Wingate Nick. Hard climb but no ego overdrive from any of us tonight. We regrouped ("collapsed") at the top before enjoying a sublime descent along the moor and down through town, a few back lanes and gardens back to the club.

So a bit more climbing for my recovery run, but caught up with a few people, gave Liz some clinical supervision, moaned about the new government, and shared the dream of England world cup success.

So 1:30 for 13.7km with 1100ft of upness in pretty much one single climb.....nice!

Early morning hill session

Early start before the house stirred, down to Ilkley and 6 reps up Wheatley 90 sec with jog back down recovery, but oh dear I've just looked at my last log of this run and I said, "1 more lampost and 8 reps or no beer for a month next time" - wished I checked before I did it!. I did do 6 reps not 5 and managed 2 more lamposts and I did go up the Langdales 2 days ago.... looks like its wine and whisky only til I return and nail 8 reps.

I'm struck that my max heart rate is pretty low on these reps and that feels like leg pain/strength is the issue. Might be good to make this a weekly session when I move up to 3 weekly sessions in May as this seems my weakest effort workout.

After blogging that I thought I'd overrun on Friday my ear started to hurt(already deaf for 24hours), throb and discharge gunk - so after a couple of hours of that I took an assorted array of cure everything medication and syringed my ear with a syringe - no needle and removed copious amounts of smelly gunk and felt remarkably better very quickly. Funny how how you feel runningwise can prophesy the impending infection becoming otherwise apparent.

Didn't quite manage target of 50km last week(only 40km) then but did pioneer a new self treatment regieme for ear infections and survived and punished myself with a 5:45 start this am.

I think I need a lie down

5 runs in 6 days and over 70km and I'm feeling heavy legged and tired. Maybe a touch of overdoing it. So I'm not running today depsite having time, inclination and weather. Training requires rest/accomodation etc.

2 steady runs last couple of days, one a bit under 10km, a regular run of mine old bridge to old bridge via Addingham and yesterday a

bit of an extension/variation on this involving another bridge hence forth to be called the 3 Bridges Addingham run (actually there are several other Bridges on this run but I'm too tired to

be pedantic), this 3 Bridges run is 11.1km. Good easy recovery run routes, I may return to them as routes to do tempo runs in coming weeks as I build them up.

Just been listening to podcast Marathon Talk and they are nattering about goal setting etc, whilst I'm clear where my race

goals are in the next year - I'm wondering if I need to be more specific - including some time target as well - which in turn may further focus my training programme. I'm off to sleep on it.

Return to 20th April

So as I promised myself, I've been and done the 2oth April session again

Same distance 500m x8 but shorter recoveries by 10 sec. Very little wind to contend with that's weather or the other type.

Managed to cut 38 sec off my aggregate times for the 8 500s and was finding some spurts of pace that I thought were gone for ever.

So well chuffed - suspect the performance improvement curve will start to tail off now (though I saw something there that offers potential for more than marginal improvement in time)

Kildwick 10 with dodgers

It's a mental things as well as a physical thing this running lark - my legs were heavy and achy after yesterday but I was keen to get out again - and they were less heavy and achy afterwards than before - there must be a lesson in there for me somewhere if I'm willing to learn.

Dodgers run today 10km of canal paths, lanes and a run through the hospital, pretty flat and a chatty pace mostly with Justin and Chris (and 16 others somewhere behind). Turned warm and sunny on the way round. All nicely in zone 2 - so good recovery run.

I've done 71km this week over 4 runs - which is more than planned, I'll keep that in check a bit this next week. Generally I'm a bit slow for me at the moment which is disappointing but I'm beginning to get back to some sort of decent milage for me - I hope things start to pick up again - whatever I'm enjoying it at the moment.

Harrogate Ringway

After saying we would do this for sometime, at last we coordinated our diaries, and Pete E, Mollie the dog and I set off from P's house at 8.30 to run the harrogate ringway. Conveniently they live in Harrogate not far from the path. Having been promised rain we were pleased to set off with the weather fair and so it continued. We were both in need of a long run and are well matched. We enjoyed catching up on life, the families and talk about running past and future. We misssed a few turns so map was often out, had a few pit stops and enjoyed a fine leisurely amble. Annette joined us for the last few miles when to be honest we were suffering a bit and so she brought light to developing painful brooding silence that descends when the legs ache and the brain is starved of oxygen and fuel.
Will remember a fine run, good company a bit of pain....and a wierd conversation when Pete was talking about chick flicks that were worth watching on a philosophical level, he clearly has lived with 4 women way too long and needs to get out and watch what Annette puts in his tea.
So 34km in leisurely, stop start 4 hours with 1700ft of up. That's a lot of calories to squeeze into the recovery.
One fuel thought Lucozade makes me feel ill, flapjack is awesome

Canalside canter

Having misjudged the working day and booked myself in to 9pm, I decided to take a couple of hours out to maintain my sanity.
Parked up at Hirstwood and ambled in the Liverpool direction. The plan was a bit of tempo, so 5km to warm up, 5km tempo, then 5km cool. Stuck to plan. So another proper session laid down and a marker to build on. I have a twenty something miler planned for sat, so a day off tomorrow and a slow one before election result watching on Thursday. Now off to freshen up before the next tempo session at work
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May goals

Sit down and think.
For May
50+ km per week
2 "proper hard training sessions" per week
Some early morning runs
Eat like you want to live til your next birthday
Mix it up
Use hrm for most runs
This will give some base for more miles and 3 sessions per week in June to move into marathon programme july for oct Marathon.
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Meander above Middleton

After the long drive back from the visiting/family wedding weekend in Kent/East Sussex I decided to make a quick exit to run off the lethargy of the journey. The plan was to amble around the valley bottom to Addingham and back real slow. However the evening was just to0 stunning to stay down here so...arriving at Nesfield my legs took to route to the moor, up and up, to the road from Beamsley Beacon, a quick wiggle and along to concrete square, beyond to Middleton Village, down Carters lane.

I turned left to add some an extra mile or two, but was subject to some abdo cramps - and fearing an attack of the gingerbreads turned back along the river route back to the old bridge to pick up the car for home.

So a real nice run and real nice evening. Everything, the folk of Ilkley, the birds, the sheep, the trees, the flies, the cars, the grass the sky seemed to be breathing out a satisfied sigh - was glad to join them.

Mostly zone 2, 11.7km, 600ft of upness