Monday, May 31, 2010

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.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

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.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

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.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

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

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

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!

Monday, May 17, 2010

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.

Friday, May 14, 2010

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.