Another full and injury-free week of training with 5 runs covering a total of 15 miles. It's been a busy week and I'm learning that if I'm going to keep up with my training schedule I am going to have to be prepared to run at any time and in any place.
Wednesday saw me fitting my interval run in between a late evening at school and the start of my regular rehearsal at Thurcroft Theatre Group, where I 'act' as Musical Director! So there I was 6:30pm looking for a secluded place to park the car up and get changed into my running gear (and yes my tights too, it was pretty cold).!I managed my intervals (4 x1/4 mile efforts) along a 1/2 mile flat stretch, passing the same person washing their car 4 times, much to his bemusement. At the end of the run I got back to my car to find it was much more difficult getting changed out of running gear than into it. I was obviously pretty warm by this point as the car windows steamed up, making the few passing cars somewhat suspicious as to what I was up to. I had visions of a police car pulling up and them asking my to step out of the car and me replying,
"I've just taken my tights off Officer can you give me a minute while I put my trousers on!"
On Thursday I managed to squeeze in a 3 miles tempo run while I was picking up the little one from my Mother-in-law's. She was quite surprised when I cheekily asked if she would mind me nipping out for a quick run before I took the little lady home. It's these little actions of support that I know I will come to rely on as my training progresses, so thanks in advance for the support of all those around me.
My Saturday 3 miler was more of a psychological run and would hopefully fill me with confidence in the lead up to my 10K race in Bradford on 20th March. My target time is 49:59 which means 8 min/mile pace and bearing in mind my 4hr marathon pace is 9 min/mile I know this may be something of a stretch. The plan was to go out and try to run 3 miles at 8 min/ mile pace. Using a running audio track for the 1st time from Audio Fuel I ran along with the 175bpm track which was described as a 'mid intensity long run' which turned out to be around 8 min/mile pace. Although I did find it quite tough at times I was fairly comfortable running at this pace and I managed to complete my run in 22:49, under 8min/mile pace. I'm obviously well pleased with this run, although 3 miles at race pace is very different to keeping it going for the full 10K (6.2 miles).
The final run of the week today (Sunday) gave me a nice and steady 5 mile long run with an average 9:10 min/mile which felt really comfortable.
Next week is much the same as this week with the exception of a 4 mile 10K race pace run on Wednesday rather than Saturday. Having a wisdom tooth removed at the hospital on Friday afternoon but hopefully my Sunday 5 mile run won't be affected.
Till next week!
Steve
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