Week 7....Week 6 is consigned to history.

Let's just say that i have consigned Week 6 to the archive. I thought that the week had got off to a bad start with my aching legs and demands of the job.
A phone call out of the blue on Saturday morning brought my training / work / life balance woes  into sharp perspective. A work colleague whom I have known for 25 years had collapsed and passed away whilst sat in his van on a site in the North East.....two hours later and despite the disbelief over what i had just been told, I'm heading up the A1 to meet the guys on the job, offer my condolences to his family and try to ensure that the guys are all capable of returning to site the following day to continue with the work and stick to the programme! Life goes on eh!

Week 6, It's starting to hurt!

Oh dear..... the week after the weekend before. Felt euphoric on Sunday morning post completion of my longest ever tarmac run (see Sunday Mornings 15 Miler)....here we are Thursday morning sat on the 07.05 to London Kings Cross and my calf muscles are aching bad. Monday night was a rest night, should have run a steady 6 miler on Tuesday night, but late back from work following a very early start I felt nackered so didn't go out! Never mind went out Wednesday night instead....that hurt, my calf muscles felt battered, clarly Sunday had taken it's toll. Never mind onwards and upwards, I have a Marathon to run!

Sunday morning's 15 miler!

Well I did it. 15 miles in 122mins, pretty chuffed really, I have never run this distance on road before. I must admit at 8am this morning I was feeling a more than a bit nervous about it. I know that in my last post I said it was only 3 more miles than my previous long run, but I have to say those 3 miles took there toll this morning.
I felt good on the way out (we ran towards Skipdale from Keighley)  As usual we set off too fast although I did feel good all the way out to the turn, which we achieved in slightly less than an hour, doing 7.56 miles!
Anyhow, as I said I started to pay for the fast out leg and by 10 miles i was puttin in an occasional walk! Never mind, pleased i did it and it is very clear to me now that i need to concentrate on pace and pace and pace. Still early days, still got a good 9 weks until rae day. Onwards and upwards!

Too Windy to run?..............

Friday night, sat at my PC, should be out doing a steady 6 miler! Sticking to a schedule isn't easy, in the main i'm sticking to it. Feel that when I do run they all turn out the same wether i'm doing a steady 6 or an easy 5! The problem is all the hills around here, by the time you have got out of the house and into the village you are either going downhill or running uphill. Warming up steadily just isn't an option.

Still, I think that it will be doing me good in the long run. I am looking forward to Sunday mornings "15 mile training run at a moderate pace" What's a moderate pace?........I figure that it's only 3 miles more than I ran at the end of week two and then I knocked off 12 miles in 1.38, so that's what i'm going for.

I must admit to enjoying the regular training at the moment, I'm not doing very well with the midweek intervals, I need to improve on this as I am sure that come race day I will need the leg speed that this type of training provides.