Week 3 - In which the week goes downhill fast

Miles this week: 13
TOTAL MILES: 65

Wednesday 19^th Jan - 7 miles at easy pace

No map – I lost the data!

I’ll be honest, I’ve started to feel the pace a bit lately.  This is week 3 for me, and the legs seem to be screaming at me almost constantly.  At times like this, I like to dig deep and think of the eventual gains in the following weeks.  (Well, that’s not quite true – what I really like to do is sit in a beer garden and drink delicious cold beer.  But doctors will tell you that doing this and then running will accelerate your path to the grave – mostly because running when pissed probably involves a lot of weaving, making collisions with cars inevitable.)

Still, I was expected to do the 7 easy miles in about 66 mins, and ended up doing it in under an hour.  So all things considered, if I can maintain that pace when tired, I should be much better with a bit of energy in me!

Miles this week:  18
TOTAL MILES: 70

Thursday 20^th Jan – 5 miles at steady (8m 30) pace

Show me the map!

I have a simple 5 mile route for these 5 mile runs which is a simple enough course, but provides quite a bit of uphill work on the first 2.5 miles.  It’s not quite “hill training” but it all counts, and it does you no good at all to simply find flat roads to do this.

Not really too much to say about this run – it felt ok, not great, and was dispatched at an average of 8m 10 pace, so 20 seconds a mile.  That’s actually pretty quick at this stage, considering how tired I find myself feeling lately.  I’m still waiting for the bounce back of energy.  It’ll come soon, I imagine!

Miles this week:  21
TOTAL MILES: 73

Saturday 22^nd Jan – Parkrun (3.1 miles)

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Remember how just yesterday I was complaining about a lack of energy and waiting for the bounce back?  It happened!  Today I completed the 3.1 miles in 22m 27.  This is over a minute quicker than my PB for the distance, and equates to an average pace of 7m 16.  Considering how tired I’ve felt all week, this is incredible!

It must be stated, though, that this was not the normal Parkrun course; nor was it actually timed by Parkrun.  I was unable to get to the War Memorial Park in time, and so this was a timed run by me later in the day.

Still, it was 3.1 miles and the time doesn’t lie.  I’m actually getting quicker!

Miles this week:  32
TOTAL MILES: 84

Sunday 23^rd Jan – 11 miles at steady pace

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Urgh.  It would appear that yesterday was merely a glorious blip in an otherwise depressingly tiring week.

There’s absolutely nothing good to say about this run.  I went out feeling OK, and yet from the first half a mile to the end, I felt absolutely terrible and hated every single second of every single mile.

These bad runs happen, of course, and there’s nothing you can do apart from finish with as much effort as you can and chalk it up to tiredness.

In fact, on this one, I cut out half a mile and only did 10.5.  (The distance thingy says 10.3, but the Garmin had forgotten to start again after stopping at a road whilst waiting to cross.)

It was dark, too, and I am no fan of running in the dark.  I do it during the week because necessity demands that I do it, but weekends should be daytime runs only.

Still, I did the distance in the expected minutes per mile, so really that’ll have to do.

Christ I hope next week gets better than this!  Definitely a low point.