Week 7 - In which Thursdays are recommended for disposal

Miles so far this week: 7
TOTAL MILES: 172

Wednesday 16^th Feb – Interval day! (1mile warmup, 4x 1m at 7m30 pace, 1 mile warmdown)

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This run should have been yesterday, since Tuesday is interval day.  However, due to the fact that I am now happily affianced, some celebration was in order.

Wiser men than me would declare that drinking alcohol the day before a hard run is a bad idea.  Happily, I am not among these men.

The run itself was safely dispatched well within the times allowed, continuing my run of over-performing.  The hope for this is to put something in the bank, as it were, for the marathon itself.  We’ll see how well that works in a month or two when the training gets even more “fun” than it is now, but for now I’m happy to do it.

It’s actually a nice run, this, as it incorporates quite a hilly section of Chineham Business Park as well as some flats.  A good mix, there, which will hopefully pay off further down the line.

Nothing of note to mention, with regard to the left leg.  The Achilles is still grumbling, but not seriously so, and the calf is still performing perfectly well.  I’m beginning to think that it was more the temperatures of a couple of weeks ago that played a part in the eventual problems rather than anything more serious. I still treat it gently for the first half a mile or so, but I suspect that this is more mental than physical.  Certainly, tonight when I sped up, there was no pain.

Miles so far this week: 18
TOTAL MILES: 183

Thursday 17^th Feb – 11 miles at 9m30 pace

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In terms of the runs over the last couple of weeks, this rates as the worst of them in terms of pain.  I started the run late (9pm, in fact) and hadn’t eaten since lunchtime.  Couple that to a 2 hour shopping trip beforehand, which affected the legs more than I’d realised, and it’s clear to see that there are perfectly good reasons as to why this run did not go according to plan.

Now, that said, it’s worth noting that I finished this run at an average of 8m37.  That’s nearly a minute-per-mile quicker than the designated schedule pace for tonight, so despite the pain caused, I can’t really complain.  Yes, it hurt, but despite it hurting, I was, pretty much, at my marathon pace for 11 miles in which the preparation had been, for want of a better word, crap.

Clearly I’m trying to put a positive spin on what was an unpleasant run, here, but ultimately I finished it and in a pretty decent pace, so it’s hard to knock it too much.

Miles so far this week: 23
TOTAL MILES: 188

Friday 18^th Feb – 1 mile warmup, 3 miles at 8m00 pace, 1 mile warmdown

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I’m beginning to dislike Thursdays.  Thursday is the new Tuesday, and I don’t like it.  Yes, this is Friday, but it’s a day late and so it is, in reality, a Thursday in Friday’s clothing.

I think my problem with Thursday is that it is – or appears to be - eminently useless.  Tuesday is interval day, Wednesday is a longish run at close to race pace and Sunday is the Very Long Run.  Thursday is the fly in the ointment; the irritating younger brother ripping the last page out of your books for the hell of it; the 25-stone man in Greggs that took the last 6 sausage rolls when you were behind him and in desperate need of a pastry-wrapped piggy.

Or, if you’re Alanis Morissette, it’s ironic for some completely non-ironic reason like dying on your first plane flight.  Either way, it ain’t irony, and I’m still starving thanks to the fast bastard in Greggs.

And what of the run itself?  What of this completely non-ironic irritant of a day?  Well, it went very well indeed.  I was significantly quicker than needed, and finished strongly, with enough energy to have kept going if necessary.  I didn’t, though.  15 miles were coming up again on Sunday and I didn’t want to push any harder than I had.

Miles so far this week: 38
TOTAL MILES: 203

Sunday 20^th Feb – 15 miles (first 7 miles in 9m30, remaining 8 miles in 8m30)

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I enjoyed this run.  It was hard, since I’d been drinking the night before and felt ever so slightly hungover, but nonetheless, I was out of bed at 8am and ready to run by 9am.

The beautiful fiancée had made my drink for me and supplied the gels that were to get me through the day and so, with a fond farewell, I stepped into the cold, crisp Basingstoke morning and, with the merest wisp of rain in my face, set off towards Chineham Business Park.

From the house, it is approx. 3 miles to the top of Chineham Business Park, where you can pick up a road that takes you out and left, into the wilderness towards Bramley.

Interestingly enough, almost all the way to Bramley is uphill.  I was quicker than the time expected, but not by a great deal, due to the uphill nature of the thing.  Once in Bramley proper, I headed West and toward The Vyne.

The halfway point was reached, and I duly turned around and came back.  Surprisingly, a lot of the way back was uphill; Escher would have been proud.

At any rate, I got back to Chineham Business Park at the accelerated rate with a slight problem – I’d managed to forget that it was 8 miles on the way back, leaving me with a surplus mile.  What to do?  Well, luckily, there is a partial loop of the CBP that is approximately one mile around.

The not-so-lucky part of this tale is that half of this loop is quite steeply uphill and there I was at the near-on 13 mile mark feeling a little leggy.  Still, heroics were performed, crowds gathered, men nodded approvingly, children watched with hushed awe and women openly wept at the manliness on display.

The upshot of placing this hill in the last few miles was that the final flat mile was one of the easiest in the whole run, since my legs were just thankful not to be going uphill for once.

The calf continues to be no problem at all, and the Achilles, while slightly painful, is grumbling less and less as the miles go by.  My knee cap now hurts on my left leg, but since it is neither muscle nor tendon, I really don’t care at this point, since it isn’t hurting enough to bother me.

Good times!