Sunday 26 February 2012

Training update to 23/02/2012

Right! So the week after the Pilgrims' Challenge was pretty much a write off, I really tried hard to stay off running as I didn't think it'd be a great idea after 2 x 33 mile ultra marathons...

Finally on Saturday 11th I managed to get up for doing something. I needed to get my coaching supervised practise sheets signed off, so I volunteered to help Colin with the Saturday training session for his kids' groups. We did a good warm up (1.5 miles), then the kids did two one mile efforts at 5k pace. I joined in the next element, which was four 100 second hard efforts with 150 second recoveries. I ran about 520m on each effort. We finished off with another mile round the field to warm down. (approx 5 miles in 43 minutes moving time)

On Sunday 12th I ran on the Mynd with Tom, Naomi, James, Noel, Paul and Dave W. We did a variant of Andros' route from a fortnight earlier, popping in and out of Ashes Hollow and Small Batch before crossing Callow Hollow and running up Minton Hill. We turned towards Pole Bank and I left the group at Pole Cottage running down to Medlicott and Bridges and then doing a loop out to Ratlinghope as I was a little early to meet my friends for lunch. Found it hard going today... (11.2 miles and 2,420' in 2hr 20mins).

On the Tuesday night (14th) I ran in Birmingham with Zoe, doing a good steady run of 5 miles with about 200' of climbing in just under 40 minutes. I felt quite tired still but wasn't moving too badly according to the Garmin track.

The following day, I had a real head cold, but managed a run home from work. This is around 4 miles with again about 200' of climbing. I felt pretty bad but pushed on and got my reward when I checked the watch and had made it back in just over 30 minutes, so 4 x 7:34 miles which is a really good pace for me.

On Thursday 16th I had a gentle jog around the Ercall with James and Em by way of recovery from all the fast hard miles on the tarmac. We did a very easy 3.6 miles and 630' of climbing in 42 minutes.

After all the relatively flat runs I needed something hilly at the weekend, and I had to get out early, so I was pleased when Gareth posted on Shropshire Fell Running that he and Nathan were planning a run over the Valleys route (but in reverse) starting on Sunday morning at 7am. I set the alarm and woke at 5:30 to a blanket of snow. I'm glad I decided to get moving and go anyway, the snow was worse in Donnington than anywhere else and when I got over to Stretton we had a great run in lovely snowy conditions that didn't really last into the afternoon. Again I didn't feel tip top, but who could not enjoy being out on such a fantastic morning with bright sunshine and soft trails in the snow. We saw Noel and JT out on their Mistletoe Meander run off in the distance, and evidence of David on his dawn Canter recce, but no one else was out until we'd pretty much finished. 12.5 miles and 3,680' (more probably, that's the Garmin) in a nice steady 3hrs 5mins.

21/2 Grindle and Yearlet Tues night

23/2 SyTri Track sesh

No comments:

Post a Comment