Following on from last weeks 77 miles, I managed a satisfactory 73 miles this week - this being despite a slow start to the week. Better still my calf is now pain free once more and I am feeling strong again.
Monday's training went to pot a bit, as a 5:45am set off for work, followed by a 12 and a half hour work day, left me shattered, but also with some remaining tightness and soreness in my calf I didn't want to overdo it anyway. So I headed out and plodded 7.5 miles on my own, rather than running with the club and feeling like I had to do more than I necessarily wanted to.
Tuesday, despite still suffering with the calf a little bit, I headed to the speed session with Helen Clithroe's group and trained well. After a 2.3 mile warm up, we did 8x1000m off 50 second recovery on the grass, followed by 8x30 second sprints to finish, off a 30 second rest. Along with the same 2.3 mile cool down, this saw me tick over 11.5 miles for the session.
Trying to keep up with Gary Priestley for the k's and Andy Benson for the sprints left my calf in pieces, so I was so glad I had a massage booked in with Claire Wilson from Wesham RR on the Wednesday evening. I also slipped in a slow 5 mile jog between work and the massage too, so as to keep my push for a 70 mile plus week going!
The massage has worked wonders and my calf feels as good as new - well as far as runner's are concerned anyway - I've almost forgotten what it is like to be absolutely pain free!! So I have to say thanks Claire!
Thursday's tempo session with Affleck and Buttler was shorter and sharper this week, as Rob gears up for his marathon in Berlin. We did both a 2 mile warm up and cool down, with a 10k session completed in 32:52, progressing from a first mile at 5:25 pace, to a final one at 5:09. It was pleasing to run under 33 minutes on a training run, as it is something I have only done a couple of times.
On Friday I ran home from work, taking it easy and doing ten more miles in 67 minutes, and making the most of a nice evening and a decent finish at work. That night I let my hair down with a night out with Moll, a meal in town followed by a few pints and cocktails - I think I had earned them haha. It was good to spend some real quality time with Moll before moving her into uni this weekend.
Saturday of course was the relays, but in similar fashion to last weekend, I started the day by doing the Preston park run as a bit of a tempo - I planned on running twice on Saturday anyway to top up the mileage, so doing this made sense seen as it worked so well the previous week. I did the 3 laps in 16:47, a similar time to the week before and felt confident about the afternoon's race.
The field at the Northern's is bigger and better than the North West, which I had done the week previous. On the previous two occasions when I have done this event, I have ran on the first leg both times, coming home in 35th and 23rd respectively. This time out saw a marked improvement, as I secured a top ten finish on the leg. I finished the 6.6k loop in 20:30 for 9th place - some 90 seconds quicker than I managed on the same course a couple of years ago.
I have to give a shout out to Tom Cornthwaite, of Salford Harriers, who gave me some words of encouragement as I passed him at around the 3 mile mark. You wouldn't get that in most sports, and it is something that I think sets runners apart from the rest, we all want to see each other run as well as possible, despite being competitive at the same time. This encouragement made me force a little bit extra out of myself in that last mile.
Well done too to young Paddy Dever, who ran an amazing leg to finish in 5th place for Preston Harriers.
Wesham's 'A' team consisted of myself, Steve Waterhouse, Simon Denye (both on Team Wesham relay debuts!), Steve Myerscough, Lee Barlow and David Taylor. Well done to the team on our 41st place finish - a good effort by each and every member of the side.
Today saw me round off the week with a 15.5 mile long run, setting me up nicely for another tough week ahead, with two more races planned!
