Resting up

This week I continued my recent training block aimed at seeing me hit peak condition in time for my next bout of races in the coming weeks.

Over the last five weeks I have ticked over nicely averaging in excess of 70 miles a week, with lots of training miles and a bit less racing of late. This week was another training week, with a good rest period over the weekend after a weekend getaway with Moll.

We have had a big and busy few weeks since we got back from our summer holiday, and so this weekend we took ourselves off to Newcastle for a much needed break and re-charging of the batteries. We couldn't have picked a better time to go as far as the weather and atmosphere was concerned - albeit the football was a bit of a let down!

Saturday was therefore my rest day, and I took the opportunity to go on a bit of an indulgence and let myself have a good few pints and lots of food without having to worry about training for a change. It was great to escape with Moll for even a short while, and it was a great weekend. We even got to see some film making, as the cast of Transformers were in town filming for the next of the series of films. Thanks Moll!

In terms of training, I had two real sessions again this week, in addition to lots of steady running and a reduced long run on the Sunday.

Monday was my stock, steady 11 miler, and then Tuesday saw me back at Cottam for another grass session with the Preston Harriers group, and we got a good session in despite the stormy weather and threatening lightening overhead towards the end of the night. We did 20 minutes of effort in terms of volume.

Wednesday was an hour long easy run at 6:40 pace. Thursday was supposed to be my tempo run, but working on a bit meant that I couldn't meet up with Rob Affleck for our usual session. Instead I decided to do something a bit different. I chose to turn my usual 10 mile loop into a fartlek exercise, with a 15 minute warm up leading into 7 x 4 minute efforts off a 1 minute jog recovery, and finished off with a 10 minute cool down. The session was a big success, as I completed the 10 mile loop in under an hour, inclusive of all the easy running, and hitting an average pace of 5:11 on each of my 'efforts'.

Friday was a steady ten miler, Saturday was obviously my rest day and Sunday was a 15 mile long run, at a slightly quicker rate, ticking over at 6:11 pace on average throughout.

Total mileage for the week: 64

Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:26

Total mileage so far this month (September): 180

Total mileage so far 2016: 2417

Average miles per day 2016: 9.30