As I'm slowly gaining experience and getting to know my body that bit more, I'm starting to learn signs of fatigue, general tiredness and when to reign things back in a little bit.
I will always race as often as I can, because that's just who I am and what I love to do. But hopefully, now I am starting to plan things a bit better and actually put together more of a structure to help me stay in the best possible shape for when I do race. Instead of racing just for the sake of it, I am trying to be a little more sensible and selective of the ones I do choose.
In the past I have tended to peak a little bit too soon when I have been training towards specific races, for instance last year I was flying up until two weeks prior to Leeds Abbey Dash and I had a shocker on the day - with hindsight, back to back halves in the October had killed my speed throughout November and December. Also earlier this year it was a similar case as I felt leggy at Cheshire 10k having done the Blackpool interclub a few days before. So this time I am going to try and be a bit cuter about things as I target some more pb's before the end of the calendar year.
As a result, this week I took the decision to give the final interclub race of this season a miss, as for me personally it was something of a dead rubber - with the individual championship already in the bag and the Wesham men's team already cut adrift of any hope of winning the team title. That meant that I was able to have a proper speed session on the Tuesday and keep up with my tempo on the Thursday, as I look to build towards the winter season.
I also decided rather reluctantly to cancel my plans of taking on the Langdale Half Marathon this weekend, as I questioned my own judgement about my priorities and reasoning behind wanting to do that race. Although it is one that I have looked at a number of times in the past and is a challenge that I would love to do one day, I decided that the timing was just a bit wrong for me right now. As I had intended on doing Langdale, I also missed the North West Road Relays which was a shame as I do love the team events.
Having felt tired at the beginning of the week, I did a steady 11 miles on Monday, before having a very enjoyable speed session on the grass with the Preston Harriers youngsters on Tuesday, with a 10 minute tempo, followed by 7 x 2 minute efforts off a minute recovery. Considering how tired my legs had felt the day previous, I was delighted with how this session went.
Wednesday was a recovery run, followed by an 8.5 mile tempo run on Thursday at 5:25 pace. Again I felt surprisingly strong towards the end of this run, and managed to increase the pace to below 5 minute mileing in the final mile. Hopefully this shows that my endurance is in a good place as I am feeling stronger as runs go on.
Friday was again a shorter recovery run, with Saturday intended to be my long run day this week. However I felt weak and decided to instead just stick to an easy hour of running and delayed my long run to the Sunday. I ran without looking at my watch and just let myself find a natural rhythm and pace, free from the pressures of timing. So I was shocked to find that I ran 6:10 pace average throughout my 16 mile loop to complete another strong week of training.
I would like to take a moment to congratulate the Wesham women's team on their series victory in the Interclub, earning local bragging rights over the other clubs for the year. Hopefully one day our men's team can follow suit...
Total mileage for the week: 72
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:25
Total mileage so far this month (September): 116
Total mileage so far 2016: 2353
Average miles per day 2016: 9.30
