I got the week off to a solid start with a steady 11.5 mile run on Monday evening, packing some much needed longer miles to get he week's mileage off to a good start. Pace-wise, this run was nothing special, but I'm starting to learn at last that not every run needs to be blasted out, but that sometimes it is more about time on feet and controlling the session.
Speaking of which, Tuesday's track session was probably my best controlled track session I've done to date in my opinion. I had set out to do between 6-8 x 1000m depending on how the session went and the sort of pace I was managing to record. I did this off a 200m jog as part of a 90 second recovery. It was a session that I had to do on my own, so I was aware that mentally it would be difficult to sustain a high tempo pace and push myself through the pain barrier. I had anticipated that I would be looking to record rep times ranging anywhere between 3:00 and 3:10 as I haven't done too much real track work in recent weeks and I was unsure just what level my top end speed would be at.
However, having started off with a solid first rep of 2:56, in which I actually found myself deliberately slowing up through the final 50 metres to ensure I didn't use up too much energy, I seemed to grow in confidence and control throughout. My next couple of reps followed the same pattern, with me going through 400m and 800m with splits of 1:11 and 2:22 respectively, and both the third and fourth rep saw me record finishing times of 2:56 once again, with a similar easing off in the final stretch.
Rep 4 saw me record a 2:58, followed by a 2:57 on rep 5. By this point I was starting to feel the strain and I decided to call it a day after the sixth repetition, I ended fairly strongly though with a 3:00 finishing effort. Finishing off with an average of 2:57, it is one of the strongest sessions I can remember doing on my own and I came away feeling enthused ahead of November's upcoming races. I just hope to get the rub of the green win the weather through the month now - no gales like this time last year please!
Wednesday was a slow, hour long recovery run.
On Thursday me and coach Rob did a 2 x 2 mile session, off a 5 minute jog recovery. We couldn't have run it more consistently, with mile splits of 5:05, 5:05, 5:05 and 5:05, without clicking into race mode, which is a good sign again.
Friday was an early morning easy run, as was Saturday.
On Sunday, I rounded off the week with a late autumn afternoon long run down the lanes and bypass (the clock change nearly caught me out!) and I was pleased to progress nicely through the run, reaching 14 miles at 6:09 average pace, before easing off into the last two miles to finish off with an average pace of 6:15 for the 16 miles in total.
Total mileage for the week: 74
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:40
Total mileage so far this month (October): 300
Total mileage so far 2016: 2820
Average miles per day 2016: 9.34
