I decided to take Friday off from training completely, making it my second day off from training in the block so far - having ran for the previous 24 days on the spin, getting in 300 miles in that time. I was also booked in for a massage on Friday, and so, being confident that I would be feeling quite fresh this weekend I decided I would have a go at a race and introduce a bit of pace work to my training programme.
I had been tipped off about Pilling 10k, and had heard that there might be some quick lads at the front end, and so I thought that it might be the ideal opportunity to try and put down a quick time.
Unfortunately, the runner that I had hoped to try and chase around (for as long as I could!) broke down on the way to the race, so it became a bit of a plan B - but more about the race later on...
The week started off with a relatively steady 11 miles on Monday, at 6:17 pace. I made a decision at the start of the week not to double up as much this week to allow me some extra sleep as I was feeling a little tired, so instead I just tagged an extra mile or two on the end of a few of my evening runs.
On Tuesday I wanted to get some pace work in, but couldn't face a trip to the track on my own for a series of long reps, so instead I decided to improvise and run my local 10.5 mile route as a fartlek session. I set my watch for a training programme of 15 minutes warm up, 5 x 5 minute reps off 3 minutes recovery and 10 minutes cool down. I figured that if I could get the whole run in at around 6 minute mile-ing, then that would mean the reps would be working out at around low 5 minute mile pace, so that was my target set.
I ended up having a very pleasing run, and my efforts recorded were at 5:09, 5:04, 5:03, 5:03 and a final easier rep at 5:30 pace. I managed to hold my pace under 6 minute mile-ing for the session overall too which was pleasing.
Wednesday was the only day this week in which I doubled up, with 4 easy miles in the morning, followed by 7.5 more in the evening.
On Thursday, myself and Affleck did our 12 mile progression run through the country lanes for a bit of a change, and having ran the 6 miles out with the wind behind us at 5:58 pace, on the turnaround I was more than happy to record an average of 5:32s on the way back into a fairly stiff headwind. I finished up with an average pace of 5:44 for the session overall, a slight improvement on the previous week.
Having had Friday off, I did feel pretty fresh on Saturday morning, and was hopeful of putting in a decent performance. I had Joe Monk for company at the front end, and we moved through the early stages of the race at a good pace, with my first two mile splits at 4:58 and 5:02, which if I could have kept it up would have equated to 31 minute 10k pace. Unfortunately though, mile 3 was a long stretch into a fairly strong headwind and my pace dropped significantly despite opening up a big gap to the rest of the field. The pace dropped to 5:18 through this mile, which put paid to any aspirations of a quick time for the race. I recovered somewhat in mile 4 with the wind in favour again, with a 5:08, but the start of the second loop saw us turn back into the same headwind through to the 5 mile mark - with that fifth mile coming in at 5:22. I recovered again in mile 6 to run a 5:06, and a decent sprint through the final stretch brought me home in under 32 minutes at least, for 31:54 - which is actually a course record so I can't knock it too much I suppose! It was a good hard and honest workout, and one which I definitely felt the following morning on my Sunday long run!
I had intended on running I excess of 22 miles for my long run this weekend, but feeling a touch leggy and lethargic from the race, I settled for 20.5 miles at a steady 6:31 pace. I will look to work this long run distance up now over the next 6 weeks, having set a decent base with six 20-22 milers now in the bank from the first half of the training block.
Total mileage for the week: 78.5
Average pace for the week (m/pm): 6:18
Total mileage so far this month (July): 359
Total mileage for 2017: 2109.5
Average miles per day 2017: 10.05
