Week 6 – Easy week (sort of)

I had a second easy week planned this week after a couple of heavy mileage ones. It’s always hard, for me anyway, to take the foot off the pedal when your training is going so well, but the body needs rest before being able to head into the next phase and ramp the training up a notch.

I gave myself more rest days than I should have this week. Monday, Thursday and Saturday all involved no running whatsoever, which I perhaps used as my excuse to go a little harder than I otherwise would have when I did get out and run.

I felt very sluggish during my anaerobic interval workout on Tuesday, after long miles had taken their toll on my legs from the weekend. Still, I got them done and each interval was pretty consistent. Some recovery miles followed on Wednesday and I felt much fresher by Friday, so went out and ran hill repeats. I really hate hills and by the end of this workout, I was muttering some x-rated gibberish when I’d finally gotten my breath back. I know they bring so much benefit to my training though, so I’ll soldier through. I think I have three or four of these hill workouts left and then it changes.

On Sunday, I entered the Dorney Lake Half Marathon, courtesy of RunThrough.co.uk. Being an easy week, I never planned to run this one hard, instead planning to use it as a glorified Long Run to make the monotony of running 13-and-a-bit miles a little bit more interesting. However, because I’m the sort of runner that always has personal bests in the back of their mind, I threw that idea out the window after running the first 5k at a decent pace and knowing that, if I could keep it up or at least bank some minute earlier in the race, I’d be on for a new PB. 10 more miles later, I’d run 1:30:57 and knocked almost 3 minutes off of my previous best effort!

My legs are understandably pretty shot and I’m going to need to tread very carefully when training next week, but I’ve enjoyed the rest and of course the new PB this week.

Bring on Week 7!

Cheers

JM

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Here are the numbers:

Day 36 – Rest

Day 37 – 5.36 miles, 8:18/mile, 44:30 mins Anaerobic Intervals

Day 38 – 4.34 miles, 8:47/mile, 38:08 mins Recovery

Day 39 – Rest

Day 40 – 3.91 miles, 8:57/mile, 35 mins Hill Repeats

Day 41 – Rest

Day 42 – 13.1 miles, 6:55/mile, 1:30:57 Half Marathon PB @ Dorney Lake!

Total: 26.8 miles