This was our easy week, meaning less distance to be covered each night but not necessarily slower.
Tuesday was Marathon pace night -5 miles (it was 8 last week). After a nice little warm up I belted round the circuit to record 6:20 per mile. Same pace as last weeks 8 but with a slightly lower average heart rate. I was hoping to run nearer 6:15 really though.
Wednesday was easy run night. We had been up to 9 miles recently but this night was just 8. It went off well enough. 7:03 was inside last weeks result and again, average heart rate was lower.
Since Saturdays 21miler I'd had a mild head cold and irritable cough. I hadn't felt the symptoms were severe enough to warrant missing training but by Thursday I was really snotted up quite badly and didn't feel 100%. We were at the track for 4x 1mile. I took the first one very steady indeed to record 6:02, followed by a little more input for number 2 - 5:45. I was running the first 400m of each of these reps with Milly, and on the third he ran it in 79 seconds (5:16 pace), too fast so I quit at 800m. For the fourth effort I opted to pace Milly to a 'fast' mile and ran the first 600m sheltering him from the wind. I then rested while he ran lap 3 and then helped him again for the headwind section of lap 4. He made it round in 5:18 which is his fastest mile for a year or more. I feel sure tat in the forthcoming weeks we will both be running sub 5:30 as an average for this session.
Speaking of Milly it has to be said what a remarkable comeback he has made following the injury and time off training he was forced to take last year. I wrote some time ago about how we might be too far apart in ability to train together for this Marathon. It is clear however that he has made great progress, mainly on his own, over the early winter, to reclaim a good fitness level - as there is now very little between us in terms of ability/speed.
Friday was a day off
Saturday was long run day. A mere 16miles this week. I took the opportunity to have a slightly longer lie in and begin the run later than normal. We were still finished soon after 12 and without the usual tired legs, I was looking forward to getting some jobs done in the afternoon. I was called out to work though and got nowt done. The run itself went well for me - 7:02 per mile is a little slower than last weeks 21 mile result but I saw no point in raising the effort to run a quicker average on our 'easy week'. There will be many, many chances to run hard and hurt myself in the next 12 weeks. Milly didn't have a good run. After apparently sorting out his stomach troubles by changing brand of Gels used - this week he developed two stitches following the consumption of the ice cold water he had placed on the course the previous evening (and which had more or less froze overnight.) At about 12miles we changed our route run straight home which cut it back to 15miles for the day. Milly also missed out a small section which allowed me to keep on pace whilst I caught him up again.
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