Doctor doctor.....

Sometimes I feel like a teepee then other times I feel like a wigwam....
Ah yes I can see what the problem is, the doctor said....
You're two tents


Following Sundays half marathon race, on Monday I felt I should do nothing or just go for a jog.  So I just went for a jog of about 5 or 6 miles.
Tuesday I didn't feel like doing owt tough so I jogged with Scamp for about 75 minutes.
Wednesday I felt I should be doing something a bit harder, like reps, but I wanted to do them on Thursday really, so Wednesday I ran my 5 mile loop. I thought I was going to record a decent time but a timecheck at half a mile of 3:15  then one mile at 6:36 suggested something wasn't right. I guess it was just the remnants of the half marathon in my legs and by the second half of the run I was much nearer 6 pace than 6:30.


Thursday I met up with Darren at the track for 5 x 1mile.
1) Eased myself into the session - 6:02
2) steady effort without pushing -5:45
3) real good effort throughout - 5:34
4) as rep 3 and hoping to match it - 5:30
5) took it very steady - 5:44
Again faster than the previous week but then so it should be compared to the Millcroft mile with its corners and climb (and its 9 extra metres compared to 4 track laps)

On Friday I was  enjoying my walk with Scamp so much that we stayed out for ages and I decided that the extra walking could be in place of the steady 5 miles I had planned.

Saturday was long run day. 3 full laps of the hilly Talkin circuit was the plan. The best laid plans should allow for last minute changes though and after sleeping late I opted to save the travelling time and just run 20 miles from home instead. I could probably have found a 20 mile circuit on my old Garmin log from previous years but that would have also have meant carrying my drink and gel for 20 miles too.
The easier option was to run my 10 mile circuit twice (Two tens).

One tent,  one van, one marathon veteran

Without any hills to speak of I figured 7 minute miling would be the pace to aim for but I also wanted to run faster for the second circuit. Twice during circuit one I timed a two mile section at about 7:00 to 7:05 pace - spot on. My time for 10 miles was just over 70 minutes and I felt like I had scarcely done a thing.

I didn't run much harder for lap two - just a bit more concentration throughout. At 15 miles I still felt very fresh indeed and I had knocked a minute (12 secs/mile) off my time to that point compared to lap one.
At 18 miles I was feeling fairly tired and was sweating liberally with the effort required to run miles 17-19 in 13 minutes. The final result was 2hrs 18mins  and a few seconds or about 6:55 pace.

I hadn't exerted myself to any huge degree doing the 20 miles so today (Sunday) I joined my pal Popsy for his 10 mile effort run. He was aiming to run 6:50 miling and actually managed about 6:40. I decided not to be silly and risk injury by overdoing things so at 4 miles I stopped, stretched out a bit then walked and jogged around slowly until Popsy had got to the turnaround point and then ran back to where I had stopped. Without this run I would probably just have jogged in the park with Scamp and that would have been a good recovery run, but 8 miles easy is even better I think.