A run in the "Garden of England".

20-04-2010
Tue:PM 5.15 miles (:38) Hornchurch Country Park.,  Fartlek run today after resting on Monday @7:37 min/mile pace

21-04-2010
Wed:PM 5.2 miles (:46) Hornchurch Country Park., Nice recovery run today due to legs feeling slight ache after previous session  @8:55 min/mile pace.

22-04-2010
Thu:AM 9.1 miles (1:12) Hornchurch Country Park., Great run today. Perfect conditions, beautiful sunset and got into the flow very quickly with this one. The miles seemed to just fly by that I felt I could have sustained this for a few more miles but darkness set in so decided to head home from the park  @7:56 min/mile pace.

23-04-2010
Sun:AM 23 miles (4:13) Vanguard Way Trail., Long run today was again the highlight of the week. I met up with Jerry after talking the day before about running a stage of the London to Brighton ultra race in Kent/Surrey with an out and back run between Westerham and Forest Row. We ended up parking the cars at the Grasshopper Pub near Westerham around 6:45am and proceeded to catch the trail literally across the road, perfect. We started off at a healthy sub 9 minute mile pace chatting about all the normal topics two runners talk about when first meeting. We were very much enjoying ourselves then we came across the first of many dog walkers who said to us "The London Marathon is the other way". We smiled and carried on but every time we met another walker they would say the same thing. Did no one have anything else to say!

I don't know if it's a British thing yet it appeared that everyone we met wanted to crack the obvious joke in the hope they get a response. Are us British that predictable! However we made fun of it and made a bet of how many times people would ask us. Neither of us won :-). Jerry gave me my first lesson in map reading and I thought I had some success although we did lose our bearing a couple of times resulting in bonus miles! The time did seem to go quickly though and as I had to be back by 11am we didn't quite make Forest Row but none the less it was an absolutely brilliant run with the perfect opportunity to get some quality miles in and run with a like minded individual amongst the beautiful Kent countryside. I wish I had taken pictures but I am sure I will get another opportunity soon to do so.  Even though we had walking breaks, hills and stopped to read the map we still held a healthy pace @10:56 min/mile.  

Total
-Miles 42.6
-Hours 6hr 50min

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Overall the week turned out to be a good one despite overall mileage dropping down however when looking at my sessions this week there is a lot of quality in there especially the Long Run. I loved the fact that I did my long run in a different location and with another runner as it seemed to make the run more vibrant and it felt that the run was quite manageable especially as I felt strong towards the end of it. I feel quite fresh today and the legs are feeling very good indeed. I think that some credit is due here to some new supplements I was trying out both during my run and for my post run recovery drinks.


The supplements were kindly supplied to me by Wayne at YourSportsFuel and I will be providing a full review of these later this week on my blog later but I quickly have to say that if you haven't heard of or tried their products I advise you to visit their site and make an order. More on that later this week.


This week I plan on doing more of the good quality runs this past 3 weeks and ramp the mileage up to around 60 miles. The long runs will probably either be a 5-6hr run on sunday or a back to back session on Sat/Sun (4hr and 3hr run). The North Downs trail is not far from me however I only intend on doing a 25-35 mile run once or twice before the Lakeland event in July so maybe I might have to wait a few weeks before returning. After the weekend my confidence in running has reached a new high this year as I feel good even after almost 4.25 hours on the move and I certainly feel that I can bank a 5-6hr run. 

Viva la Long Run! Happy running guys.