Weekly Summary 16/03 and 23/03

16/03 - 22/03 Summary

Sun - 7.1 miles Hill Drills session (8:56m/m)
Mon - 7.6 miles inc 4 x 1 mile reps with 2 mins rest (6.36m/m rep avg)
Tue - 7 miles (8:50m/m)
Wed - Missed run
Thu - 3.5 miles (9:14m/m) am 7.5 miles (inc 5 x 1 km reps avg 4:05k/m)
Fri - 7.1 miles inc 6 x 100m strides (8:30m/m)
Sat - 11.8 miles (inc 9.4 miles at 7:26m/m)

Total Mileage - 51.1 (8:45m/m)

23/03 - 29/03 Summary

Sun - 16 miles (9:08m/m)
Mon - Rest
Tue - 7.7 miles (inc 5 miles at 7:12m/m)  (7:42m/m)
Wed - 8.3 miles (8:29m/m)
Thu - 8 miles (inc 6 x 800km avg 3:10) (7:51m/m)
Fri - Missed run
Sat - 6 miles (inc Hornchurch Park Run 21:47 - 7:01m/m) (7:46m/m)

Total Mileage - 46 (8:24m/m)

Well the first couple of weeks of introducing fast sessions have been a great deal of fun although my volume has taken a 30% hit mainly because of missing a couple of runs and a long run reschedule on 15/03.

It was my first time at a Park run on Saturday as I didn't make time to get out for a schedule 9-10 miles at 7:30 pace. Given I had already done two fast sessions in the week I wasn't expecting a lot. I arrived 20-30 seconds after the runners had set off so I was having to work my way through from the back of the field. The course is 80% XC in nature and the ground was wet in many places which is always fun with road shoes on!

Not knowing the course and never ran a fast 5km I didn't know how hard to push early on. I made a conscious effort to ignore my watch and just concentrate on feel. I was quickly making my way up through the field of runners and really concentrating on breathing, running form and quite frankly running hard! 5km is a sprint!

As I approached the last 200m or so I had tagged onto a runner about 15-20 meters in front of me who I hadn't managed to pass yet so with one final hard effort I was bringing the knees up really high and with my lungs practically on fire pipped him on the line. After collecting my bar code chip and passing it to the organiser I collapsed onto the ground with a feeling of wipe out.

After catching my breath my throat felt quite sore and jogged around for a 3-4 mins to ensure my legs didn't seize up. After watching a few other runners come in I said my goodbyes to some smiling faces and headed off home. I made a decision there an then that i will be back next week.

Little while later I got my result of 13th out of 96 and 21:47 so definitely some room for improvement. By running these more consistently and dropping some weight (static at 179 pounds for the last 6 weeks) I can get this time down. These sessions will certainly help with Halstead coming up in 7 weeks.

Definitely some faster stuff mixed in with the long runs over the next 3-4 weeks will definitely help and probably test me to the limit.