Once again I have put words into action and after a sterling effort this week I've managed to get 49.15 miles in so far. Trainer and mentor Mark Fleming (pictured left) was in touch yesterday offering advice and encouragement and we are both hopeful I can reach the target of 65 miles this week.
I'm writing this, early on Saturday morning and there is little physical evidence that I ran home yesterday. I'm really pleased about that and that tells me a lot about my ability to recover. It was a cold and wet 15.75 miles from Gosforth to Shotley Bridge and I ended up running in the dark. 2 years ago when I was training to run from John O'Groats to Lands End these distances and conditions were very new to me. Now, however, it's just part and parcel of a day's running. I've developed an attitude of "just getting on with it" no matter what the weather wants to throw at me. Getting the mileage done is the main thing. I'm not that fussed if it's done in rain, snow or shine. As it happens, I wore only 1 layer (a Run Geordie Run t-shirt of course) for an 8.4 mile run on Wednesday in very mild conditions.
On Thursday, I recorded a PB for 5 miles of 00:39:41 (I put it down to the new Brooks trainers). I hadn't set out to do a PB but when you are in such esteemed running company as Jeff Oliver, Carlton Fletcher, Patrick Aynsley-Smythe and Carl Hudson you just tend to get a bit carried away. It is at this point where I say "I'll not be beating that one for a while"!
And so to today, where I will be on Tynemouth Beach at 9am for the regular Beach Bootcamp workout (Pop down if you fancy it). This will be followed by a sensible amount of efforts up the steps in King Edwards Bay. I managed a new record of 12 last week. As with previous steps efforts during my "running weeks" I'm anticipating a very tough time of it. It's not going to be pretty! Any energy I have left after that will be used on an 8.5 mile run from the Grand Hotel to St Mary's Lighthouse and back. That will leave 7.35 miles to be done tomorrow to make 65 for the week. Wish me luck!
