What a great week! Despite having a rest day during week 27, I still managed to get all 80 miles done. Yesterday's 10.4 mile run in the North Pennines was done in even worse conditions than last Sunday. I didn't think it could get any worse! That wind just seems to get stronger every week! To keep me on my toes, I decided to race against myself from last Sunday's run using the Virtual Training Partner feature on my GPS watch. I was never really aware of the time or distance on any part of the run, just how far ahead or behind I was.
On the way out, the wind was constantly in my face and a downpour of rain made the whole route quite unpleasant to run in. It was no surprise that once I got to the half way point I was 1/2 mile behind my virtual self from last week. There had been absolutely no let up in the wind but I did hope to use it to my advantage on the way back where I knew it would be behind me. It took me until 1 mile from the end to overtake my virtual self. That was mile 76 for the week! I can't say how overjoyed I was at this point knowing that I'd managed to put in as good a performance at the end of a tough week as I had at the start. The last 1.4 miles were a formality and I reached the ford at Stanhope in 01:54:34. This was over a minute quicker than last week.
Later on in the day, I did a slow 3 mile run on the treadmill. This had the desired effect of leaving very few aches and pains in my legs today. That 3 miles brought the total for the week nicely to 80. That's a new landmark in training for me but still 30 miles off where I need to be running by the Summer.
So that was week 27. Next week I will be spending some time in the gym with Mark Fleming, doing a few spinning classes and running about 20 or so miles if I can find the time. The following week I'll be having a go at running 85 miles. At the time of writing, I feel that I have a good chance of succeeding. Confidence levels are high but the desire to improve and run even further and faster is even higher.
Later on in the day, I did a slow 3 mile run on the treadmill. This had the desired effect of leaving very few aches and pains in my legs today. That 3 miles brought the total for the week nicely to 80. That's a new landmark in training for me but still 30 miles off where I need to be running by the Summer.
So that was week 27. Next week I will be spending some time in the gym with Mark Fleming, doing a few spinning classes and running about 20 or so miles if I can find the time. The following week I'll be having a go at running 85 miles. At the time of writing, I feel that I have a good chance of succeeding. Confidence levels are high but the desire to improve and run even further and faster is even higher.
