Well then! It's all set up just nicely for a successful 80 mile week. Yes 80 miles! That will be a new record for me in training if I am successful. I'm quietly confident though. In fact, I'm very very confident. Confidence levels are sky high at the moment following probably the best week of training I've had so far during this campaign. There have been 66.6 miles done so far since Sunday. Don't forget that I didn't do any running at all on Bank Holiday Monday so that mileage has been done in 5 days not 6. That rest day really put me on the back foot this week but I have responded and responded well. After Sunday's 10.4, I managed 13 on Tuesday, 9.5 on Wednesday, 18.4 on Thursday and 15.3 today. The average pace for this week has been 00:09:09 per mile. Take Sunday's slow hilly run out of the equation and you get 00:08:50 per mile. Take either of those numbers and it's still the fastest average pace I've managed during this campaign. When I get the chance, I'll be including weighted averages in my stats to give a fairer indication of pace based on the different length of runs I do each week. For now though, two things are clear. I'm running further than ever before in training and I'm running faster than ever before. Not only that, but the main principle on which my schedule is built is almost a foregone conclusion these days. i.e. NO REST, NO RECOVERY. This has certainly been put to the test this week with 12 runs done at a consistent pace with hardly any time to draw breath in between. Nice!
Tomorrow, is the final day of training for this week and all I have to do to bring this baby home is a repeat of last Sunday's tough 10.4 mile run in the Pennines followed by a warm down 3 mile run later in the day. I'll just be happy to get all of the mileage done but I will have one eye on the clock as I look to ensure that this is not only the best week yet in terms of distance but in time too. Pictured above is the 2nd climb on the run taken from the top of the 1st climb. The forecast suggests that it will be cold and wet in that part of the North Pennines tomorrow morning. I think it will be a 3 layer job with the highest tempo dance music I can find on my iPod.
Gosh! Is that the time! Right, I'm off to dream of 1860 ft worth of climbs that await in the morning. That would have been a nightmare for me in the past. But not these days!
