Week Commencing Monday 2nd November

Monday
AM 30:46 @ 8:47 easy Post HM

Tuesday
Rest day - drove to Oxford- ChCh social - too much red wine (my nemesis)

Wednesday
AM 64:31 at 7:13 per mile steady. Really nice run up the canal and back through Godstow with Matt, Jess and Hayley with Anupam joining in from time to time.
PM 41:23 at 10:01 per mile v. easy - absolute shuffle with MC gurk - nice chat though!

Thursday
AM 15 warm up, 30 minute tempo @5:35 per mile, 22:15 warm down. FIrst session post HM so took it very easy - ran with Carl and we several laps of Uni Parks at a comfortable rhythm- very pleased with how relaxed this felt.
PM 39:45 recovery at 9:08 per mile - hate running in the rain but this wasn't too bad.

Friday
AM 40 recovery at 9:01 per mile- met up with college mates previous night and quiet night ended up with me leaving the night club when it closed... avoid anything called a "happy" bucket.
PM 40 easy at 7:25 per mile after driving home.

Saturday
PM 25 w.u. RAF vs. EAA vs. Filthy Tabs race at RAF Halton 30:35 8th 17 w.d. (65)

Sunday
PM 1:50:34 steady at 6:36 per mile - first half done about 7:00 and then dropped pace without meaning to to 6:00 for most second half. 6:0x pace felt incredibly easy and finished the run very strongly.

Total Running: 505 minutes

An odd week coming as it did post HM and with my trip to Oxford. Total volume is a little down on what I'd hope but not particularly worried about that as it would only have been a second run on the Monday or Tuesday of about 35 minutes which in the big scheme I decided would be a poor move due to the HM and decided to let my legs recover a little bit more. Legs were still a bit sore on Wednesday but the shuffle helped that and then the Thursday tempo was very pleasing with how relaxed it was- my true tempo pace has almost certainly dropped to more like 5:25 rather than 5:30 I think - I'm sure that a combination of little sleep on Thursday (and not a great amount on Friday either) with the tempo affected Saturday's race.

Saturday was my debut as team manager and really enjoyed it and thought the squad did superbly with particularly good runs coming from Carl and Paul I would say. In addition to have 4 of us finishing within 10 seconds showed that the squad was all fairly balanced. Personally I was quite disappointed being ~20-30 seconds down on where I would hope to be- I set off extremely fast, then died very badly in the woods before being caught by the rest of the East runners before rallying and staying in fairly close contact. In retrospect I probably should have pushed on a bit more when feeling good in the second half of the race.

When I consider the poor tactics (well- it didn't work but I did intend to try a fast start), lack of sleep and maybe some residual soreness in the legs from last weekends 5k/HM double I reckon it was an okay run but I definitely hope to run much better in a month or so's time.

The Sunday run by contrast was awesome- first time doing a 110 minute run as a "regular" long run as opposed to a one-off longer effort. First 45 minutes was very relaxed at 7:00 in gloves and jacket, stopped for a minute to grab some water at home before carrying on - without realising it I must have been running faster even though I felt very easy and for the last 40 minutes or so was dropping 6:0x and sub 6 minute miles. Very pleasing to average 6:36 and feel very strong though doubt I'll be able to do it long-term. 2 more 110 minute runs and then will be attacking the two hour mark which will be a real indicator of how I'll deal with marathon training.

To cover 20 miles I reckon I'll be running between 2:00 and 2:30 depending on how I feel from day to day- the idea of during a 3 week training block doing a 2:30 time on feet run over 20 miles @7:30 per mile, a 2:00 run at 6:00 or probably not a huge amount off marathon effort (as untapered and not as fit as I will be come marathon day!) and a shorter 3 mile warm up, 10 miles @ MP, 2 mile warm down effort- seems very tempting but that's just me ruminating!

So- for a post HM week covered ~67 miles with a not great race, good tempo and very good long run. Not bad at all!