Green all the way, no red this time!!!!

18^th to 23^rd February

This was a very good weeks running. Sitting down on the couch in front of the goggle box reflecting on a satisfying week. I broke no records, achieved no PB’s or any fast training times but I managed to reach every target I set up in my spreadsheet. Like most running geeks out there I have all my running plans laid out in excel format – highlighting each run in green and each missed workout in red. In each box i write my mileage, pace and heart rate. From the period December to January there wasn’t a week where I highlighted a workout in red, meaning I was missing out on least one workout a week. This week and the last 2 weeks before this things have been different. Whether it was post marathon blues, lack of rest, over reaching, over training or over the hill the months  between December and January were not happy (running) months. At no point did I feel really relaxed or happy after a run.

This time things are different so here’s hoping I am on a good road back. Back is feeling a lot better. Next week is Ballycotton ten and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling overly  excited about it. I won’t be pushing for a PB so I might run it as a marathon pace run with a 3 mile warm up before hand. That would be a excellent workout and may set me up for possible future challenges ahead. I would be very happy with that. I have a plan in mind and will be keeping it to myself this time – a different tactic from Dublin where I told everyone my plans by way of motivation. This time each plan is short term. Let’s  keep that spreadsheet green!!!

Monday – 3 mile recovery run – high HR 153

Tuesday  2 mile warm – 3 mile tempo (7.08, 7.09, 7.15) – 1.7 jog home at 7.40 pace. Very happy with this. Far from perfect, far from it but solid stuff. 6.7 miles.

Wednesday – 8 mile jog up in Mayfield. Last 4 miles were very very hard. Running uphill into bitter cold winds and a ever rising heart rate but glad to get the job done. Hr for first 4 miles was 141. Hr for last 4 miles was 161.

Thursday – Club session. 2 mile warm with 10 X 2 sprints (I reached 0.31-0.33 of a mile between each sprint) and 2 mile cooldown. 7 miles in total.

Friday – rest

Saturday – Planned a 9 minute paced run over 12 miles. Never really ran much faster than that, it was very cold. Was happy to run a typical LSR. This run was all about the HR. Felt strong enough to run 13 miles at average pace of 8mins52 seconds. Hr was around 146 which was great. Ran this on my own. Will be busy on most Sundays for next 4 weeks so no chance of running long runs with the club for a while. That’s fine as  I need to get strong mentally and physically. 12 miles.

A good week.

Miles for week 37 miles.