Week Starting 29th Oct

Another week has already passed, getting so close to Portugal now, and my miles are getting more and more.

Mon, Oct 29, 2012 6:36 PM
9.19 mi, 1:09:49 (7:36/mi) - Woke up this morning and wanted to get out and go for 5 miles before work but had a real bad pain in my left side groin, to the point it hurt to walk up the stairs so I didn't end up going before work but just after. Got home from work and the pain was still there, but only when hyper-extending. Went out anyway just to try and get some mileage in, in the hope it would ease up as we got going, and it did. We actually ended up starting off quite fast for us (Edgars and I), the groin was fine as we weren't going at any pace to strain it at all. We headed off towards our new 10 mile winter route, out to Werrington and saw Mikey on his run too. 

Tue, Oct 30, 2012 6:27 PM
2.91 mi, 23:28 (8:03/mi) - Warm up, ran to the track and then did a few more laps with the lads. Normal strides, stretches and drills.

Tue, Oct 30, 2012 7:11 PM 
2 x 1mile, 8 x 400m - 4:59, 5:10. 70, 70, 70, 69, 70, 70, 70, 68 (5.01 mi)
First session I've gone in a while and my legs literally couldn't go any faster. The first mile seemed to go okay, I just sat at the back of the group really and had a nice tow round from Aaron, Lloyd and Edgars (for once) then had a lap jog before the second mile. I was just trying to do the same as before and get towed round but my legs really felt tired and lost Edgars and Aaron as they hit 5:00. Another lap job took us into the 400s which for the first one felt bizarre with the pace change. Even at race pace I've not been running at this pace (around 4:35-4:40/mi). I felt uncomfortable at 70s but the legs didn't seem to want to go any faster, just wanted to get round and completely them all though so happy I did that.

Tue, Oct 30, 2012 7:50 PM 
3.86 mi, 32:31 (8:25/mi) - Long warm down, ended up doing a few laps around the outside, and then went out with Sean's group and then me and Edgars ran home. Good to get the weekly mileage up though, had a good stretch when I got home. Happy with how the session went as a whole.

Wed, Oct 31, 2012 5:27 PM
9.59 mi, 1:14:04 (7:43/mi) - This was horrific. So wet and windy and full of little shits trick or treating. Basically ended up going down our new winter route but just backwards with a slight variation. It was strangely not too cold but the wind on the way back was awful. All the runs so far this week have been quicker than me and Edgars normally go which should set me in good stead for Portugal as the other lads are doing the slow runs so much faster than us. Felt a lot better tonight than I did last night, wanted to go for a run again this morning but I started work at 8 (bus at 7) and couldn't motivate myself or Edgars to run at 5:30am.   

Thu, Nov 1, 2012 9:39 AM
4.89 mi, 36:19 (7:26/mi) - Day off today so managed to get two runs in. First one we went down to Advance Performance to pick up some longer spike pins as we struggled with the shorter ones at Derby. Annoyingly only taking a £20 note with me managed to get me 16 £1 coins in change will was brilliant to run home with. Not sure what happened with my Garmin on this run either, with 2045 ft elevation in Peterborough... Felt a lot better than I did on Tuesday and was making great usage of the Fenland 10M wooly hat.

Thu, Nov 1, 2012 6:34 PM
7.44 mi, 55:03 (7:24/mi) - Edgars and I headed to the track tonight so we could try and go for a run with a few others guys, in the end we just went out on our own as nobody else fancied it. Same as this morning really, legs felt really good. Had a good stretch after the run and then did a few strides to keep sharp for the relays on Saturday. Got a couple of sub 7 min/mile to catch a couple of the old guys up and then ended up running in with them which was better than nothing.

Fri, Nov 2, 2012 7:29 AM 
6.00 mi, 47:25 (7:54/mi) - Kept it a bit shorter today so the legs aren't heavy for tomorrow. We went on a bizarre route out towards Stanground and around the houses. Started off quite slowly, but the calves felt a bit crap so we stopped for a stretch after about 2 miles. They did ease off a bit but still didn't feel as good as I did yesterday. Ended up running up and down my street just to make it up to 6mi as well *OCD*. 

Sat, Nov 3, 2012 1:54 PM  
2.09 mi, 18:42 (8:57/mi) - Bit disappointed with how the warm up went, Edgars, Mikey and myself just did a lap of the course but was hard to get any continuous running as we were running on the course. After the weather in the last few days I had expected it to be a complete mud bath but it wasn't too bad at all. Went off to do a few drills and strides, felt good before the start of my leg.

Sat, Nov 3, 2012 2:50 PM
3.11 mi, 17:39 (5:40/mi) - Edgars went off on Leg 1 and handed over to me in 77th, with the vision of the start pretty poor it was hard to see when he was coming but I was quite lucky not to get caught up. As soon as I saw him near the line I was off, immediately fast start on the downhill and in front of me was a good string of people to try and chase. I was slightly cautious at the start as I knew the course was quite tough and didn't want to blow up. Within the first 20 seconds a lad from Blackheath came past me but his pace was short lived as I had already caught and overtaken him going into the woods. There was maybe 10 seconds to the next person from here which took a while to catch, entering the start of the second lap. I felt really strong on the hills which was really pleasing as Derby I felt useless up them. Start of the second lap and I was +3 places, but 2 guys came past me at a fair pace, too fast for me to latch onto. At this point my legs started to feel the pace and I did feel to be backing off a bit (didn't actually wear my watch so just guessing). Coming out of the woods it's always a tougher section of the course and I did catch a few more places but lost some in the process. Coming back down the hill towards the last section of the course and we were quite tightly packed. Managed to get one more place back up the last hill which I made to be a +1 overall.

Sun, Nov 4
Unfortunately I didn't manage to get out for a run today, I was hoping to try and get out for two runs, a 7 and an 8 just due to working in the day. In the end I was so tired when I woke up I didn't get out, and after work I had so much to get ready for Portugal I didn't manage any runs 

Total Weekly Mileage - 55.59 miles
Good week this week, happy with how it all went. I knew I'd struggle on Saturday over 5k just because I've not done any speed work in a while, so 17:39 was about right I think. I was 13 seconds off Edgars and 3 seconds slower than Mikey, which really does set us up for a really good run a races in the next few months. I'm off to Portugal tomorrow, but should be taking my laptop out there so will be keeping up to date with the blog, and if I have any wifi I'll publish it next Sunday.
Hopefully I should be getting up to 80-90 miles a week next week with a few sessions in there as well. Next race is Leeds Abbey Dash, the weekend after I come back so I hope to get in my best shape so far for that and can hopefully get in the mid 32s-33s.
Had a really exciting phone call this evening as well... More information to follow on this, so watch this space closely! :D

Hope you enjoyed this weeks post, I will get a good 10 days training in whilst in Portugal, enjoy the shitty UK weather.