This week was the first taste of a challenge, but it wasn’t due to a distance increase! Life often throws things at you and really, being kind is the way forward.

Monday

I went into the office today which was hectic. When I got home I did a few stretches then relaxed on the sofa with my kitten.

Tuesday

What an intense track Tuesday!

The session involved mile splits. When it was first announced I didn’t like the sound of it. Who wants to end their day running 3x mile splits? Haha, us apparently!

The pace we were aiming for was half marathon pace, but I admit I went at 5k pace. What made me really pleased was that my last effort was the quickest, so despite going to hard I still finished strong.

Wednesday

For my crosstraining day I did 40 minutes of BodyPump as I was off work.

I really enjoyed doing a longer session as it gave a more overall routine, with added biceps, triceps and lunge/shoulder combos. I even upped my triceps weight!

When I first started doing triceps with BodyPump I struggled with the lightest weights, but now I’ve doubled my weight and I can see myself increasing it again soon!

15 minutes on the spin bike was uneventful, but I didn’t go as hard this time haha

Thursday

Another day in the office today which meant I had to get up even earlier for my early morning run!

According to Smashrun, this was my earliest ever run. I felt it.

The plan was 50 minutes easy pace with 8 strides. Strides are short, 20 second pushes where it’s not about sprinting, it’s about focusing on form and technique. So running tall, leaning forward from the ankles and pumping those arms!

I had the easy pace down easily this morning, I ran laps outside the park and then ran by the well-lit cafe for my strides. I’m really pleased I committed to it and did it, despite the really busy day ahead.

Friday

I had stayed over in Manchester so it was another early morning (luckily not as early as yesterday!) to head back home. Unfortunately, I woke up full of cold and a bit of a headache.

The headache lingered all morning, until after personal training? Weird! I don’t know why, but sometimes exercising helps me feel much better physically when not feeling 100%!

With my headache in mind, we didn’t go crazy but we kept things strong.

Saturday

Another Saturday, another Parkrun!

I woke up still feeling naff, so I decided to just take it steady.

I set off calmly, not getting caught up in the mad rush like I normally do and focused on keeping my legs moving comfortably.

Halfway through the 1st lap, the 29 minute pacer overtook me which confused me. I knew I wasn’t going at a top effort, but I also knew I wasn’t that far back!

I kept him in my sights and on the 2nd lap I caught up with him and asked if he was going a bit fast. Turns out, he was. He got a little carried away but had hoped to motivate people to get a PB!

Now, I appreciate people volunteering to pace – it takes a lot of focus! However, I personally don’t like pacers as I do get a bit stressy and it can make or break a run for me. It’s exactly why I turn off watch alerts because again, I get distracted and can throw away a run that still could be amazing!

Despite my little side note there – I truly enjoyed parkrun this week. My own pacing was almost even. I finished comfortably and even got a better time than the previous week. I definitely put too much pressure on myself (yes, I can hear you all agree!) and running on feeling rather than pace sometimes works best for me.

Sunday

Today’s long run involved a bit of pace play.

90 minutes total – the first hour at an easy pace with the final 30 minutes at a marathon pace.

I decided to head out onto the canal to Slaithwaite and back, it’s a familiar and comfortable route without being hilly.

The 60 minutes easy was around what I expected, the first mile is all downhill so it is always a tad quicker.

The final 30 minutes at a marathon pace, well. I obviously went too quick. I didn’t mean to, but after the first ten minutes I saw how close I was to hitting a mile bang on I decided to aim to run an average of 10 minute miles.

Could I run a marathon at that pace? Not where I currently am, no way. Sometimes we just get carried away, and it’s OK to do this in training.

On race day, I’ll definitely be turning my watch onto clock view so I won’t get distracted and focus on running on feel. I’ll have everything I need by then… hopefully!

Overall Thoughts

I’ve been unwell and overly tired this week, so I am really proud with what I’ve achieved. I felt like it has been a strong week because of it. Pacing needs to calm down a little, but this is the time to even it out.

It has also been ten years this week since my dad tragically passed away from a brain tumour. It has weighed heavily on my mind, but with 13 weeks to go I’m almost halfway to my fundraising target. A very fitting tribute. If you’d like to donate, you can do so here.

I am considering adding Milky way chocolate bars to my long runs in a few weeks as I’ve heard good things about them when racing. What are your running fuel treats?