Last week’s training included the double long run so this week the long run of the week was in a one-er.
The weather has been a bit pants with each day being either snow, slush or the other 2 frozen and icey.
I’ve had to adapt my routes in order to make sure I’ve been able to stay on my feet and not to risk injury. Couple with that the fact that in the UK we are in a further lockdown and the advice has been to “stay local” (which is a whole debate as to what that even means seems to have continued to rumble along).
The conditions meant that I didn’t feel that it was optimal to try to complete a speed session so I’ve injected a little bit of speed where the road has been clear and able (I suppose we could call it an unstructured icey conditions fartlek).
This week has looked a little like this:
Monday – 5 mile recovery run
Tuesday – rest
Wednesday – strength session & 6th on the 6th for Alfie (a little more of that in a mo)
Thursday – 5.6 miles steady
Friday – 9.1 miles
Saturday – 26.2 miles
Sunday – 4.77 miles recovery run
So, first on the blocks let’s talk a little bit about my approach for this week. The week has included lots of repetition. I have been out with my hubby on Wednesday who is currently undertaking a challenge to run the equivalent mileage to the date of the month in memory of a colleagues son, Alfie. You can find out more on his Instagram account >>click here for more information<<
I also ran my marathon on an out & back course. The route is a total of 2.2miles. Throughout the whole loop I’m never more than a mile away from home so if I slipped or needed to bail on the effort I wasn’t going to be a burden to anyone and no one can argue that that isn’t super local 😂. I reckon over this period I’ve been setting some great training in place for a backyard ultra 🤔
The marathon was all about being steady away, trying to maintain a consistent pace and making sure I was able to fuel myself well whilst on the run (yes, I had a full on picnic with me). Sandwich thins, a flapjack, a drink – I do love the whole fuelling and running thing – fusing my two loves in life!
The marathon felt well within me, I was really pleased. I didn’t have any big energy drain and didn’t struggle with any stiffness or soreness at all. My recovery capacity is really good right now. I put this down to a couple of things;
- Progressively working on my training load
- Consistency (it’s deffo key)
- Fuelling and recovery fuelling strategies
Let me know if there’s any of them you’d like me to dive into in a deeper way.
In the meantime, here’s to next week!
