A Productive Week

Monday was an 8 x 400m fast interval session. Fast it certainly was! Each 400m interval was about 6:30 min/mile and certainly got my heartrate up. But it recovered quickly and I was able to keep this pace for all 8 sessions which I was pleased about.

Wednesday was long run day. After last week, I really felt that I should try a longer distance so I set off to cover 13 miles which is the furthest I have run in one go (previously it was about 11 miles). I had set myself a pace of around 8 to 9 min/mile so that I wasn't going too slowly or quickly. My average on the main part of my run was 8:19 which was really good. My legs were so tired in the last quarter of the distance and my heartrate slowed showing that it was my legs rather than fitness that were the problem. I ran the 13 miles in 1:48:51 though which was my original predicted half marathon time a few weeks ago. I am so pleased to have completed the distance and it gives me something to work on now although I will shorten my long runs for a few weeks to be able to focus on speed.

Friday I went out and did what I thought would be a fairly easy pace interval session with intervals being around 7 mins/mile. This was tough going, but I managed to keep my average pace at just under 7 for all but one interval (that one being 7:03). My legs were really tired still after the long run, so this was really good.

Friday night I decided late on that I was going to try the 5k Saturday morning run for the first time. I arrived and was surprised to see so many people there. We set off and I probably started too quickly. I had set myself a target of 7:30 per mile and managed to keep to this for most of the race. I was chuffed to finish my first 5k in 23:27 and in at number 32! Checking my stats later I am 4th in my age group overall which is pretty amazing really. For me anyway!

One thing I need to focus on is nutrition. I am going to have to try these energy drinks and recovery drinks as I know as a veggie my diet isn't massively high in protein and I do seem to run out of energy on a race. Looking into Science in sport and High5 and will see if I can try these out and hopefully get some good results.

Focussing on intervals again this week and will probably throw in a steady 5 miles too.