Week 1 Training . . . DONE !!

Week 1, Session 4 - Recovery Run (3.5 Miles)
              Session 5 - Long Run (9 Miles)

After spending Saturday morning getting cold and wet watching my boys at football training, I wasn't overly looking forward to going out for a run in the same conditions in the afternoon. It was only a 30 minute recovery run but it wasn't as easy as it should've been.  It was very windy and for the first mile my breathing was all over the place until I managed to get sheltered.  Somehow I managed to complete the run with an average heart rate just outside of the required zone.  I felt very heavy legged during the evening so I did some stretching and massage to try and wake them up a bit ready for today's long run.

I'm happy to say that this afternoons long run was much better.  Conditions were much improved with the sun shinning and much less wind.  My average heart rate was slightly higher than it should've been for a long run, but this was due to it going up when running into a headwind.  I ended up running 9 miles in 1hour 18 minutes instead of the planned 8.5 so that I could listen to the end of the football match that I was listening to on the radio as I ran.

So, I've successfully reached the end of my first week of training without any signs of weakness from my knee that has given me so many problems over the last few months.  Hopefully I can continue to progress as well when the mileage steps up over the coming weeks.

Week 1 Summary - 26.25 miles : 3hrs 42 mins

Session 1 - Recovery Run - 3.5 Miles
Session 2 - 3 x 5 Mins Threshold Intervals - 5.75 Miles
Session 3 - 2 x 5 Mins Kenyan Hills - 4.5 Miles
Session 4 - Recovery Run - 3.5 Miles
Session 5 - Long Run - 9 Miles