First Toe Nail Casualties of the Year !!!

Week 6, Session 1 - 6 x 5 mins Threshold Intervals (9 miles)
              Session 2 - 30 mins Recovery Run (3.5 miles)
              Session 3 - 5 x 5 mins Kenyan Hills (7 miles)

Well I'm 6 weeks into the training program and the miles are coming thick and fast and it would appear that Sunday's long run has provided me with my first 2 toe nail casualties of the year.  I think the pounding I gave my feet during the quick sharp decents early in my 14.5 miler are the cause.  I managed to go all of last year without losing any nails for the first time since I started running, but this is the earliest I've ever suffered.  They are currently very purple and sore, but I know the soreness won't last long and then they'll just go 'dead'.

I felt fantastic during Tueday's lunchtimes interval session and that was reflected in my interval times.  They were all comfortably run at 10K pace rather than my target tempo pace.  I know I should've slowed up, but each time I did I found myself naturally creeping back up to 10K pace again.  This is probably because my natural tempo pace is quicker than my target based on the time I'm going for in the marathon.  I decided not to fight it and let myself go for once, because I was feeling good and the music I was listening to just made me want to run quickly.

For the first time since week 1 of the training I have 5 sessions in a week and Wednesday's run was the additional session.  The way I felt on this recovery run couldn't have been any further away from how I'd felt the previous day.  I got up early and went for my run at 6:30am because I knew I couldn't fit it in at lunchtime or in the evening and I felt quite tired.  My toes were feeling very sore and I ended up running the slowest I've run for a couple of years.  It didn't really matter because it was only a recovery run, but I did feel awful.

Thursday lunchtimes Kenyan Hills session was also a bit of a struggle.  I was extremely tired after a late night and a few Guinnesses and that combined with me not having my usual mid morning banana and running the first interval far too quickly I was soon wishing I stayed sat at my desk.  This session involved running up and down a 1 minute climb at tempo pace 30 times including 1 minute recoveries between sets and the thought of doing 24 more after making myself tired after the first 6 nearly made me give up . . . but I am determined to complete all my sessions during this training program, so I soldiered on.  I managed to run the following 3 intervals at the correct pace, but my final 2 were way off the mark.

Next weekend I've got a Half Marathon near Stratford-upon-Avon which is nearly a 2 hour drive from here.  Spending that length of time sat in a car doesn't sound like very good pre-race preparation to me, so today I maded the decision to book a Travel Lodge (nice and cheap) a bit closer to the event which is going to make things much easier on the day.

Today was a welcome rest day after 3 back to back days of running, but back on it tomorrow, albeit a short recovery run.