Week 7, Session 1 - Recovery Run (4 Miles)
Session 2 - 4 x 5 Mins Threshold Intervals (6 Miles)
Session 3 - Recovery Run (3.5 Miles)
Session 4 - Race Half Marathon (13.1 Miles)
Session 5 - Recovery Run (3.5 Miles)
It's been a busy week and I didn't get chance to write a mid-week blog entry, so I'll cram it all into this post.
Week 7 marks the halfway point of my training program for the marathon and this weeks running was geared up for a small taper to the half marathon that I ran yesterday. I've been getting quite used to a routine of an interval session on a Tuesday, followed by a hill session on a Thursday and long run on Sunday with one or two recovery runs inbetween, so this weeks jiggling about of days felt slightly strange.
I decided that fitting recovery runs in at lunchtimes on Tuesday and Thursday would be too much hassle as I'd have to take an extended lunch just to fit a 30 minute run in, so I got up early in the mornings and did my runs before work instead. I hate it at the time, but it's worth the effort in the end. I did my interval session at lunchtime on Wednesday instead. This was a good session, but I found it a little harder than it should've been as I think my legs were feeling the after effects of a hard 4 miles at the end of Sunday's long run.
On Friday evening I travelled to Tewkesbury where I'd be staying overnight to reduce the travel time on the morning of Saturday's race. Tewkesbury is about two thirds of the way to Stratford-upon-Avon which was where I was running the half marathon. When I got there I spent a relaxing evening getting all my kit sorted out, stretching etc. The toughest part was resisting the urge to go down to the hotel bar for a sneaky pint, but I knew it could end up turning into a few, and I didn't want to risk mucking up my performance in the race.
I woke in the morning to find it chucking down with rain, which was disappointing as I really didn't want a wet race. Luckily the race wasn't until 11am, so there was still chance for the weather to clear up. After a quick breakfast in the hotel I got on my way. As usual I arrived at the race far too early and I was one of the first to check-in and pick up my chip & number. As time went on it was becoming increasingly obvious that I was going to be the only one in fancy dress. So after an early warm up I hid in my car and got changed into my outfit and didn't emerge until I needed to go to the start line for the briefing. It didn't take long for the MC to spot me and then the banter started and continued thoroughout the race. The race started under blue skies and sunshine, so I'd got my wish of no rain and I was very happy. It was very windy, but I wasn't going to grumble about that.
All in all it was a great race. It involved running 4 laps of a course at the Shakespeare Raceway and the home straight was down the drag strip. I managed to finish in 33rd place overall (16th in my category) in a time of 1 hour 35 minutes. The main aim for entering the event was to see if I could cope with running in a big wig and the rest of the fancy dress that I plant to wear in London and I didn't find it too bad at all. The only issue I had with the wig was when I had strong head/cross winds. I've only ever entered big city races before, so doing a smaller event like this was a pleasant change. The outfit went down really well with most people there . . . I received plenty of support from the organisers, marshals, kids and other supporters, although I did hear a few groans by some guys as they were overtaken by the 'big pink fairy'. So after all this I concluded that I will definitely be wearing all of the outfit in London.
I used today's recovery run as an oportunity to start to break in my new pair of trainers. I'll just use them for recovery runs for a few weeks, before rotating them with my other pair on quality sessions.
A bit more recovery early next week, before getting back into the full swing of training. I've no more races planned before London, so I can concentrate on the matter in hand.
Week 7 Summary - 30.21 miles : 3hrs 58mins
Session 1 - Recovery Run (4 Miles)
Session 2 - 4 x 5 Mins Threshold Intervals (6 Miles)
Session 3 - Recovery Run (3.5 Miles)
Session 4 - Race Half Marathon (13.21 Miles)
Session 5 - Recovery Run (3.5 Miles)
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