T 10.5 miles (7:11mm), 6 miles HA (7:33mm)
W 8 miles including 6X10s flat out hill sprints (7:26mm), 6 miles HA (7:27mm)
T 12 miles including XC Fartlek (6:18mm), 5.5 miles (7:23mm)
F 10 miles (7:44mm), 5.5 miles (7:25mm)
S 6.5 miles (HA) (6:54mm)
S 17.5 miles (6:09mm)
Total 100 miles (7:04mm)
Weight 142.8lbs
Aerobic efficiency 984 beats per mile Vs 971 beats per mile
After last week's Stockport 10 I knew I would be a bit tired so decided to run really easily for any day that wasn't a session. This is reflected in the relatively slow average pace of this week's mileage. That said I was obviously keen to pick up the mileage with the Ribble Valley race just over two weeks away.
I managed to get in a couple of sessions through the week with the first on Thursday, following a run on Wednesday with six 10s flat-out hill sprints. It was nice that this session was to be on the grass. My first XC session this season. I would like to race well at the County Champs, Northern's and National, hence why it was about time to introduce some of this stuff again. 
After a good nine months of running on the road it was a bit of a shock to the system to be running hard on boggy grass. The session was 6mins, 3X2mins, 6mins, 3X2mins, 6Mins with the plan to run the 6 minute efforts around 10k effort and the 2 minutes around 5k effort. The session went well and showed that the easy running up until Thursday had helped me recover from last week's race. As a road runner it is funny when you first get back on the grass as it is just a lot slower despite the effort! I am hoping that these sessions and the forthcoming races will help toughen me up a bit! Thanks to my darling wife, Hania for the snaps!
The second session was something that I was dreading a little! I wanted to do a hilly long run with some effort. Based on last week's race and how I generally fair on hills I thought it was sensible to move away from the flat for a change for a more challenging long run. I had planned to do around 17/18 miles but with 5 laps of the local park at c Marathon effort with a couple of minutes standing recovery. The park is set on quite a sizeable hill which means the first mile is downhill and the second mile is pretty much straight up. I was questioning my sanity on the first rep as it felt so hard, even the downhill bit! The legs were like jelly after the second one so I decided I would do one more rather than the full five. I then finished the run with a three mile stretch at a steady pace (5:50s) which felt much harder than it would have had I just run the whole thing on the flat at the same pace. I did find this run very tough and I think I found it tough not because I wasn't recovered or today was a 'bad day' but simply because I tend to avoid hills wherever possible! So in retrospect I absolutely loved it as it feels like hills could be a big chink in my armoury and if I can improve it (along with my ability over the Country) then this will surely make me a better runner so come London next year I will have that strength to get me home those last few miles when it's needed most.
So one more big week, before I start easing off significantly over the following 10 days to freshen up for Ribble Valley.
As a final point I saw the results come in from the Telford 10k and it is great to see hard working athletes such as Carl Hardman (clocked his first ever sub 30 10k!) and others working their socks off to break through new barriers. I am truly excited by what is happening in the sport at the moment and take such inspiration from all athletes working as hard as they can to reach their goals.
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