Chasing Dreams, Project 2:20 - Week 2 of 12

M 95 mins including 7X1mile (1/2 mile) (6:22mm)
T Easy 100 mins (7:41mm), 30 mins Recovery (8:47mm)
W Easy 40 mins, 2miles moderate (6:57mm)
T Recovery 30 mins (7:59mm), 75 mins including aborted session (6:43mm)
F Easy 60 mins (7:14mm), 30 mins Recovery (8:06mm)
S Easy 105 mins (7:41mm)
S 135 mins including Liversedge Half

Total 103 miles (7:06mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1020 beats per mile
Weight 144.63 lbs Vs 145.5lbs last week
Body Fat 12.3% (17.8lbs) Vs 12.43% (18.1lbs)
Lean Body Mass 83.31% (120.49lbs) Vs 83.2% (121.1lbs)
Water 62.03% (89.71lbs) Vs 61.93% (90.14lbs)

Fitness - 68.9 Vs 64.4
Fatigue - 86.4 Vs 66.4
Form - -7(Neutral) Vs 0.9(Neutral)

Fitness trending up and fatigue starting to as well.

A busy week this week with work, travelling twice to London and once over the Penines to Manchester so I was worried about how the training might go. After last week's 71 miles I thought I'd be in a position to ramp up in terms of miles and if structured correctly could squeeze in three hard runs.

I did a big session of 7X1mile on Monday. I had been hoping to do 8 but I ruined the session if I'm honest and ran the middle few a bit too quick meaning an 8th would have been futile. I averaged 5:16 for the efforts which is decent but I would have rather eight  8 at 5:20s as more time spent around my current Lactate Threshold will help build the fitness quickly. That said I was very chuffed to be running so quickly as it's been a long time since I have done a session as quick as that!

I then moved onto Thursday with easy running in between and had hoped to run a repeat of last week's 20 mins, 4X3mins, 20 misn session but a bit quicker. Even before I started the efforts it all felt just a bit too hard. My breathing was elevated and I was probably carrying too much fatigue from travelling to London the day previously. I started the first 20 minute effort and it averaged 5:43 but felt way harder than that. I had been hoping it would be 5:40-5:35 feeling quite comfortable. I was worried about what the 3 minute efforts would transpire as. As expected they were tough too and I only decided to do two of them and then just run the rest at an easy pace. Even the easy felt hard though and I felt very low on glycogen. This was confirmed when I got home and weighed myself. I weighed in at 142.6lbs which was around 2 lbs less than my average weight for the week. When one is glycogen replete they will naturally be a bit heavier due to the additional water that is paired with each molecule of glycogen. I ensured that the mission for the next couple of days was to get enough carbohydrate in my system for the Liversedge half on Sunday as well as get some very easy miles in.

I won this race unexpectedly in 2017 and it remains my one last performance that I'm actually proud of! It is a really hilly (c1000ft of elevation) course and the weather on the day was horrific, snowing, gales. It was a base layer, gloves, mittens and woolly hat job! Even so I loved it, and I loved it today also. I went with my neighbour and close friend Chris who was a little anxious about the race as it was to be the furthest he'd run since Yorkshire Marathon last year. Needless to say there was no need to panic and he too really enjoyed the challenge of the course. I had no expectations of winning as I know I'm not in the form I was in 2017 and also Joe Sagar of Spenborough and Gareth Cooke of Penistone were both running. I knew they were in better shape than I am given recent race results. The first mile is rapidly downhill and even in my state of fitness I managed a sub five! I was only in about 5th position at this point with Joe and Gareth already way into the distance. I ran to feel, being careful never to go over my LT, until right towards the end. Around the 6th mile I caught up with Gareth Cooke who was sitting in second place. this was at the bottom of the second huge descent. Gareth had clearly been jogging it though whereas I had imagined I had a pair of heelies on and whizzed down the mountain. I still felt good however, but Gareth was obviously being very reserved. He quickly upped his pace and moved away. It was then a fairly lonely run to the end, but I enjoyed the challenge of the hills and the sights are magnificent at certain points. As I reached the 11 mile marker I decided that I would really try and empty the tank a bit so pushed on. the pace didnt get any quicker but I'd certainly moved up the scale in terms of effort. As I rounded the final corner, I was so chuffed to have put in a decent performance. I finished in something not too far over 75 minutes and in third place. The beauty of doing a half like Liversedge is that it cant leave you feeling mentally wobbly about what sort of shape you're in. Mile splits vary so much that your strava feed reads more like an interval session than a steady race effort! Big kudos goes to Joe for running 70:44 for the win. An excellent time on that course. I have no doubt he could run under 68 minutes on a flat course with company. It'd also help if he actually did some miles in training! ;-) 

Photos courtesy of Dave Woodhead

Weight has dropped a little over the week which is pleasing but also pleased to say I'm not doing anything too drastic. 

I feel in a really good place right now, with a 100 mile week under my belt and 10 weeks to go. With a bit of luck I could time this peak to perfection. I've just got to keep focused and not do anything stupid.