To be honest this week’s training didn’t start particularly well. Although I fully intended to run on Monday morning, when I woke up, I just couldn’t get my a** into gear. Although I told myself I’d find time later in the day, you guessed it, it just didn’t happen.
As a result, Tuesday’s hill session was extra tough, but it got me back into the groove and in fact I enjoyed the rest of my weekday sessions, even though it was really cold and frosty.
Today’s scheduled long run at 2 hours 20 minutes (target pace 11.12) was a little daunting. I wanted to get out early so it didn’t eat into the day too much but I wasn’t sure whether or what to eat before I set off. In the end I had a pot of Muller rice (yum) about an hour before I ran, and that seemed to do the trick!
I had set my Garmin to break the run into 2 stages (just in case I couldn’t manage the whole lot) 2 hours and then 20 minutes. Once I had settled into my rhythm I felt surprisingly good for most of the two hours, averaging a pace of 10.35. For the second part of the run, I consciously decided to slow my pace which was fortunate as there were a number of hills to climb to get home. For the whole 140 minutes run, my average pace was 10.54 and I covered 12.86 miles. Tired but pleased.
Of course a side effect of running over 32 miles this week is that I have burnt off loads of calories, 1533 just today! Given my additional goal to lose some weight before Brighton I am feeling rather pleased about this, even more so because the scales are confirming that I am a few pounds lighter than the same time last week!