Diary Of A Road Runner

Long Run – 8 miles in 1:15

This was my longest run in 6 months. Set off slowly, for a planned 8 miles, and was struggling a bit at first as I went down Stockport Road and into Bredbury, having to tie my shoelace en route. Then I hit the uphill part of the course and just pushed myself to keep going. Then coasted off the hills on the flat and downhill bits and built up a real head of steam until the next hill, near the end. Slowed down a bit then and just jogged to the 8 mile point. Think I need a couple of rest days now to let my legs recover from the hard sessions lately.

A Rainy 12.1K along the comeback trail – 1hr 13 mins

It’s been a busy week since the race on Sunday, my uni course has now started, and I have been socialising a bit as well, together with work and what have you! Managed to swim 40 lengths on Tuesday, and aim to build in some swimming as cross training while my leg gets fully back to normal.

Wanted to do a bit of a long slow recovery run today, so warmed up indoors, then set off at a very gentle pace on the Bredbury and Hyde circuit route. Rain helped keep me cool, and at the gentle pace I was running at, I didn’t start to hurt until near the end of the run, and even managed the hilly parts quite well.

There is still something up with the leg, but it seems to be reacting well – will just have to avoid anything too intense in the way of speed work or harder paced long runs for the time being, until I am sure the leg is up to it.

But felt great to be back out running in the rain

EDIT November 22nd – This run turned out to be too much for the leg, which reacted quite badly over the next few days. That’ll teach me to go out doing 8 mile runs with shin splints

Easy Paced 8 Miler – 1 hour 17 minutes

Pretty slow run with plenty of undulations, but felt fine throughout.  Ran the reverse route up through Hyde over the hills then back up Stockport Road. Nice easy pace but didn’t feel the hills were too hard and recovered very quickly for an enjoyable run.  Lower left leg seems to have a bit of pain on impact, but been there for a bit so just need to be careful with up and coming 3 races in a row.

Tempo Run – Through Windmill Lane & Reddish – 01:03:33

For a while, building in more easy runs seemed to help my improvements, and slowing down the pace of long runs. But then the improvements stopped, and a good friend with a lot of running experience suggested running some longer runs at a harder pace. So I did a 12.1k effort today, with no reference to time, just ran how I felt – felt I was going at race pace at points, but refused to check out the time. Turns out I wasn’t going hugely fast, but I did go through the 10k split in 52:21 – so faster than Sunday’s race, and by that point I was at death’s door, but forced myself to go through another 2k at the best pace I could manage, and managed the 12.1k in 1:03:33, which is almost exactly the same time I did the same distance last time round – several months ago, and I found it easier back then… So something has gone wrong!

In actuality I think doing the easy runs has harmed my mental toughness. I can see that occasionally running a week where most of the running is easy will help – but I read an article that said 90% of your running should be at easy pace. Well I’ve tried that, and it seems to be load of tosh  Harder runs ahead then, the stopping feels nicer though

Easy 8 Miler – 1:19:22

Nice gentle paced 8 miler – got a bit puffy in the first place but first 2k were a bit quick. Kept the pace down to 6 mins+ per k, and mixed in a few faster bursts up hills then just coasted the last few miles with a few race pace strides in the last K. Bit slower than my last 8 miler but slightly different route anyway, but felt like a good aerobic workout and recovered nice and quickly.

8 Mile Recovery Run 1hr 18 20s

Nice 8 miler at recovery pace, with a few hills which I took easy, in all averaged 6:03/k pace so was spot on at keeping it nice and steady and I managed not to speed up as idea was just to recover from the race on Sunday and get a bit of nice slow time on feet in, felt like a nice aerobic workout not too heavy. Didn’t feel too many after effects from the race and am starting to find running quite comfortable now I’ve got back into it after the little break. Certainly the most comfortable I’ve felt for a while. A few more of these, some intervals, fartlek and a longer run every week and I should start to see more results.

Have not done a one mile trial for a bit so hope to fit one in soon!

Long Run/Tempo Run – 12.1K – 1:03:22

12.1k run ran nearly 4 minutes faster than the one in the week. Pushed hard and just kept going, went past the 5 mile mark at 5 mile flat out PB pace, and went through 10k in 52:08, third fastest 10k ever, then did another 2k without losing too much pace. Managed to just keep the legs turning over even at the end when I was starting to feel the pain. Didn’t take too long to recover and felt good.

Now plan an easy short run on Tues in preparation for Weds evening 5 mile race – on this evidence, I am hoping for a sub 40 but may have to pray for rain

12.1K Run – 1:07:57

Was meant to be a 10ker, easy, but felt good so I tagged on an extra couple of k. Managed to maintain a decent enough pace but was holding back at times, though did a few strides here and there near the end and felt good, recovered quickly. Actually felt I was enjoying it and sped up rather than slowed down as the run went on!

8 Miles in the Sun – 1h 08m 19s

Very nice longish run in the sun, and hilly too – uphill most of the way in fact, and maintained same pace as on my last 8 mile run, so not bad at all – but felt a deserved the last 2 miles cruising downhill on the route I planned (followed at the end by a very steep incline which killed my legs in the end!)

14k Long Run In The Sun – 1:20:43

My weekly mileage has been atrocious for a while, not the kind of mileage needed to start attacking my sub 50 10k target at all – but I have been progressing well, so am confident putting in some more miles will work wonders. So decided to go for a long Saturday run and just take it easy, if I got to 12k and felt ok, would make it up to 14, or an 8.5 miler approx.

Set off at a nice gentle pace and felt good, ran sub 6 minute k’s all the way with some fluctuations in speed, there were times when I felt really good and picked up the pace a little, and at 8k I felt I could go on and on. At 11k I was starting to tire though, as I have not been doing many long runs, but I slowed the pace and got to 14, and it felt really good to stop, but at no point had I really struggled which is reassuring seeing as it’s my longest run since I came back from injury. It’s this type of run that will give me the endurance to put in those faster second halfs in 10k races, and who knows maybe I will find a half marathon and do that one day