Friday 2 – Saturday 3 July 2010: Still struggling, but enjoying it!

Friday 2 July



Mileage: 7.5 miles – AM: 3.75 miles; PM: 3.75 miles


Today was a nice easy day. All I did was run to and from work. After the very tough session yesterday my legs were tight and sore, but the gentle sunshine made both runs enjoyable.


Saturday 3 July


Mileage: 12 miles


With Alex away we were left to our devices for training today. Seamus, Dan, Nick (a friend of Seamus) and I met in Holyrood Park for a pyramid session. It was another bright, hot, sunny day in Edinburgh and it was a great day to be running. My legs were feeling pretty good, so I was confident of a good session. The session was planned by Seamus and was one of the sessions he used to do a few years ago back in the day when he used to run 31 minute 10ks.


The session was 1,2,3,4,5,4,3,2,1 minute efforts each with a minute recovery in between. It was tough, a high intensity session with very little recovery. I found it quite frustrating at first as the other 3 were pulled away from me quite easily and I spent each rep struggling to keep up with them. I have to admit to being a little fed up of feeling so slow and unfit. One thing that has recovered quite quickly has been my endurance, which is good. The second half of the session I was a lot closer to the others, as they slowed at a much greater pace than I did.


I am still disappointed that I am not close to being back to my pre-holiday form, but I need to keep telling myself that I have only been back in training for 12 days. I am also quite tired as in those 12 days I have done 141 miles and 5 hard training sessions. I am going to go for a ling run tomorrow and then maybe have another easy day on Monday and consider getting a massage to help my muscles recover.


I am impatient to get back to where I was. I can’t help that. I need to try and temper my enthusiasm a little and train responsibly otherwise I’ll risk an injury. I already have a couple of niggles. I really hope that this time next week I will be much further on.


I also got on the scales today and found myself weighing close to 84kg! I am still 4kg heavier than I was before holiday. I need to shift that, as that is most definitely slowing me down! I have given up alcohol and not had a drop since my holiday nearly 2 weeks ago. I have also managed to eat fairly well and cut out a lot of crap, although not it all. Unfortunately since I have upped my training my appetite has increased tenfold and I have eaten loads and loads! I am sure my high mileage will soon shed the pounds. Well at least I hope it will.


Long run tomorrow and I can’t wait. That’s a good sign.