Wednesday 14 July
Mileage 15.5 miles
AM: 3.75 miles; PM: 11.75 miles
After my race on Tuesday I was expecting to feel tired, sore and stiff, but my run to work in the morning was pretty good. There was definitely a little stiffness in my quads, but other than that all was good. In fact so good, that later that evening I decided to join Seamus and Dan for a long run out toward Cramond. It was a pretty miserable evening with a stiff breeze, which had whipped the sea up into quite a frenzy. We jogged alongside it and I did start to feel a little stiff and sore especially around my knees and quads. I was beginning to doubt the wisdom of running this far so soon after a race and with a tough Thursday night session to come. Turning into the wind to head back was also far from fun, but thankfully the company of my friends made it bearable.
I did just short of 12 miles in total, I think Dan did the same by the time he got home. Poor Seamus had been led so far away from home by Dan and I that he ended up having to run another 3 miles on top of us. He made sure to tell me this on Facebook and at training on Thursday too. I did feel a little guilty, but not that much!
Thursday 15 July
AM: 3.75 miles; PM: 11.75 miles
Yep, I definitely did too many miles yesterday night. My legs, as a result, had not recovered from Tuesday’s effort and were still pretty tight and stiff. I wasn’t impressed with myself as I ran to work this morning, as I knew tonight’s session was going to be a tough one.
Tonight’s session was 5 * 1200m run throughs. They work like this, you run flat out for the first 350 meters or in our case to where Alex had tied some lovely red and white stripy tape. On reaching the tape you had to move from flat out to 5K pace for the remaining 850 meters. It’s a really hard session and one that fills your muscles with lactic acid and burns your lungs inside out. For what must have been the third or fourth week we had the same group with myself, Colin, Bryan and James. It’s been great training with these guys as we have all worked really hard and well together, but at the same time pushing each other on, so that we have finished every rep and every session full on. Tonight was no different.
I was slightly worried on the warm up lap that I was going to be awful in the reps, as my legs just didn’t feel that great. I was, therefore, pretty surprised to find myself running fast on the first leg and matching Colin stride for stride. Bryan had blasted ahead running a devastatingly quick first section, which left us no chance of catching him on the second part of the rep. With James just behind we crossed the line for the first rep in 3minutes and 41 seconds. It was a fast time. I’ve done these 1200m reps before, but normally at an even pace, not run throughs and on these occasions a good time has been about 3.45-3.50, sometimes a little slower. It wasn’t that long ago that I struggled to break 4 minutes on that distance. I have definitely come on in the last year. I think part of the reason for the fast time tonight was the nature of the rep, but also having good runners all around me to work with. It was the same for the next 3 reps, we would start off hard and work into a controlled pace. Colin and I ran them all together in and each rep was consistent, either 3.41 or 3.42. Bryan had dropped back a bit on the 2nd and 3rd reps so that we were only just behind him. He and James both suffered a little on the fourth one, but the group had held together well. The four of us staggered back to the start line for the last rep all complaining how tired, broken and shattered we were, but it didn’t stop us from having a go at one last effort. The 350 meter sprint was a fair bit slower than the others, but was still quick and as we moved into the second stage of the rep I could sense we were all out for a bit of a race. With that in mind I tried to push on and move ahead, which I did and was feeling strong. I could sense Colin and Bryan were still close and despite burning legs and aching lungs I tried to break free for victory with 150m to go. It wasn’t enough to beat Bryan, who from nowhere found a real burst of speed that brought him up alongside me and then past me with apparent ease. I had nothing to go with him, but still managed to kick enough to keep Colin just behind me. The three of us collapsed in a broken, exhausted heap at the end, desperately trying to find some oxygen and not to vomit. The last rep was my quickest in 3.39. It felt great.
What I was most happy with was that I did the entire session on legs that were far from fresh. I really am starting to feel a return to full fitness and the pace that I enjoyed before holiday. I am still carrying the extra weight, something that I remind everyone about at every opportunity, but once that goes I will definitely be back to my best. I have another big weekend of training to look forward to, but then next week I plan to take it a little easier and recover a bit and at the same time taper for the Musselburgh 10K on Saturday 24th. I think a PB might be in sight.
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