This post originally appeared on Ben’s old blog, Running From the Physio.
Something of a return to form for me this week. After only completing three of my scheduled five runs in the previous week, I hit 100% again this time around. But that said, all was not quite as rosy as it might have looked: Tuesday and Wednesday were two of the least enjoyable runs I’ve done. I can’t really pinpoint a specific reason, but I just did not enjoy them in the slightest. Over the weekend, we were up in Telford for a wedding, so I completed the Telford parkrun with my wife, before a shortened “long” run on Sunday after travelling home. That said, the mileage for the week was still in excess of 20 miles, so although I never ran more than 7 miles in one go, I guess it was okay.
Tuesday: 2.20 miles @ 9:31 min/mile
This run did not particularly start well! Having played football the night before, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Having achieved that, I then discovered that it was raining and horrible outside, and wanted to curl back up in bed again. Somehow, I overcame that too, and found myself actually outside and going for a run. Which was something of a surprise! So much of a surprise in fact that I forgot which way I was meant to go. As a result, rather than a 3 mile run, this turned out to be a 2 mile run. Still, other than that it was… well… horrible. I basically spent the whole run wishing I was anywhere other than out in the rain and cold running. (Yes, yes, I know… world’s smallest violin etc. etc.) Anyway, I did it, the miles are recorded, and sometimes that just has to be enough.
Wednesday: 3.09 miles @ 9:25 min/mile
On the bright side, I managed two runs pre-work in a single week for the first time ever. On the negative side, I found this run about as enjoyable as Tuesday’s. On the bright side, I remembered to effectively go the wrong way again, and therefore cancel out the previous day’s mistake.
Thursday: 6.35 miles @ 8:39 min/mile
After a couple of pretty miserable runs, I decided midway through this one that I was just going to push and run a bit faster. For most of my half-marathon training, I’ve been plodding around at a pace around 9:30, in order to minimise the risk of injury. I hate running within myself though: I love running quickly. And so, I decided that all things considered, I wanted to enjoy this run. I did. I meant to slow down again for the last mile or so, but I didn’t really manage it.
Saturday: Parkrun, 5km (3.11 miles) @ 12:19 min/mile
As I mentioned at the top, it was a bit of parkrun tourism for me this week. Not only that, but it was my wife’s first parkrun! Normally, my wife has the task of looking after our baby daughter during the parkrun, but as we were staying in a hotel full of our family this weekend, we were both free to run together. As an added bonus, it was Telford parkrun’s first birthday, so we got to sing “Happy Birthday” at the start line, and had cake at the finish! Although the pace was obviously less than I would usually run, I actually think it did my legs a bit of good, flushing them out a little bit. Most of all, I was extremely proud of my wife for running the whole course, the furtherest she has managed since pregnancy.
Sunday: 6.27 miles @ 8:44 min/mil
We spent Sunday morning driving back from Telford to Taunton. As a result of that drive, and the weekend itself, which was pretty stressful and tiring, I didn’t feel that I could face a proper long run on Sunday. I headed out on my four mile route, but turned off towards the end, and did something that I very rarely do: just ran where I felt like! Ah: turn right here, how about through that park there, ooo: let’s go that way. It was fun, maybe not very practical to do very often in a proper training plan, but something I might try and repeat when I’m not so precious about getting everything as scheduled. I enjoyed the run in general, and my pace reflects (and maybe causes) that.