Did I say good? Fantastic would be closer. I feel great! After a year or so of on and off health and injury issues I think my form and fitness are coming back to me. The changes I've made to my running in an attempt to stop the perpetual injury issues are starting to feel natural and easy. I ran five days this week, only one of those would be classed as a truly easy run, and my calves, ankles and Achilles have all held up to it fine. I've had one day where I was definitely fatigued, but just one, the rest I've felt well and truly up to doing what I wanted to do.
I've had some truly wonderful runs which embody many of the things I love about running. The week started with a great solo tempo run on a perfectly cold, clear, still winter morning in which to immerse myself in my surroundings and the feeling of my body doing just what I wanted it to do. It has to be said that for the rest of the week the weather hasn't been entirely my friend, but that first day was perfect.
A slog through an increasingly windy interval session on the third consecutive day of running was the definite low point of the week, and the times on some of the intervals are best forgotten.
The day I'd hoped to do a quick 5k effort on the parkrun course there was so much ice I couldn't run outside and I had to move my effort to the treadmill, leading to the moment when I glanced at the display for the first time thinking I was around 2k in to read 750 meters and had a massive mental and physical sag. It took a real force of will to have a word with myself, get my shit together and carry on. I did a brief drop in pace to get a rhythm going and a refocus on good technique and by the end I had a massive grin on my face and couldn't understand why I hadn't run it faster than the 19:42 I managed. It's been a while since I've done either a quick 5k or treadmill running so I decided to take that even if it is a bit under pace for a treadmill 5k, be happy with it and get to the next couple of parkruns.
The highlight of the week, however, was definitely the snowy long run. I've been reliably told by several people that this week's long run was not in fact long, on the basis it was only 10 miles. Well, sod you picky people, I don't do many long runs and I don't want to break myself suddenly going out and running 15 miles, which is one of the reasons I started training early
Grump aside, I LOVE SNOW! I was sure it would either be so icy underneath I couldn't do it, or it would be soggy and sad, or just wouldn't happen, but it happened and it was great. I thought it might not. I woke up this morning to more cat shit in the back garden than snow, but then it started to come down. Wonderful, light, powdery snow, which for big sections of the run was completely untouched. For 8 out of the 10 miles the pace felt easy despite the snow, trail shoes which I rarely wear, and the odd hill. Sometimes I like to run alone, sometimes I like company, and this was definitely a run better with company even if it wasn't a massively chatty run in the latter part. Sometimes it's just nice to have someone else around, like when you get 8 miles into a run and turn into the wind and find your face being thoroughly scoured by ice as you run through the deepest snow of the run and suddenly realise you're cold, but you've put your hood down for long enough it's cold and wet inside and now as much use as a chocolate fireguard. But, the run was good, we were a little quicker than planned somewhat unintentionally, and as for most of the rest of the week, running just felt natural and easy. For a mile or two over the top of the hills crunching the first set of footprints into new snow, with as yet undefined superpowers, I was absolutely invincible!
My other big positive for the week is my weight. I tend towards the bottom end of the weight I can run at. I find it next to impossible to gain muscle and sometimes my weight drops to levels I know aren't good despite my best efforts. As soon as I up my mileage my body goes mental and burns up every calorie I put into it and I start to look emaciated. I've made a few changes to diet recently and I'm tentatively hopeful I may be on to the cause of a lot of the problems, but time will tell. I'm sure there'll be a longer waffle about that one at some point soon.
So, the plan for the week was:
Monday - 5 mile tempo;
Tuesday - 45 minutes easy;
Wednesday - intervals, 7 x 3 minutes or the club track session if it was close to that;
Friday - 5k effort on the parkrun course;
Sunday - 10 mile long run.
Plus two strength and two core training sessions.
The next week is very similar to this week, but a little
bit more distance on the tempo, easy and long run, and a slightly tougher hills
or interval session - I'm currently undecided which. Today, I feel really positive about it. I know fatigue and grumpiness will set in at some point, but right now I'm just loving running and that's always a good place to start from.
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