Week 6 Part 3: Fuelled by prosecco!

Moving on to the second half of the week, wow, wasn't I whiny earlier in the week?  I must be catching it off the kids.  I should probably point out that only the writing this week has been fuelled by prosecco, not the running.  That doesn't work, I know that, and my bottle this morning was water and nothing else.

Friday didn't work any magic, and I woke up on Saturday morning still tired but ready to get my arse in gear.  I rocked up for parkrun with the intent of putting a good effort in but not destroying myself or my legs, and with realistic expectations given tiredness; as long as I ran under 21 minutes I'd be happy.  Actually after a fairly moderate first lap I picked it up a bit and ran 20:21.  I didn't really have much in the way of bounce, I had to work at the running, but my fitness and strength were there.  I quite enjoyed the run and felt strong on the second lap.  I had a little giggle to myself when the bloke I'd been using as a wind shield for a while grumbled at me at the end for abusing his bulk and then leaving him.  I'm a heartless (scrawny) woman, and guilty as charged.  I was definitely feeling better.

By Sunday I was again reaping the reward of not burning myself out on Saturday and both I and my legs felt better than they had on Saturday.  I seem to be generally recovering pretty well which I'm attributing in large part to a massive increase in protein in my diet, and in particular to protein immediately post run.  I even felt a teeny bit boingy on the way to meet my running companions for Sunday's long run and while that didn't last for long, I did at least feel like my body was moving well today.

I was viewing my companions with a certain amount of distrust this morning.  A number of people I know who are marathon training did their long run yesterday.  One mentioned her plans to write a book about how to hide her co-runners' bodies after she'd murdered them on a long run.  At the time my immediate thought was "I never really feel like that".  In the middle of the night it occurred to me that maybe this was because I was the annoying one that everyone wanted to bump off.  Entirely possible, I'd be the first to admit, and I'd organised a run along the river this morning!  They've always seemed very nice and normal people, but you just never know.  I briefly considered the amusing thought of turning up in a life jacket.  I held onto that thought in the hope it may give me a chuckle when the going got tough.

I have a terrible habit of pushing the pace on long runs even when I'm tired.  I always run towards the front of the group, and I regret pushing it too hard later on in the run.  I take too much out of myself and end up regretting it when I can't do the next training sessions well.  I made a firm decision today to stick behind the other two runners for at least the first half of the run; I could make sure I wasn't pushing and watch out just in case one of them decided to give me a good shove by that river... a thought which amused me on and off when I was getting tired on the run.  In my head I went to Inspector Wyxie, trying to work out which of her running companions would be the one to just fall into her at the wrong moment, tipping her into the river... I'm a strong swimmer but I was getting tired, would I survive or not?  Yeah, my mind wandered a bit.

Actually the only fall of the whole run was not mine, despite having a little stumble at one point, and it was before we got near any water.  Matt stumbled off the edge of a kerb and sprawled face first into Nottingham Road with oncoming traffic.  Fortunately he wasn't seriously hurt and he managed to get out the road only slightly mauled by myself and Sophie - concerned mauling of course.  Unsurprisingly when we restarted a couple of minutes later, Matt was leading the way fuelled by adrenaline, just where I could keep my eye on him!

It was an uneventful run in good company.  Matt dropped a little early as he'd run cross country yesterday, and Sophie and I returned to Long Eaton.  The run I'd expected a few days ago to really struggle with was just a run, in fact the miles pretty much flew by.  In part I'm sure this was because this was an easier run.  Unlike previous long runs it was flat, the temperature was pretty good, and there was no wind.  It was easy to just get into a rhythm and maintain an even effort level.  But I'm equally sure that in part the easiness was down to us all getting fitter.  Running back into Long Eaton with Sophie I suddenly realised we were pushing the pace, which we knocked off a little and returned to the planned 8 minute miles.  We both looked a lot better than we did at the end of the 15 mile run we did on Christmas Eve where we barely talked for the last 4 miles and we ran about the same pace. 

It only really occurred to me once I'd got home to be incredibly damn pleased with myself for running over 2 miles farther than I've ever run before, at the planned pace, and with more in the tank if I'd needed it.  After my mid-week wobble about being too tired to run and the training getting on top of me, I was back to enjoying running.  The next week is my third week of build up before a cut back week and I have some interesting sessions planned, but I'm hoping to be less tired than I was this week given the steadier long run.  My legs are tight and I should probably think about slotting a massage in at some point soon, but still only general aches and nothing worrying.  This week I ended up running 47 miles and most of those were steady.  The coming week I'm looking at just a slight increase in mileage and with a few more higher intensity miles, but I hope to be starting the week a lot fresher.

I almost deleted my previous blog regarding my mid-week tiredness because I finished the week feeling so positive and was irritated by my own whining, but in the end I decided to keep it.  It's a good reminder to me that while the tiredness and low days feel all consuming at the time, in fact they come and go quite briefly.