Hi everyone, this is another weekly blog and thank you for reading.
I thought I would share last weeks running activity with you. I am currently in training for a sub 50minute 10k and a half marathon with no time limit.
To begin with, my fitness has taken a knock in recent weeks. Since coming back from holidays, I was extremely busy with work and ended up getting sick which threw my momentum off completely. You can never underestimate how much stress can affect your general health and fitness. People say, “oh don’t get so stressed”, but its my way of processing things, information and situations. I cannot just go, “ok, I wont”, it does not work like that.
Even though I started my new plan successfully the week before last, I have had a fewof difficult sessions over the past 7 days.
Here is what I did:
Monday* 16th September – This was my 9km easy run with no target pace other than try to finish within 50 to 55minutes. I did it in 55mins and 50 seconds, so already I was behind 🙁
My split times per kilometre were relatively slow, but that’s ok. The goal here was not to win a race but to loosen up those legs for the week and get some miles on the tracker. My average pace was 6:12/km on this run. Average heart rate was 156bpm so it was a very mild and easy run to kick start my week.
Thursday* 19th September – My next run was my weekly interval session. Similar to the previous week I did this run at my nearby college where they have a lovely park at the back of the facility. Unlike the week prior to this, it was a very tough run and I struggled to keep at the target pace.
The idea was a tempo run with walking rests:
To begin with, I did a 2km light jog at conversational pace. This was followed by 2km at 5:05 which I managed to do successfully, and earned a 120 sec walk.
My next split was a 1km at 4.55/km followed by 90 second walk. I started smoothly and on pace, but was suddenly interrupted by the groundskeeper advising me they had to close the park early and to make my way to the front of the college. This threw me off, but to be honest it was a welcomed rest as I was struggling to maintain pace. The front of the college is full of twists and turns and not ideal for interval running. I failed to reach my desired pace on this run and scored an average of 5:06/km. The second 1km split was not too much better. My legs felt like cannonballs and impossible to lift. My finale was a 1.5km cool down, and even that I struggled to do.
Saturday* 21st September – My final run of the week was 13km long run
The idea was to keep this run below 5:40/km except for the first 4.5k at conversational pace. I failed on this one also, and my average time was 5:55 /km for the 13km.
Overall, it was not an enjoyable weeks running. This week I need to really focus my attention on my mindset, getting a good nights sleep and to try to not get so stressed at work. My diet also needs improving as I found myself skipping meals, drinking too much caffeine and having a few extra glasses of wine on Friday night. All of these factors impact my general performance greatly.
Anyways onwards and upwards, and I will post back to let you know how I get on.