That was the week that was

Overall, I guess that was a good week. Up to four runs again, got Beth doing her first run since August, did my second longest post Paris run and had 2 good club runs. I also got my Paris training plan sorted.

As has been the routine for the last few weeks, Monday started with a rest day after the exhertions at Harewood.

Tuesday was Abbey, with a far lower turn out than usual, presumably down to it having rained all day right up to run time. That was a pain as I'd worn a gilet in the expectancy of getting wet but the rain stopped just as we headed out, and with no rain and no wind it was warm! It felt a fairly tough 7 miles (the reverse of the previous Tuesday's route)with my legs feeling tired after Sunday's race.

Next day it was Kirkstall. Despite the (even hillier) 7 mile route I probably felt slightly better and was able to push myself fairly hard for the last 5 miles - even surviving the hard slog up the ring road from Rodley to New Roadside.

Thursday and Friday were rest days once again and then on Saturday I cajoled Beth into doing a slow 2 miles along the canal. She was reluctant to go but I think she enjoyed it in the end as the weather was good, we saw some Abbey runners and she had a few questions about canals and railways.

Yesterday was initially meant to be a cross country race day but in the absence of getting any information on it I decided to do a long slow run. At first I thought of 12 miles then decided I should up that to 14.

It proved tough. I've done alot of training and racing since the end of July that's conducive to speed and endurance for up to 10 mile races but I'd only once ran over a half marathon distance (over 2 months ago) so I'm possibly lacking in the extra endurance and certainly not used to the extra time on my feet that 14 miles at a deliberately slow pace entails.

That's a bit of a worry ahead of the Bridlington half next week, but there is hope!

I've recently entered the Central Lancashire half for the 3rd January so Brid is the first of 3 decent PB attempts at the distance and yesterday's run and next week's race will certainly help in terms of training for the Lancaster half on 8th November. Plus, next week I'll run at a faster pace so at least I wont be running for so long.