Sunday 30 January 2011

Its 'Running God' time again...

...you know what to do.

Before that though, I'll briefly touch on Friday's more mortal tempo run. Last week I did 3 miles warm up/cool down as well as 4 miles @ 7:02 pace (against a target of 7:08). This week's was similar, other than the tempo section was slightly longer at 4.5 miles. I hit target again, but not quite up to last week's pace: 7:06. Bearing in mind I didn't quite feel 'up' for the run, I regard it as a pretty decent result.

Now for today's.

The training plan said 16 miles somewhere between 8:18 and 9:11 pace. I decided to do 17 miles and was looking for a pace between 8:44 (mid point of the target band) and 8:55 (as this week's run was about endurance rather than pace progression).

In the event it did turn into an impromptu progression run along the Leeds Liverpool canal from the edge of Leeds, across the edge of Bradford, through Shipley, through the UNESCO World Heritage Site that is Saltaire to the edge of Bingley. Then along the river Aire past the famous Bradford & Bingley Rowing Club (8 boats training this morning and 3 coaches cycling along with load speakers), along the edge of Baildon, back to the river crossing via a footbridge then the last 5 miles retracing part of the route along the canal through woods and across from the village of Esholt (where they used to film Emmerdale - which was filmed all of last week on my street).

The mile intervals were:

  1. 8:58
  2. 8:32
  3. 8:41
  4. 8:41
  5. 8:25
  6. 8:31
  7. 8:26
  8. 8:23
  9. 8:16
  10. 8:27
  11. 8:21
  12. 8:07
  13. 8:06
  14. 8:07
  15. 7:57
  16. 7:54
  17. 7:34
I suppose I could feel it a little bit in the last 5 miles but generally I felt good throughout and even in the last mile it was only the increase in pace (that didn't feel too forced) that gave any notable sense of fatigue. Maybe that's the biggest positive I take - that it all felt relatively comfortable.

It was just one of those runs where you can really feel 'flow' - if that's not sounding too new age. Two energy gels consumed - at 7.5 and 12 miles, and all completed after...

...THOSE OF A SENSITIVE DISPOSITION OR WHO ARE ABOUT TO EAT LOOK AWAY...

....3 lots of diarrhoea this morning as I've had a touch of the (mild) stomach bug that the rest of the family had. Nice eh? Makes the run all the more impressive though.

Can't say I've felt much in the way of soreness or fatigue afterwards either as we went out and did a muddy five and a bit miles walk this afternoon between Addingham and Ilkley, to see how the other half live. They live very, very comfortably.

Anyone else had any adventures?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Woo you're on fire lately! Good work :-)

Alison said...

I was eating while I read this but I'm 'ard so it didn't faze me.

Those are a couple of really nice runs. The final 2 of the LSR were roughly MP, right? Seems like all the signs are in your favour as things stand.

And now I've finished my dinner, I'll prostrate myself...

Maria said...

Thanks for the warning :)
Seriosuly though, that is quite impressive (I hope you werent dehydrated after that)- great work on the run :) (not the runs- your 17 mile run I mean).
Oh, and I make porridge in a bowl overnight, cook it as normal and then spoon the porridge into the jar- its a weekend treat as takes too long otherwise! But the peanut butter in every spoonful makes it worth it! :)

Jessica said...

That is an awesome run and no mistake.

My adventure consisted of not leaving enough time to run to the gym before Body Pump (damn frost!) and having to book it in order to make it to the class. I was a sweaty mess when I walked in so I felt like apologising to the people standing behind me, slipping on my pool of sweat on the floor ;)

I think you know how much I empathise with the tummy troubles. I often run faster when my tum's playing up, sometimes through necessity rather than choice.

I hope you're feeling better now and basking in your running God glory. You're going to smash that Paris marathon goal at this rate!