Running Diary WC 3rd August 2020

Monday 03/08/20 – The 8 Mile Easy That Went ‘Wrong’

The first run of the week was planned to be an ‘easy’ 8 miles. Easy relating to my Zone2 heart rate as per 80/20 Running. This tends to relate to around 9 min/miles for me

This more or less went to plan until I got to the final mile and decided I felt good and wanted to open it up a bit 🙂

So the last mile was an extended ‘effort’ completing it at sub 8 min/mile.

I’m a great believer in going with the flow ad just listening to what the body wants to do. That is especially the case when you are not training for any particular race.

As I followed what my body wanted to do, I completed the run feeling mentally and physically on top of the world.

Tuesday 04/08/20 – Kenyon Hills…in Redditch

Tonight was a club run. During the current coronavirus times, club runs are restricted to 6, so we are having to book on runs via a new club app.

Despite missing out on several other runs, I managed to get on this one, which I was happy about as I particularly fancied it.

I seem to have some sort of perverse love/hate relationship with hills, and know what a great aid they can be for improving your running. So when I found this session was a ‘Kenyon Hills’ based one, I was all over it.

Of course I could (and have) done sessions like this on my own, but as I point out in my “Should I join a running club?” In a word – Yes! article, running alongside others, motivates you to give it your all.

So after an easy mile and a half warm up run to the meeting place we ran to the Ipsley Church hill to complete our circuits:

10 mins easy run to hill

8 min at 80% effort – as many of the hill circuits as possible

3 mins – slow recovery jog at the bottom of the hill

8 mins at 80% effort hills

10 mins easy run back to start point

I think we were all a little giddy after our hill efforts, because the run back was a tad more than just an easy pace.

On my way home, I decided that I felt good and so I would give it maximum effort on one of the Strava segments I recently found to see if I could beat my PB.

(Not only did I manage to get a new PB, because it is an ‘out of the way’ segment it is little used and therefore I managed to even get 3rd on the overall standings – 2 seconds behind the current holder of the record)

After that segment busting section is was a slow easy cool down run back home.

Wednesday 05/08/20 – Pedaling Hard But Getting Nowhere

After 2 days of fairly intensive training I decided it was time for some body saving cross training.

And the cross training method of choice was static cycling.

The catch up programme of choice on the tablet as I cycled was a documentary on the king of grunge, Kurt Cobain.

Just over 13 miles in 52 minutes in my garage/fitness room left me a sweaty mess, but a happy sweaty mess 🙂

Thursday 06/08/20 – A Steady Seven Miler

With the temperature getting up to where it should be (but has been nowhere near for the majority of the summer), I decided it was a time to take it easy.

Even though I tried to keep to a Zone 2 heart rate, the slight uphill homeward stretch did mean that it wasn’t exactly a strict Z2 run.

Consequently the run felt good, albeit a bit sweaty.

Friday 07/08/20 – a Real Garage Sweat Fest

Another cross training day, however the high temperature and humidity made it anything but comfortable.

Due to the heat, and the fact I’d had a decent week of training I decided to just do a 30 minute, 7.64 mile session (just enough to complete my Kurt Cobain doc).

Despite the mini nature of the session, the bike ended up surfing a pond of my perspiration!

Still it was one of those sessions where you complete it with a smug feeling of getting it done despite it not being ideal circumstances

Saturday 08/08/20 – And One More For Good Luck

In this period of no Park Run, I have tended to keep Saturday as a rest day.

Ordinarily, I just don’t seem to be able to find the motivation or the right time to go out for a run over the weekend.

(I know, stupid right, all that extra time not doing week work stuff, and yet the weekends are the days I find most difficult to run?!)

However, this Saturday, I just suddenly had the need to go out and stretch my legs.

If I’m honest, I think this was a little bit about wanting to sweat out a little bit of a hangover.

I had spent yesterday evening in a mates garden doing our best to clear his beer fridge!

As it happened, I made the decision to go for a morning run a little late as I’d already had my breakfast. The upshot being, there was a certain amount of ‘sloshing around’ as I ran.

I kept it VERY steady.

Despite this lack of digestion time, the easy run felt far better than it should have…

…and of course by the end of it, I felt much better than when I started it.

Running really is a panacea for all ills 🙂