Making Friends With Hills

Good evening!

So another week has passed, and another injury, crashed and burned at diet/no alcohol, made friends with hills and won some earmuffs to hold my bazookas... All will be revealed.

This weeks Long Run thought...

Its a beautiful sunny day, and it is lovely to meet friends and chat, BUT why the hell do you stand 5 people deep across a path, when there is grass fields on either side and there are people walking/running/cycling along said path!  AND no don't turn, look at me like I shouldn't be there and then get the huff if I run through you, I am not going to change my path when you are being the selfish ones!.....




So I left you on Monday having moved lots of furniture over the weekend, but what I didn't tell you (because at that time I didn't think it was a problem) was how my left thumb had made a large cracking sound whilst pushing the shelf holders into the wardrobe.  Well by Tuesday my left hand and wrist was really hurting and by midweek I had pins and needles shooting up my arm.  Luckily enough it is much better today so think it was just some muscle bruising.

So my weeks training took a bit of a bashing as I skipped the cross training classes I had planned as didn't want to hurt my hand further....

Tuesday - Intervals
I went out after work, and it was very humid, to the point that my slow warm up run was hard, I found it really hard to breathe.  I started to feel very negative, which wasn't great, I was to do 5 sets of 5 minute work with 90 seconds walk recovery.  I had intended on starting slow and progressing on each one.

I started the first one, and I managed to fall into a nice pace straight away, but it was quite fast and so I wasn't sure I would be able to keep it up for each one let alone progress.  I was shocked when my watch buzzed me to tell me to recover, it had felt so quick.  The rest of the intervals went very similar bar the last which felt hard and slower.  I then jogged for about 3 minutes cool down, should have been 10 minutes but I came across a friend with her daughter paddling in the river, and it was so inviting I stopped and joined them!

If you remember I had been having problems with very tight calfs so jumping in the cold lake and soaking them for 10 minutes felt amazing!

As it happens when I loaded the run, it turned out I had done a progression run and was really pleased with it, you can see the stats here:

Wednesday - another rest day.

Thursday - Another Interval Session
Today was 5 x 3 minutes work 60 seconds recovery, faster as shorter (and harder, really had to push to complete.)  I was happy with this session, most of the splits were the same (6:09 pace bar the last 6:20) and faster than the longer interval session on Tuesday.  I also finished with a dip in the lake again  You can see it here:

Friday - Rest...

Saturday - Rest although I spent about 4 hours spring cleaning the house and sweating more than when I train so I think that could be classed as a bit of cross training!

Today - LSR
So when I got the trouble with my calfs, the lovely lady Sharon who massages away the pain (whilst enforcing more) suggested stopping hill reps and adding in hills to my long run.  She said that it would be lest stress on the calfs as it was more natural.  So I started last week, and today I increased them.

I have to say I have actually made friends with the hills, whilst I hate running up them, it does change the muscles from when running on flat, and also I can run faster down them whilst getting a really good recovery in.

Where as if I run constantly on flat, eventually I get tired and my heart rate slowly rises until I have had enough, with the hills, although my HR increases dramatically as I am running up them, it slows right down running back down and then I feel fresh again to carry along the flats.

So today I ran for 1 hour 25, and 11.32km, I ran up and down 8 hills, all of different gradients and lengths and really enjoyed it and of course I finished it by dipping in the lake.  You can see the stats here:

So that was my week of training, however, I am afraid I did crash and burn on the diet n alcohol front!  I had wine and chocolate on Friday evening and wine and snacks on Saturday, but decided these were my cheat days mid way through my 4 weeks to Finsbury Park... I didn't want to crash and burn and go on a binge the week, or even worse night before the race!  I have been back on to being good today and plan to stay that way until the race evening, however I am not expecting good reults tomorrow on weigh day.

Lastly, earmuffs I hear you ask, well it is what my OH calls bras whilst running around the house with one of mine on his head covering his ears!  I was chosen to win a limited edition Brooks Running UK sports bra box set.  I haven't received them as yet but cannot wait to test them out and review them on here.

Here was the answer I gave to win said bras....

When Shopping for a sports bra, what is the most important feature to you?

Comfort and maximum support for my gravity drooping bazookas!! When I run I need them babies held to attention so I can concentrate on being 'run happy'

Sits here sniggering.

So that is it for this week, i hope that you are all well and enjoying your training/races and keeping fit and injury free.

I will see you next week.

Much Love
FBB
xx