Running with a Goal in Mind

Hello Readers,

My coach has often referred to me in the past as tenacious, I didn't even know what it meant when he first said it, in fact it just reminded me of Tenacious D and considering some of the things they sing about I was worried.  

But during my journey to London Marathon it became apparent why he called me it....and this leads me nicely onto today's quote (stolen) 'Some people succeed because they are destined, but most because they are determined.'

Ok.... so a quick round up since I last wrote:

I have been doing really well with my training, managing pretty much all of my plans. Richard has changed my runs now to two interval sessions and a LSR and an extra x train/Snc.  I thought I was going to hate having an extra interval session, but so far I quite like it, but then it is only 6 x 2minutes work 60s rest at the moment and I can run them quite fast (for me) and manage them without dying.  I still hate the normal interval session which is now at 4 x 6 minutes.

This week:

Monday - Intervals at the gym

10 minutes warm up followed by 6 x 2 minutes work and 60 seconds rest followed by 10 minutes cool down.  I went with a progression session, starting with the first interval on 9km/h and increasing by 0.2 each interval finally finishing on 10km/h.  Went really well and finished thinking I could have pushed harder, so may play with speeds next time.

Thursday - Intervals outside 

10 minutes warm up 4 x 6m work 90s rest followed by 10 minutes cool down.  Legs felt good on this session however I wasn't going as fast as I would have liked, but knew had I have gone faster I would have burnt out and not finished the session.

Friday - Massage

So my lovely Sharon came to massage away my tightened muscles, I tried meditation, I tried ignoring I tried wiggling my toes and fingers, but nothing helped block out the pain in my right biceps femoris or solius.  On the upside my lower back and glutes which I am normally in agony with were fine... meaning that the new mobility exercises I keep doing are working, so now to work on making sure I always roll!!

Saturday - LSR

OK so before I speak about today's long run, I must mention the previous 2:

19th February -  I had had a really cr*p week, with the car breaking down and then finding out it would cost more than its worth to fix.  Having to walk and bus to work making my journey over an hour rather than the 10 minutes it takes me in the car.  I was going to look at another car and so decided to get out early for a run, but 10 minutes into the run I realised my watch wasn't working, spent about 5 minutes trying to sort it and of I went again, but by then I was not feeling it, my legs were heavy and I just felt really deflated.  Think I managed about 35 minutes in total. 

24th February -  I chose to go out Saturday as the sun was shining.  It made a massive difference, and for the first time i came very close to just running and enjoying, and not thinking.  On the most part I still concentrated on using my glutes and regulating y breathing, but I had points where I forgot and thought about things around me and it didn't hinder the run.

I managed 8k fully run in 1:00:20 and felt really happy with this progress.

So to today, Plan was to run 70 minutes, I probably shouldn't have run today having had the massage last night but again the sun was shining and when I looked at the weather it look really bad tomorrow.  So off I went, for the first 20 minutes or so, it felt a massive struggle, my left leg hurt to lift, it felt very hard and heavy in the upper part.  This gave me the sense that I wasn't going to be able to run 70 minutes in full and I would have to take a walk break.  So I went on to 35 minutes and took a gel, and thought id just continue to 40 minutes and then walk, but forgot and carried on running, feeling better as I went.  

Again I had parts where I forgot about what I was doing and enjoyed the views, and before long I was back along the last straight of the river back.  I had done 50 minutes, my legs were tired, but I had kept my pace to keep my breathing regulated, and was thinking just 10 minutes to go until I had done same as last week.  

It was at this point I got a feeling I had not felt since the end of March 2016, the need to get to the same time/distance as last week.  Once this was achieved, the determination to complete the planned 10 minutes extra.  Once this was achieved the tenacious side of me saw I was at 9.2km and desired that 10k.  I carried on, in fact I didn't just carry on but picked up speed to pick up my fastest km of the entire 10k.

10k - 1:16:05

I felt that exhilaration, again something I had not felt in so long, and thoughts already coming through of races to book and distance to make up before Milton Keynes Half Marathon on 1st May.

However there was one very small disappointment... during the run I ran around these little islands at the side of a river by a park, but my watch couldn't keep up and thought I was staying in the same place so my pace plummeted... therefore I reckon I may have done another 0.5km (but that could be an exaggeration) and actually what I should be thinking is, I just did 10k in 1:16, having not been able to to run any where near that distance of late and to be able to do it only a couple of minutes slower than my PB is amazing.

So as my title goes, 'running with a goal in mind' certainly has its benefits.  I am looking forward to see what I can produce over the coming weeks.

Oh yes another little piece of info for you lovely lot, I have not lot weight, I have put it on (oops) but for the first tie in my life I decided to give something up for Lent, and I chose the one thing that would be harder than quitting smoking, and that is wine... Red/White/Pink/Fizzy/Prosecco/Port...  I am on day 4 and doing ok... I am sure it isn't going to be as easy as the time goes on.  I am hoping though that without the wine, the weight should start to drop off so we shall see.

So for now, I am going to love you and leave you and enjoy a relaxing evening with a hot chocolate.

Much Love

FBB 

xx