In my previous posts I have been saying how much I am enjoing running again, feeling almost undistracted by worries of target pace; but I have not been completely honest with you, dear reader. There has been one marked exception: A very scary-looking long tempo run (the longest to date), which was part of last week’s plan. I was sure I wouldn’t be able to keep to the pace over the full 70′, and kept postponing it (it was scheduled for last Tuesday, I ended up doing it on Saturday) so… I bottled it and did it on the treadmill instead(*)! Surprisingly, it went much better than I had feared, I managed to complete it well within target pace without feeling I had taxed myself too much. That was a very welcome confidence boost with just over 2 months to go, I just need to make sure the next one is run on roads now!
The only (although quite significant) departure from the plan last week is that I didn’t get my long run in: Sunday was Leicester Skyride (an annual cycling event in the city, where roads are closed to other traffic and all sorts of events are put on), so Demi and I declared it a cycling day instead.
It was a lovely day out, one of those where everything comes together: the weather held, we bumped into some other running friends on their bikes and we all met a few km later to watch Tony and the Crooked Smile playing live at the Western – which just happened to be hosting a real ale festival! Ale, women (and I mean my darling wife of course!) and music, could things get any better? Surprisingly they could: back in the village, our local was holding a charity event in support of Rainbows (a hospice for children and young people), and we were back home in time to change quickly and pop over to watch more live bands and drink some more beer! You can see there is a theme developing here…
So given that eating and drinking probably took up as much of the day as cycling, I’m not sure I can’t even say I cross-trained on Sunday, but I don’t regret it! It was a wonderful day, a very welcome change to our routine, and as long as I am a good boy from now on, eat all my veg and go on all my long runs, I don’t think it will have compromised my training much!
(*) I think I’ve mentioned that I find it much easier to maintain a fast pace on a treadmill, which keeps the pace for you so (unless you actively change the settings) you can’t drift to a slower pace as you get tired. Which is one of the reasons by the way why I don’t think running on a treadmill is as valuable training as running outdoors, i.e. I don’t feel it works on the psychological element – at least not for me.
Running the Marathon. Again. 