Oops! Broken promise

Time to round off the week.

This week has been a toughie again, My target was to run 70 miles as well as keeping up bike and swim training.
#Monday I did started with a bike ride 51 miles with 2812 ft of elevation, followed with a brick run of 1.7 miles. in the evening I did a 1 mile open water swim.

#Tuesday I ran 15.5 miles, I did this on the loop near my house of just over 5 miles giving over 800 ft of elevation.

#Wednesday I couldn't sleep so went out at 03:45 for a 2 mile run, then went and did the 5 mile loop just after breakfast.

#Thursday I rode my bike along the service road to try and improve my inconsistent pedaling,33.6 miles with just under 800 ft of elevation and followed it with a 1,7 mile brick run. in the evening I ran around Ripon racecourse lake 1.2 miles, before swimming a very weedy 1 mile lap and running around the lake again.

#Friday is rest day Yey! Runstreak doesn't rest though, so an early 1.7 miles sorted that, then a session on the roller and some strength and conditioning done, meant that I could rest.

#Saturday as you may have read in my previous post was a warm up run to Park run, Parkrun (PB 25:49) a jog to the car then four times around a lovely mainly off road 5.6 mile route, 22.3 miles in 4:27:22 with 4350 ft of elevation.

#Sunday Today was tough, tired legs, sore achilles and toes made the planned 15 miles tough. I used the 5 mile route which is predominantly tarmac. On the first lap my left achilles thought it would join my right achilles in being a pain and the toes on my left foot felt cramped, so with the advantage of lap running I went home and swapped trainers, what a difference. I managed to slowly run the next one and a half laps when my right achilles became a nuisance and my stride was slowing and getting shorter. I plodded onwards promising myself that if I got to the bottom of Roughly Bank then I would walk up it. As I approached the incline my legs finally clicked into run mode, not fast but running. This is why I have worked so hard to run even whist tired, to create almost a default setting. Since my legs were now doing as expected I did not walk up Roughly Bank. Promise broken. So today I covered 15.4 miles in 3:13:28.
So did I make my target? You bet I did 73.2 miles of running with an average pace of 11:48 and 7139 ft of elevation in 14.7 hours as well as 2 miles of open water swimming and 85.29 miles of cycling.

235 days of Runstreak completed.

Next week will hopefully be less tough as Saturday is Vitruvian, a middle distance triathlon, so I will be on taper from now till then. Less volume more intensity

Another long day of running including a Parkrun PB

I've had quite a week of running this week, I did my first night run and I've maintained my runstreak. I decided, as last week to run at Studley Royal and Fountains Abbey. I sat last night and worked out a route similar to the route at Equinox24 then asked if anyone wanted to join me. I had only one taker. I think two things were possibly putting people off, lots of runners don't like laps and the other thing was the planned pace of 10-11 minute mile pace. But anyway Hayley was up for it.
This morning I got up and walked the dog to warm my constant aching muscles and bones then drove to Ripon and parked at the car park at Studley Royal before jogging and doing dynamic stretches to the start of the 76th Parkrun at Fountains Abbey http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fountainsabbey/

That was a mile worth of warm up. There was not much time for socialising as we were called to the start, as usual I went towards the back, Hayley joined me and after a few messages we were off. I didn't have any plans only to run hard, as the laps later would be steady. Its important to mix up the training, and if I want to run fast I run best in company. I got a PB last week of 26:21 but after a hard week of training I was thinking that I would not be quick this week. I set off weaving though the crowds and saying hi to friends as I passed. I am not a parkrun regular because Saturday has been long bike day for so long, but I got a feel that I was doing OK, I pushed myself hard and entered the second lap slowly gaining and overtaking people, as I approached the end I didn't have a sprint finish, I was done in. I stopped my watch, 26:01. Wow! PB, hopefully with 25 on the front as I had not stopped my watch immediately.
Hayley was talking to Dawn and we persuaded her to join us for a lap. she agreed to see how it went. We walked up to the visitor center and then jogged to Studley to my car to get water and fuel, another .87 of a mile.

We set off, up the grass hill to the St Mary's Church, out of the gate, past the visitor center and onto Howe Hill where we turned off across the fields with a great view of the Abbey,



Through the cows, the farm and up through the wood to the stone arch, through to to the deer field, down into Studley and over 5 of the bridges, up to Sam,s Seat, down to the entrance, up the main drive down the car exit road to the car park and to the car. Lap 1 complete, 5.6 miles done. Dawn decided to leave it at that but Hayley was happy to carry on. Hayley and I got more water and I refilled my Tailwind http://www.tailwindnutrition.co.uk/ then we walked/jogged Dawn back to the visitor center and ran our second lap, at the car we refueled and dehydrated and set off on the third lap, Hayley started to be bothered by an old injury and decided to make this her last lap. Good decision listening to her body rather than her head as she really wanted to do the four laps but its not worth risking injury and she had run 20 miles today. At the car she decided to go to the cafe to wait whilst I slogged out the final lap, it was tough but I managed and finally made it back to the car for a well deserved ice cream.
Really glad that Hayley and Dawn chose to accompany me today, they helped me get it done.
The 4 laps totaled 22.36 miles which including fuel stops took 4 hours 42 minutes and 52 seconds. I Checked my phone and had a message from Parkrun, Yey! a PB 25:49, position 97 and 2nd in my age cat.
Total running today
1.01 mile W/U 12:21
3.07 mile Parkrun 25:49
0.87 mile C/D
22.36 mile 4 lap run 4:42:52

Total run miles 27.31 time 5:31:10
Didn't take any pics today so they are all old ones.

#Janathon day 17, not gonna let it slip away now

This week my training plan was to do Parkrun to create a benchmark of where my running is at, then again every 6 weeks, do it again to measure progress. The weather had different plans. As forcast last night it rained loads on frozen ground and this morning that froze. The parkrun organisers made the decision to cancel for safety reasons. I thought they would. The dog walk this morning was a bit tricky in places.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fountainsabbey/  is great, it's 5km like all the others, but it is in the grounds of a World Heritage site. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fountains-abbey/ The 2 lap course takes you around the Abbey twice and the beautiful water gardens. Afterwards lots of runners meet at the visitor centre for coffee.  So it is a shame that the weather caused it to be cancelled today. I think I might do it next week. (Weather permitting)

I still had a timed 5 km to do, so this afternoon I set off for Studley Royal, with the intention of running to the church as a warm up, then running home as the timed 5 km.  I set off and everything was going to plan, well for the first mile anyway, as I headed off road onto the public footpath every step was hard, sticky, slippy mud and puddles made going forwards difficult. I stated to formulates new plan, run up to the church as the original plan, then run down the drive to the cattle grid, then back to the church and back down to the cattle grid, that should be about 5 km. 

as I was running up to the church the first time, the cars coming towards me had their lights on and I realised how much the light was fading. The deer were by the road and cars were stopping to look, I had to run around the cars. I got to the gate by the church and waited for my heartrate to drop a bit before running as hard as I could the mile down to the cattle grid before turning and heading back up the deer started crossing and I worried they d stampede but the split whilst I ran past and I heard the rest of them crossing behind me, multiple hooves pattering on the tarmac. 

I pushed hard to the gate before running hard back down, the deer were now all across the road, it was getting dark and I was racing the light. I reached the cattle grid and my watch hadn't buzzed to mark 5 km so I turned and ran 100 m or so up the drive and back, it didn't buzz so I thought it wasn't working and set off over the cattle grids towards home, then it buzzed. I then walked a bit, it was properly dark now, I was glad I had a fantastic head torch, in a drawer at home, but because there was little or no light pollution my night vision was quite good. I set off down the muddy footpath through the fields and was surprised that I was still managing to run at a reasonable pace except where it was really slippery, it was sleeting now, but I was soon back at the road and heading for town and the lights. 

Running in the dark off road works as good training for Equinox24 in September.

I'm really happy to have run my 5km in under 30 minutes, it's the best that I have run since my back went in November. 

17 runs, streaked.