Detour

Week seven of my marathon training programme did not go according to plan with only 34 miles on the clock and more than half of those clocked in today's long run. My first run wasn't until thursday, and easy 5.84miles or so at lunchtime with a colleague from work. I felt fine considering I was still recovering from a cold. Things were a bit tight workwise on friday and I was too lazy/tired to rise at 0530 hrs to get in my scheduled 7 miles with 8 x 2 min @ 3k pace (05:48). I did manage to get 30 minutes on the treadmill in the evening with 5 x 2 min @ 14.5 to 15.5 kph (06:14 to 06:40 pace) falling back to a base pace of 11 kph (08:47 pace) - that was all I could manage before I headed out on the town with the team from work for a bite to eat and a few drinks. Satruday's run involved running the 7 miles into town before 1100hrs to pick up my car which I left in a car park overnight. Long run postponed until sunday - boy was I gald to get to the car as I was getting progresslvely tired - a pace of 07:42 partly explains the tiredness, that and a late night (to bed @ 0250hrs) usually does it for me.

This mornings long run got postponed for 2 hours as the rain was coming down when I first poked my nose outside the door. When it cleared I headed out for 17.7 miles (1 mile up on last week) of steady running. I felt tired and sluggish from mile one which stayed with me pretty much throughout the run - not a pleasant experience. Despite not feeling the best I still managed to churn out the miles - it was like I was on autopilot. I could have cut it short by 1 mile on the way home but decided that the discomfort would be no greater if I stuck to my planned distance.

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A rest day tomorrow hopefully will leave my legs fresh for next weeks schedule (week 8 is a cut-back week so it should be manageable)

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Thur 31st Jan

5.84 miles in 48:17 (08:16 pace @ 130 HR)

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Fri 1st Feb

3.8 miles @ 30:00 (07:54 pace @ 150 HR) with 5 x 2 min @ 06:14 to 06:40 pace

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Sat 2nd Feb

7 miles in 54:04 (07:43 pace @ 145 HR)

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Sun 3rd Feb

17.7 miles in 02:18:44 (07:50 pace @ 139 HR)

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The higher than usual HR says it all - recovering from a cold and burning the candle at both ends.

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With January 2008 down I have 230 miles on the clock and two races (and PB's) under my belt.