Welcome back to another post on my blog! This week was the first week of my new training block, building towards my solo 50 mile ‘April Fool’ run on April 1st. That meant after 2 weeks recovery where I’d almost exclusively stuck to roads it was time for a return to the trails and hills. The structure to this week is a little different to usual as this weekend I was in Wakefield with the Loughborough Lightning netball team in my role as data analyst. I therefore had to get my long runs done midweek rather than at the weekend as usual.
Wednesday – 20 miles
The first of those long runs was in fact my longest run of the week. The weather for the morning was forecast to be very wet and very windy, which for some reason I decided was the perfect opportunity to go for a run. I mean rationally it does make sense to test myself in uncomfortable conditions, but you do have to question my sanity!
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| Spotted this statue on Beacon Hill for the first time |
I have to
say I surprised myself with just how much I enjoyed it, despite the conditions!
There were very few people around other than those exercising their
dogs, and so I could just relax into my own mental space. I've also realised that 20
miles is no longer a daunting distance for me, a fact I’m very proud of after
the last few months training. It was only this time last year I was running 20 miles for the very first time when training for a marathon!
This run was
also a proof of concept for what I currently plan to be my birthday challenge this year. For those who don’t know, I like to do an endurance challenge on my
birthday, like last year when I did my first 200km cycle. Earlier this week
my brain went ‘what if you do 23 laps of Beacon Hill for your 23rd
birthday, that would be appropriate?’. In total that would be around 52 miles,
with 7,500 ft of elevation, so certainly a challenge worthy of the tradition!
It will obviously depend on how my legs are 5 weeks after the SDW100, but doing
7 laps this week showed me that actually I might enjoy the longer one. I'm not sure exactly why but Beacon Hill is definitely my favourite place to run near Loughborough, and so it seems right to spend part of my birthday there, even if that means running up and down the same loop repetitively. Again,
I’d forgive you for questioning my sanity! If this was 7 imagine what 23 laps would be like!
Thursday – 15km easy
Regular readers of my blog will know that I normally have a 10km easy run planned each week. In fact I’ve had one almost every single week for the last 9 months! I’m now trying to find ways to gradually increase my mileage without having to add an extra run into my programme, and so adding an extra 5km here seemed a simple solution.
This week it
was just a case of getting through the distance, so probably not the best time
to judge if the extra distance is a successful idea. In order to go to the
netball I had to get a negative covid test, and mine was scheduled for 8am. So
despite yet more rain and an even stronger wind I just headed for an early plod
around town, sticking to around 9 minute miles. Of course it’s typical that the
sun came out less than 5 minutes after I got home, but most importantly the
test came back negative so I was cleared to travel!
Friday – 3 hours
You probably won’t be surprised to hear that when I woke on Friday, guess what, it was raining again! I could have done without a 3rd consecutive day of running in the rain, but due to the netball I was essentially backed into a corner – it was either do this run then or not do it at all. So of course I laced up my shoes and headed out the door, reminding myself that the weather could be bad on race day and I’d just have to get on with it then.
Thankfully the rain eased after the first 45 minutes, although by that point I was soaked through. It would have been fine if it wasn’t also very windy and cold, but I just got my head down and got on with the challenge I’d set myself - the ‘Run Every Road’ challenge. Obviously with the pandemic restricting travel the areas that we can train have been limited, and so this challenge aims to help give some variety by exploring areas you might not have before. There are several variations such as run every road in a 1 mile radius, but I’m going for the traditional ‘run every road in my town’. I’ve got 6 months to do this before I move which should be enough time, although Loughborough is quite a large area!
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| Part 1 (of many) |
After about
90 minutes I’d completed the section of town that I’d targeted for this week,
and so just set off on a loop around the edge of Loughborough for the rest of
the time. Towards the end I finally started to relax and embrace the
conditions, although I was still scurrying for cover when we got a heavy hail
shower, it’s surprising how painful that can be!
By the end I’d
run almost 19 miles and was proud to have done the full time. It was a reminder
to me how bad things (whether it be weather or something else in life) are
usually transient, and so if you get your head down and keep going eventually
things will be better. When I’m running the SDW100 in June there’s likely to be
at least one bit of rain, but if I just keep moving then hopefully there will
be plenty of nice weather too.
My main view this
weekend
This was my first run outside of Loughborough since my marathon in September! Like I mentioned, this weekend I was in Wakefield for the netball. After our 56-37 win vs Surrey Storm on Saturday, we were staying at the Weetwood hotel overnight before our Sunday game vs London Pulse. For the players this was a chance for some recovery and physio, which left me with the opportunity to go for a nice run. In fact since I went out before 7am there's a fair chance most of the players were just asleep!
Initially my training plan said that this would be an interval run, but once I realised that this would be before breakfast I knew that wouldn't be a good idea. In my opinion interval sessions are only useful as a high quality, high intensity session, and I know myself well enough to understand that any running before I've eaten is not going to meet either of those criteria. So since intervals are probably the least important part of my training plan, it seemed sensible to just replace it with an hour of easy running.
Having spoken to the hotel staff they suggested using the rugby pitch, and so I spent most of the time doing laps of that. It gave me the chance to call my mum for Mother's Day, and also was an opportunity for a mental break. Having been living by myself for the past year it's great to suddenly be in a team environment, but also very different to what I'm used to!
With the run done, I've just about had time to edit this post and get it published before our 2nd game this afternoon - check my Instagram (@andrewsultrablog) to find out the result of that one. Overall I'm proud to have managed to get 55 miles in while also completing my full time job for Uber and my voluntary weekend away with the netball. It's been hectic, and to those of you who are mothers' and are still putting up high weekly mileages I don't know how you fit it all in, but it's been a very rewarding week as well.
Week – 55.42 miles (just 0.06 off my PB!)
March – 88.6 miles
2021 – 473.1 miles
Thank you
for reading! Next week should contain similar runs to this week, with a couple
of small extensions to facilitate a new weekly mileage PB! Hopefully it will
follow a more traditional structure as well as I could certainly do with a bit
of rest in midweek, and fingers crossed there'll also be a lot less rain. How was your training this week?
For more regular updates, you can follow me on Instagram @andrewsultrablog,
while to get more detail on my training, follow me on Strava: https://www.strava.com/athletes/5373701
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