I had some good times and some bad times this week. I think overall what’s happening is what I sort of guessed would happen – I’ve hit a plateau and the steady improvements I saw in the first few months have tailed off a bit. It’s only to be expected, so I need to dig deep now and make sure I don’t lose focus or get disillusioned.
The biggest fear/doubt/worry I’ve got at the moment is the long runs. Once I get past a certain distance I just fall apart mentally, rather than physically. My long run this week went to pot in the last few miles so I need to make sure I have a good long run experience to get over that. I wasn’t properly prepared so I finished hungry, thirsty and over-tired – all lessons to learn.
Here’s how week 13 panned out:
- Monday: 14 miles – I finished it, but had to do some walking and wasn’t pleased with my 11.04 minute/mile average pace
- Tuesday: fartlek fail – my chafing injury from last week turned 45 minutes into 20 minutes
- Wednesday: jog 20 – 10 minutes to the gym, 1 hour weights (legs), 10 minutes home
- Thursday: run 60, 1 hour climbing
- Friday: jog 20 – 10 minutes to the gym, 1 hour weights (back), 10 minutes home
- Saturday: rest
- Sunday: York 10k – race review coming later this week
My main lessons are:
- Don’t drift away from the training plan
- Don’t do a long run when I’m tired and badly prepared
- Focus on the positives and don’t let one crappy run destroy all the progress I’ve made
Onwards and upwards for week 14!