Week 2 - Breakdown

What a difference a week makes! After stewing on that terrible Parkrun this week went so much better.

16.49 at Storys. To be fair it was set up perfectly. Zero wind and I had Ty to chase for the first mile and a half and then Jacob to about 1k out. Still have the same problem that I can't run too fast in the first mile but turned out progressive splits - 5.30, 5.27, 5.22

The week went much better than the previous week. Full rest day Monday just does wonders. Last week I was trying to push the distance and just built too much lazy fatigue.

The idea this week was to strip the fat before parkrun and do nothing that wasn't productive.

Tuesdays session was a progression to 20.7 kmph and starting to get the early signs that there is some degree of relaxation there. Short cool down this week rather than throwing in nearly 3 miles like last week.

Cokeclub was so much easier and over a minute per mile faster at 6.56/mm and the NB fuelcell just feel insanely comfortable. So pissed that they don't work with Stryd.

Thursday session was another step forward. Again starting to get a sense that I can relax at that effort. Added in 3 x 30 sec hard efforts afterwards. I think this session will be my winter foundation as I move it outdoors and aim to get to 4 reps and start building time on each rep. I'll progress to 4 x 4 mins at some stage but right now it's working as planned.

Friday ran Garminless to feel and really enjoyed it.

Saturday Parkrun as described. Unbelivably my only ever Parkrun PB (if you don't count my first one - a 17.08 in 2010). 11 years trying to crack 17 !! I'll now settle these down and run true tempo and hopefully these will be around 17 dead for a relaxed hard effort from now on with consistent 5.2x splits) Really happy that Saturday was progressive though. Good signs training block is reaping rewards.

Sunday - hills with the lads. 8 x longer road hill in Gransden followed by a long hilly easy run to make it 12 miles.  Really enjoyed it and finished the week feeling strong and happy for the first time in a while!

40.3 miles for the week, that's 2 decent weeks banked hitting each session. I'll start to think about where I am looking to move forward but maybe at this stage do 3 solid weeks followed by an easier week with maybe just 1 session and 5 run days. Number 1 aim is staying healthy !

Weekly breakdown this week was much better than last week. 25% of volume done at fast effort (tempo and faster) compared to 21% last week however 20% done at steady effort this week (none last week) and 54% easy compared to 78% last week. Week 1 my easy runs were also considerably slower. Nothing wrong with that in itself but I think it added too much fatigue wheras this week I felt much much sharper.

Huntingdon Parkrun next weekend. PB there is 18.57 so very confident I can beat that one ! It's a tougher course but great training for Mansfield in a few weeks.