Quest for a 15

One door slams shut and another opens...

Moving from indoors towards the outdoor season and in the break between seasons the focus is very much 5k now. If I can hit that target I can move towards track and have fun.

Monday - woke up really, really tired. Sore throat too. With Ange away i've been spread very think this weekend and my body has responded badly. Too many matches burned. Rest day, not even lights strength work. Went to bed at 9.30 and slept heavy.

Tuesday - up and feel much better. Still a tickle in there but legs feel very good this morning. Easy & rest = adaptions. DC joining me for session so happy days - a great reason not to bail! Not sure how I'll feel but push on anyway. Meet at PnR and into -

Warm up - 1.36 miles @ 6.36/mm 139 bpm. That felt crazy easy.

strides and drills then got on with session. 2 x 2 miles

2 miles - 10.42 - 5.21/mm - 161 bpm (168 max). Felt a bit bleugh but once I got going it was nice and consistent. HR under control and max at that pace was end of 5k mile 1 target so strong.

rest - 4.40 as gave DC full 4 mins

2 miles - 10.40 - 5.20/mm - 166 bpm (169 max). Weird one. Garmin was 5.15 pace for 1.5 miles but 5.28 for 2nd mile. Don't think I slowed that much lol. Still either way was a solid hit out there and HR never went lunar. 

Cool down - 2.42 miles at 6.48/mm - 148 bpm. Nice and relaxed chatty cool down.

Really good session. 4 miles of 5.20 pace feeling pretty strong. Much improved on Saturday tbf. I'll be confident of running 5.30 pace for 10k off the back of that. Long term target for these sessions is 5.10 pace. It's getting closer. Really confident at 5.20 low pace right now, just need a clear run at a 5k and maybe a pipe cleaner to get a time down.

Legs feel all good, need to focus on some strength tho.

Wednesday - feel good today, legs all ok first thing - positive sign. First time in a while I haven't had aches and pains. Did some light S&C yesterday and I'll do another 15-20 mins this morning. Just calfs and plyos and maybe some hammys. Weather finally looks like we're on the last legs of the shitty bits. In a months time hopefully with better daylight and warmer weather things will pick up. Realisation that Parkrun times are not working out right now, just too early and cold for serious effort so hopefully 5k and 10k in a couple of weeks will be much better.

Off to coke club +. Started with 1.7 miles steady (6.08/mm avge) and then 8 easy with Rich & Wayne. Feels OK, nice easy run. Bit cold. Legs all good.

Thursday - wake up feeling a bit bleugh. Get to track. Fucking wind is brutal already. Not feeling this. Run in Vapors today just to give the legs some recovery. plan was 2 x 5 x 300m off about 45 and lap walk between sets. Without boring myself here I ended up doing 4 x 300m (51,51,52,53) off about 40 recovery. Felt so shit that I ended up binning my Garmin. 300m walk and then 4 x 200m off about 30 rest all in I'm guessing 34s. On cool down I end up stopping. Pretty shattered.

So - dog shit session. First up - I'm not trying any speedwork anymore on track solo in wind over 10 mph. Last few have been crap and I'm not making progress. I'll treadmill when it's this bad. Secondly - coke club I'm going to just do the normal route easy and not tag on the extra steady bit. Thirdly - I'm still feeling something in my system. I was battered today, just weak as a kitten.

So I am annoyed BUT there is reasoning behind why it was so garbage. No double tonight, will run easy plus strides tomorrow and long easy Sat and do something Sunday. Give my body a chance to get back on top form.

Friday - ok, today is a concerted effort to loosen my back and hips off. I'll run easy later - still stewing on the bad sesh BUT I know I'm not 100% so the plan is easy today, easy long tomorrow and see what's happening Sunday - will possibly just run steady as out early.

Got to stop getting down on bad track sessions for now. I'll do a separate blog about that and the master plan now actually - done

Out the door later today and it's basically been rain - run - rain - sun all day and the run was the same. 6 miles of trails around Cambourne in 7.36/mm for 143 bpm. Nice and relaxed, was proper cross country tho hence the higher than expected HR. Good run, feeling better but still not quite right. Good news is my body feels pretty solid right now, no grumbles there. Whatever is in my system is just lingering a bit.

Easy to see how some climbing and wind really affect me, I'm just not strong enough - it's like my cycling days all over again. I get battered and struggle. Fast and flat I am golden it seems. I'm built for indoor racing lol.

Not too worried and know I have stuff to work on. It's still 7.30s over proper boggy XC and I very nearly went arse over tit.

Feeling better about the week now. Long run tomorrow. Something Sunday and 50 ish for the week. Looking forward to getting back to racing again the following 2 weeks I am just hoping for no wind, dry & warm weather for those days!!

Saturday - out for a long easy with Dan & Gemma. Swavesey - Girton - Northstowe and back followed by brekky at Herbies. Felt a bit pacey out the door but settled in 7.30s down to 7s by the finish. Felt OK, just very very tired once I got home. Just can't seem to recover quick enough. Think there is something in my system still just causing a bit of a hangover. Will do something easy tomorrow and then rest up Monday and hopefully turbo charge recovery from there into Thorney next weekend. Will prob just do the one session next week and the rest easy up to the race. 

If I can come out the other side I am clearly in great shape and times should follow. Just this weather dragging things down at the minute and it's no fun. Looks to be wet and windy for the forseable too.

Sunday - up early to take Ange & J to chariots. Did my run before watching them and running back to car. 9.2 miles @ 7.18 avge nice and relaxed.

52 miles for the week, all in singles. Horrific session on Thursday but solid one on Tuesday. Not feeling 100% healthy so need to address that this week in time for Sunday. Feeling very tired all week.

Pretty happy with where I am at. Watching results around me I am seeing people doing well that I should be competitive with so need to start increasing form and getting times out there.