running home by Alaistair

Started the week with a recovery run Tuesday, run early at work with a fella who was kind enough not to push the effort, weather was lovely and held for most of the week; was great to running back in shorts and summer rig.

Tue 9 Mar,  5.11 miles,  43:42,  8:33 min/miles

Following day waited for the sun to get high and the temperature rise, ran just before lunch time in some brilliant sunny weather. Kept it steady and didn’t force the pace.

Wed 10 Mar,  6.11 miles,  50:23,  8:15 min/miles

Thursday ran a quick warm up session before hitting the gym, didn’t hang around and stepped the effort up a gear, felt comfortable.

Thurs 11 Mar,  4.47 miles,  33:20, 7:27 min/miles

Splits: 7:49, 7:30, 7:32, 7:11, 7:02

In the gym things didn’t go well, discovered a worrying ache that doesn’t appear running related.

The fella I run with the most at work was back Friday and I’d primed him for the possibility of a quick run? Was up for the idea but he had no idea just how much. Weather was rubbish, raining, windy which made it feel biting cold into the rain. We headed out before 8am and got straight into some quicker running, conditions really were rubbish. A mile in and we got into some climbs, right into the teeth of the wind and rain, upside was we were both really keen to give it a blast so dug in a ground out the run, really pushed hard over the last couple of miles finishing strong.

Fri 12 Mar,  7.4 miles,  56:33,  7:38 min/miles

Splits: 7:33, 7:42, 7:54, 7:39, 7:55, 7:42, 7:20, 6:57

Had struggled with some troublesome abdominal pain in the early part of the run but eased after a few miles.

Didn’t sleep well last night so today’s long run was always going to be a complete shot-in-the-dark. Knew what I wanted to achieve but just seemed unlikely I could cover the ground in my current state? Headed out very early running a very easy 4 miles just to get going, all seemed fine albeit stomach felt tender. Gradually the tenderness became pain and it all got very frustrating.

At 7 miles was ready to throw in the towel and walk home, however, was a good 3 miles out in the countryside to the east of York so would’ve been a long flippin walk. Not sure why but the longer I ran the more determined I became to finish the run. Used Go-gel at 1:30 & 2:30 with no problem. Past 2 hours running my pace fell away, didn’t fight to stay with it. Was glad to finish and hope have not caused any more damage to whatever’s going on inside.

Sun 14 Mar, Villages,  20.33 miles,  3:02:29,  8:59 min/miles

Will try to see the doctor tomorrow and will be honest right up to the point that I ran 20 miles yesterday