Road to Vienna by antonytowers

A little late but week 6 of the training is now complete and week 7 underway.

Week 6 saw me working back in England and I managed a couple of runs around the town of Lichfield on Monday evening then Wednesday morning.  The weather was horrible with the wind and rain, coupled with me still trying to shake a bad cold.  However, i managed the fastest average time of the training so far, completing Wednesday's 6.63km in 38.07minutes at an average time of 10.44kmph.

Back home to Austria on Thursday evening and I completed the long run of the week of 13.91km in a decent 1hr 27 mins and 37 seconds (av 9.53kmph).  My aim is to average 10km (I used to average 12km back in 2002 before I decided to abuse my body with beer, curry and 2 blown achilles heels) - so I've a lot of ground still to catch up.

The new Nike running shoes are settling in nicely.  I bought a wristband and sensor for it and tried it out for the first time.  It needed calibrating, which was a breeze to do online, comparing against the distance mapped in mapmyrun.  I ran today and the distance logged was absolutely bang-on to the metre - I really do not know how that thing works - but it's good!  I'm now running to both heartbeat and pace.

All this running malarky aint half getting me around the area.  I'm learning new routes, places, short-cuts and all sorts of lanes that I never knew existed near my house.

Finally, I'm building up to the long run of the week on Friday. A killer 21km (5km more than I've ever run before).  I think I'm going to take it easy during that one and just aim to finish!

Week 5 over with and I've missed my first run. On Monday, I came down with a cold/flu virus. The weather on the south coast also didn't help and the combination of both meant no Quality run on Wednesday. I feel really guilty about it.

Still feeling under the weather, I decided to at least attempt the 16km long run on Saturday. To my shock. I felt fine after the first 5 minutes. I knew I wasn't 100%, but the adrenaline kicked in I think and the flu disappeared for the length of the run. I took it nice and easy, having never been this distance before, and I wanted to make sure I completed it first and foremost. In the end, I managed fine.

I felt a bit weak afterwards, and I knew that my body was low on fuel when i was doing my cool-down stretches etc. After a long bath, I knew something was wrong though and I felt really weak and sick. My blood pressure had dropped to 91/67 - on the limits of low blood-pressure, which isn't like me at all. My heartrate was 89 at rest too - so i think my body needed a bit of energy back. An hour later though and everything was back to normal - so no big deal in the end.

I'm looking forward to my recovery run today.  The sun is shining and teh sky is blue.  Perfect.

Next week should be ok.  Back to Lichfield and I already have the runs I'm going to do mapped out.  The plan only calls for a 13km run next week.  Somehow I feel like I'm ready to up the distance to 20km.  However, I'm sure the plan is designed to maximise the benefits - so I'll be sticking to it!