The Boys Were Back in Town on Wednesday

For the first ICA Team (work) lunch run for over five years! A decade ago, it was once a week, we're just hoping for once a month. It felt good and it wasn't too shabby a time, quickest on the route by over a minute.

Monday was a treadmill session, 400's. Tuesday was the second of the Zwift spring training sessions. We've covered Wednesday. Thursday was more on the bike, more of a recovery than anything else and Friday was an easy treadmill jog ahead of today's hard tempo run. It was probably edging towards threshold really. 11k in the heart of the forest, just outside 5min kilometre pace. I went at it hard. Even managed to get close to a few segment times from 2013 - that was a surprise as I'm still nowhere near where I was back in 2013. Still, it bodes well that things are still heading in the right direction...

Back to the Park for a PB

I've decided I'm going to try and do a Parkrun once a month or there abouts. It should keep me sharp and help gauge how my trainings going. With that in mind, I set off in the fog this morning. Destination, Mallards Pike.

After a relatively high training load this week, I wasn't expecting to go super quick. My legs didn't feel great. I was hoping I could get somewhere near last month's comeback time, but I wasn't going to beat myself up if I missed it by a margin as I've put in some solid work this week.

Anyway, with that said, I did cheekily set my pace target ten seconds up on last months' time. Well, it never hurts to be optimistic... And as it turned out that that optimism was well placed, as I smashed through the 23-minute barrier by a full one second. Twenty seconds improved from last month. Happy and more than a little suprised with that. Back of the net.

Recapping the week's training for the record. Tuesday, I ran a random mix of 500, 600 and 700m reps. A solid session. Wednesday was just a Zwift ride. There was no plan, but when I was underway, on a randomly picked route, I realised it was a 3km climb and I decided to hammer it. I was out the saddle for two thirds and was rewarded with a PB. Not actually by many seconds because my previous time was in an event with the pelotons draft. My power average this time, was way higher. Thursday ended up being a treadmill hill session and Friday was the first stage of the Zwift spring training (bike). A surprisingly hard session. Rest day tomorrow...

A Decent Week

So, the away day didn't happen Monday. I couldn't face a long run; my legs weren't feeling fresh enough. Instead, I ran the short village loop, and I was right not to do the long run. I set off at a fair whack but was hanging on by the end. It was my fastest time on the loop and a good time to bring down the curtain on five back-to-back days of running and my highest weekly mileage so far (and I'm not including this run). 

The rest of the week has been decent. A mix of runs and Zwift. I thoroughly enjoyed Thursday's race prep reps. I pushed up the pace to 4:25 for the kilometre reps and 4:00 for the 5 off 30s reps. Three sets in total. It was the fastest I've run that session and I wasn't anywhere near falling off the back, so the next one will be a little faster, but probably I'll add another set.

I enjoyed yesterday's longish run. I didn't push it hard, but it was, as is normal for round here, hilly so it wasn't a walk in the park. And when the sun came out, it was, overall, very pleasant. Today was an easy 5k on the treadmill as my legs didn't feel overly fresh and the spring of the treadmill reduces the impact.

A Pair of Nines

After last week's pair of sixes, I upped the ante with back-to-back 9k's. I do wish it was a little less hilly round here though. Just once I'd like a nice flat pootle. Both Friday's run and todays were at a decent pace for a hilly run, and I wasn't fresh on either day as I'd fitted in an interval session on the Treadmill Thursday. Up at the front of the week was a bike session and an easy jog. So, it's been another good week of training. May slip in a rest day tomorrow and then possibly an away day somewhere Monday.

Something A Little Different

Different but not exactly earth shattering. I didn't do a long run last week. After my longest long run the weekend before, this weekend, because it was peeing down, I decided to cut back on the long run and head out for a couple of 5-6k runs outside - that's it was p!$$ing down didn't at all influence my decision....

It was the first time I've run non-treadmill consecutive days and I was feeling it Sunday afternoon. But I need to toughen up a bit and shift more of my runs from the treadmill. Maybe to 50:50 run to treadmill or even higher. The treadmill is good for avoiding injury though and is a boon for the intervals, but I definitely need to toughen up a bit - without getting injured, of course, so it'll be careful transition.

Today I ran a 40-minute recovery treadmill session. Nice and gentle as my legs felt terrible in the first couple of k's and I almost stopped but I persevered and by the end I was actually feeling really good. That is the one thing or rather, one of things I'm finding in my old age, that everything takes much longer to get going....