It’s been a great week for me, running wise. I’ve felt fit, strong, fast(ish), and above all, confident.

I feel confident that I can train hard for this marathon, confident that I can fit all my workouts into my schedule one way or another, and confident that I can push myself come November 3rd.

Monday– Rest and Sports Massages

I had my second sports massage this week, and whilst I definitely think that massage is the wrong word for it, they do seem to be working! My muscles aren’t feeling as tight this training cycle, and the niggling knee pains are not a problem.

Tuesday– 45 mins easy with 4 X 100m Strides, and Cyclebeat

This was an easy run before work, and I felt great, squeezing in 5 miles along the Thames. After work, Laura had invited me to join her for a spinning class at Cyclebeat. I’d heard a lot about Cyclebeat so was excited to give it a go. Despite never using clip-in shoes before on a bike, we both decided to give them a go during the class, this was a great idea as it really helped maintain your pedal stroke speed with the benefit of the up-drag rather than just pushing down on the pedal. We had our bikes set up for us by the really helpful Gareth from the front desk, who also had to show us how to clip our shoes on and off the pedals! The 45 minute class took us through multiple hill climbs, intervals and sprints, as well as ‘power surges’, all whilst watching your position in the class on the Beatboard (a power/speed leaderboard linked up with all of your bike numbers!) Laura and I finished in the middle of the class, 17 and 18 respectively, not bad but certainly room for improvement.
We were also dripping in sweat, with hearts racing- we both agreed it was one of the sweatiest workouts we had done in a long time! You can log on to get details of your workout afterwards- turns out we cycled 15 miles during the class!

Wednesday– PT Crossfit Session and Sweaty Speed Session

After last week’s squat session, I was glad that Stephen went easy on the legs this week, instead focusing on Crossfit staples such as the Clean and Jerk, Ring dips and deadlifts. After going through the techniques to make sure I got them right, I completed a very sweaty circuit.

After work, we had the last of the Sweaty Speed Sessions for this summer, where the girls did 100m repeats. It was really sad to know that there will be no more track sessions on a Weds evening, but I am so glad that Sweaty Betty allowed us to run it for 6 weeks, and who knows, maybe we’ll be back!

Thursday– Progression Run
15 mins @9.40 min pace, 15 min @9.30min pace, 15 min @ 9.20 min pace

Progression runs are runs that gradually increase in pace, they help improve your sense of pacing, teach your body to speed up at the end of a run, and is good practise so that you don’t fade out towards the end of a race. I’m not brilliant at negative splitting (speeding up during the second half of a run) and tend to slow down towards the end of long runs, so this is great for making me hold back at the start of a run! I tried out some new trail shoes that Brooks sent me, the Cascadia 8s. Since I do a lot of my runs along the Thames Tow Path, I thought these multi-terrain shoes would be perfect on the uneven ground. I’m planning on doing a full review when I’ve worn them a little more, but they were great on this short run, and although they weren’t as great as my Ravenna’s on the pavement, they more than made up for it on the tow path. (PS I love the new colour of the Ravenna’s, wish they came with jazzy laces though!)

Friday– 40 min @9.30 min mile pace

Lovely little pre-work run, done whilst listening to a Jillian Michael’s podcast. I used to think that I needed music to motivate me to run, but during her podcast, Jillian suggested listening to audio books whilst on long runs to ‘zone out’, which might be an idea for my 18+ milers!

Saturday– 15 Miles

Before I got my place to run NYCM, Women’s Running Magazine and Write this Run teamed up and offered a few of us places in the Women’s Running 10K race in exchange for writing about our training on their website (you can read my training blogs here and here!) I am never one to turn down free entry into a race so was thrilled with this exchange.

I ran the 9 Miles from home to Finsbury Park, arriving just in time to use the loo, meet up with the other Write this Run girls, and head to the start line. For me this race wasn’t about a good time, it was about finishing with a solid, steady pace for the entire 15 miles, and not getting swept up in the race day excitement. I finished the 10K in 57.40, with an average speed of 9.27 min miles for the whole 15 mile run. The run was made so much easier, mentally, by splitting it into two runs, a 9 miler and a 6 miler, and it certainly helped having a finish line to cross and medal to collect at the end!

Overall a great week of training, especially reflecting on it from a poolside sunlounger in Portugal- hence the delay in blogging. Service will return as normal later in the week!

I am running with New York Marathon with 2.09 events, on a Media spot through www.handbag.com. It’s not too late to sign up to run the NYCM with them this year too. Follow my training on Handbag and on the blog! Week 1 Training Begins
Week 2 Training and What are Strides?
Week 3 Pace, Mileage and Going the Distance