daughters – rungigettorun

A week after completing my first ultra it is time to think about the future.

I am looking forward to running another 50 miler soon, but in the mean time I will run some local half marathons and marathons.

I’ll start in June with the June Richmond Half, then I will go back to the North Downs way to run the North Downs Way Marathon and then a week later (end of July) I will do another half, the Wimbledon Common Half, which I really enjoyed last year.

After the summer holidays I would like to run another ultra, maybe just a 50k. Nothing planned yet.

To prepare for the next half marathon I need to get some speed back. Lately, preparing for the NDW50, I slowed down quite a bit and in the last weeks I have not done any speed training as I was afraid I would get injured.

I recovered well from the ultra, so I started running almost straight away.

On Wednesday I did 10k at 4:50. I really felt a lot better than expected.

On Thursday I did 15.5k. I accelerated a bit at the end, but in general I kept it easy, average of 4:47 min/km.

On Friday I decided to rest as I did not want to overdo it after the NDW50 effort, b mu1Zt5woi5ZnxXh9wBfa9pUDwISNNJxhBNuwUv8A7x4-576x768 ut on Saturday I felt so good I went out for a relatively fast run. I was wearing the NDW50 finisher t-shirt, the sun was shining and I felt pretty cool. At the end I alternated fast and less fast kms and went back to running faster than 4 min/km which I had not done in ages.

Sunday I felt the legs a bit tired so I took it easier. I ran 18.5k at 4:44 min/km and then got home and finished the day with 2 extra kms with my daughters. It’s always a pleasure to run with them. I wish we could do it more often.

Next week is going to be all about speed, interval training, tempo runs and maybe a Parkrun on Saturday.

I am not sure I will update this blog on a weekly basis as I did before as the journey from half to ultra has been completed. I am pretty sure I will find more challenges to talk about.

Have fun!

The last two weeks have not been too exciting, so they did not deserve an individual blog post each.
After the high of having finally run 50km I started taking it easy for a three week tapering before the North Downs Way 50.

On Monday I did an easy recovery run. I ran 10k at 4:58 min/km. I recovered quite well from the 50k run but felt pretty tired.

On Tuesday I tried to get some speed in. I ran 12km at an average of 4:24 min/km. The temperatures are finally improving and it is again time to run in shorts which is a boost.

On Wednesday I was too tired (I should not have accelerated the day before) so I did 12km at the easy 5:00 min/km pace.

On Thursday I did 15k at 4:43 min/km and felt a lot better. 15k is my new favourite training length. I now find 10k being too short and I start enjoying running after the first 8k so 15 is perfect.

In the meantime I have also read Eat and Run by Jurek which I enjoyed very much. I am going crazy. If I am not working, I am running, thinking about running, reading running books or listening to running podcasts. I am surprised my family has not complained yet.

Friday I did another 15km run. This time I did it almost as a progressive run. The first k at 5:00, the last k at 4:00. I felt good.

We then left for a long weekend in Paris where I planned to rest and have some quality family time.

Overall in the week I ran 65km as planned for my tapering.

I came back from Paris rested but with a cold. Too much rain on the Eiffel Tower. On Tuesday I ran 12.5k at 4:47 min/km on heavy legs. I felt strangely tired even if I had rested for three days.

On Wednesday I woke up with a killer cold and flue which explained why I was not running well the day before. I decided to skip running for the day.

On Thursday I went out for 15km at 4:38 min/km and felt a lot better. Even if still with a heavy cold.

On Friday I rested again (it’s tapering time after all) and Saturday I did 15k again (I told you, 15k is my favourite length). I did them at 4:35 min/km. I tried to keep it easy, but accelerated a bit at the end. Then I did a 2k run with my daughter Elisa, which made me happy. She hates running but maybe in time she’ll change her mind.

On Sunday I did 13k at 4:30 min/km. Maybe I overdid it in the last kms, but me and a guy started racing each other in Bushy Park. I like winning these short impromptu competitions. I finished the week with a 1.5k run with my other daughter, Chiara. She seems to be more into running. We’ll see.

And this is it. It was a week of 60km. The next one is race week so I will take it very easy and will try to sleep more. The excitement is too much to handle!

Have fun!