It has been quite a crazy week. Very tiring for many reasons, so my running suffered a bit, but I still managed to clock in a total of 65 km.
On Monday I had to skip training as we arrived home from Portugal at 2am. Three hours sleep is not enough to run and then work a full day.
On Tuesday I took it easy as I had not been running for 5 days. So I only did 10 km. I wanted to keep my heart below 140bmp but I forgot to check once in a while and went faster. It was fine, I needed to release some stress.
Wednesday was more interesting. After the usual warm up I did four 5 minutes repeats at 150-158bmp (around 3:45 min/km) with 3 minutes rest.
Then Thursday was the killer day (my favourite type). For two reasons, the training and the weather. It was really cold. The internet said 2 degrees, but I think in some areas it was closer to zero. There was ice on the street! My hands suffered the most, I should have worn gloves, but it feels too early for that! Good thing I covered my head with my new Buff. I am such a trendy runner!
Anyway, I did the usual 20 minutes warm up and then did four 2 minute uphill repeats at a relatively fast speed and then rest on the way down. The heart was racing! I always go up and down the same road when doing hills training when the park is closed. I find it fun to think about the people sleeping in their houses with a mad man running up and down their street.
Then to finish the day off I did five 1 minute sprints faster than 2:20 min/km with 2 minutes rest. It felt good.
Friday on the other hand I felt really lazy and when I woke up, heard the heavy rain falling, felt a little pain in my right leg/hip, I thought about the day ahead and decided to sleep more.
That was a good call as on Saturday I felt fresh and ready for my long run. I decided to run less than the last long run but do at least 30 kilometres. As I will be running the Dirt Running Half Challenge next week end I wanted to try and run a bit faster than I usually do in my long runs. I aimed to always stay at around 4:30 min/km. I did 31km, beating my 30km personal best, in the rain, mud, wind and then sunshine. The bit that hurt the most was my right shoulder. I am really weak if I cannot carry a water bottle for 2 hours!
It was a lot of fun, felt good and I did not suffer from my usual endless hiccups in the afternoon.
Next week I will take it easy before the race on Saturday, but I am very much looking forward to run with my new Asics Nimbus 16.
Yes, I went back to my favourite shoes. It is probably my 8th pair. I liked the Brooks Glycerine I was running in, but not as much as the Nimbus. Let’s see how they go next week. I am not abandoning Brooks, I still have my Cascadia for my long Saturday’s runs (where I try to run on trails as much as possible) and they will play an important role on next Saturday’s race.
Have fun!