Intro
The last two weeks have been quite busy and I did not get a chance to update this blog for those 3 or 4 people that read it. So here is a quick update of my last two weeks.
I have been doing a lot of running. the closer I get to the North Downs Way 50 the more I need to run to feel less scared.
Here is a quick rundown of what I have been up to:
Week 1 (30th March-5th April)
Monday I rested. I needed to, after 60k ran over the weekend.
Tuesday I did an easy recovery run of 12.5k at 4:37. The wind was crazy. It felt like going against it whatever the direction I was running.
Wednesday was the speed training day. I did 3k of warm up and then 3 times two kms at 3:50 min/km with 2′ rest. Finished with 2.5k of cool down.
On Thursday we flew to Italy for the Easter week end. So no running. I took with me only the road shoes (my current love, the Saucony Zealot), so no trail running planned during the holidays.
On Friday I went running on the Liguria coast for 20k (at 4:37) on the sea side road, from Spotorno to Finale Ligure on the coast and back. Lovely stuff. If you are not scared of being run over by cars it is really nice to run on the cliffs over the sea.
I then ran with my youngest daughter for 1k and then my wife for another 5k. I am trying to build a running family, without too much success.
On Saturday I did the best run of the Easter week end. I went from Spotorno to Finale Ligure again, but this time all around the hills and not on the sea side. So I did a lot of climbing too (for me at least), 994 meters. I ended up doing a total of 30k. I really enjoyed it, taking it easy going up and bombing it going downhill. At one point I was so excited that I even started singing. I was all by myself anyway and the view of the sea from the top of the hills was amazing. I felt so good I even did the last km faster than 4 min/km on the flat.
On Easter Sunday I took it easy and did 12k at 4:54 on the coast with a bit of climbing. Then it was time to eat as much focaccia as possible.
And with that it was the end of the week. 94k in total, with 2127 mt of ascent, which is more than I usually do.
Week 2 (6th April-12th April)
Monday was my last day on holidays in Italy and I finished my Italian running session with another 20k on the coast at 4:37 min/km. At one point I met a group of 30 or so runners and I could not help feeling like I was in a race and started overtaking everyone. To top it off I ran another 1k with my daughter (it’s time for her to set up a Strava account and do some FKT by 11 year olds!).
On Tuesday we flew back home, so no running.
On Wednesday I did 12k easy (at 4:48) and on Thursday I ran 15k at 4:27.
I felt so good that I decided to try and do a new PB on the 10k distance. So on Friday I did a 4k warm up and they did 10k as fast as I could. I was very happy to manage to beat my previous PB. I ended up doing the 10k in 38:53, a handful of seconds better than last year. I finished the session with a 1k cool down and a big smile on my face.
Saturday I went out for a long one (not too long as I was tired from the fast run of the day before). I went out with the Cascadia and the UD backpack and run on some trails on the river, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common for a total of 30k. The weather was crazy, started sunny, poured down like crazy for half an hour, then windy as hell. It was fun.
Sunday I went for a 20k run to finish the week. I went very early, the sky was blue, the air was cold. I did not meet anyone for the first 12k, beautiful. I even found £10 on the ground. The legs felt dead at the beginning, but really good after the first 5k.
Another good week, I ran 114km in total, a new record.
The end
Basically a good, solid, 2 weeks. The last month I have run an average of more than 100k per week and I feel good!
Last week my friend @manuontrail ran the South Downs Way so I followed him and the other runners in real time via the power of the internet and realised how daunting the task of running a 50 miler is. Six months ago I was full of confidence, thinking of doing some crazy times, running like a beast from start to finish. The more I train, the more I read, the more I look at other people performances the more I feel scared. Only one month left and then I’ll know if I have what it takes to run for so many hours. If I keep on training like this for the next couple of weeks at least I can say that I have done all I could training-wise since September last year. I could hardly do more and I am happy with that.