Berlin Marathon Training: Week Seven

This week has felt so out of routine I do not know how I have kept track of what I have ran or how it went - but somehow I have! I spent the majority of this week away with work in Nottingham supporting a residential programme with over 150 teenagers. Needless to say there has been some long hours and minimal sleep logged, but despite this I have still got my running in...

MONDAY: Rest Day - I was exhausted today after a very early Sunday long run last week and then working an event into the late evening. My legs ached like I had ran a marathon!

TUESDAY: the first of a series of early morning runs in Nottingham following a night of very little sleep. Intervals I can find tough and early morning intervals I tend to avoid at all costs; but with a positive mindset I attempted them. The plan was the same as last week, 6 miles with 16 x 200m reps and 200m recoveries, however this week it simply flew by. I think being in totally new surroundings meant I was distracted by how many reps I had completed and I even hit the majority of my paces despite feeling a little lethargic still. 

WEDNESDAY: early run number two and only a very small window to get some miles logged in. With this in mind I opted for a steady 3 miles, throwing some hills repeats in at the end just to wake the legs up a little. I definitely was not willing to get up any earlier and have even fewer hours in bed to run the 10 miles my plan suggested for today, but I allowed myself to be flexible and not worry about going off plan. 

THURSDAY: early run number three. Today I simply had to bolt out of bed as soon as my alarm went off or else I could have quite easily talked myself out of running. I was so quick to throw my running gear on I did not even notice it was absolutely torrential rain outside. I was committed now though and ran my 7 miles including 5 miles at tempo pace. I was a drowned rat by the time I had finished but a happy one nevertheless!

FRIDAY: today I caught up with my missing miles from Wednesday. Back home from Nottingham I set out for an easy 7 miles, not wanting to push myself too much as I felt very tired from the week. I ran to feel and was surprised to see my easy pace meant that was an 8:17 min/mile average. 

SATURDAY: I enjoyed the familiarity of Lincoln parkrun today, after a hectic week it helped make it feel like a Saturday for a start! Last week I had edged closer to my 5k PB, so today I decided to really go for it, running as hard as possible from the start and trying to hold on for as long as I could. The result; my second fastest 5k to date at 21:23 and not too far from my PB of 21:19... is there a new PB in my legs?!

SUNDAY: long run day and stepping it up a little mileage wise with 17 miles on the plan. I ran with my friend and we kept it steady; we were both feeling the effects of our running so far this week and it was more of a case of just getting the miles in. I did not feel like death at the end, my legs were tired and getting tight in little random spots, but I felt I could have gone on if needed to. This is good considering there are some big mileage runs rapidly approaching on the horizon!