Manchester Marathon Training: Week 3

MONDAY: Monday is supposed to be a non-running day according to my plan, but I swapped things about a bit to allow me to take part in my usual Body Attack class on Tuesday. So the week started instead with a gentle 6.5k recovery run followed by my Body Pump class. Body Pump was tough today for some reason, everything felt like a massive effort, and the penultimate track focusing on the shoulder muscles absolutely finished me off, so much so that by the end I was stood bent over, hands on knees, totally spent!

TUESDAY: After carefully planning my plan to allow for doing Body Attack, the class was cancelled, and is likely to be off until the end of January! This left me a bit thrown what to do today, but after playing 45 mins of Badminton at work I decided to keep the day a cross training day, and headed to the gym, going on the Vario Cross Trainer and stretching. 

WEDNESDAY: an 11km run before Body Pump. My plan suggested this run be completed at a slow pace, a very slow place in fact, which proved just impossible for me to stick to - I did try! I therefore ran faster, but still kept it steady. 

THURSDAY: Another 11km run, but this time featuring intervals. I actually reverted back to using miles to complete the workout, as I was to do 1mile at a fast pace, followed by 3 mins gentle running; repeated four times, with a mile jog warm up and cool down. Follow... ?! I found it tough going at first, with the first two fast miles being uphill and into a headwind, but in the second half of the run I felt stronger.

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: Park Run visit number two for 2016 - could it go any worse than last week? Full blog to follow. 

SUNDAY: Today I ventured out of my usual Lincoln surroundings for my 10 mile long run; my friend and I heading to Clumber Park, a short distance from Lincoln. I had only visited the park once before, to complete a Race For Life Pretty Muddy in 2014, so was looking forward to exploring a bit more of the surroundings. It was a beautiful winter's day, not too cold and with a low sun peaking through the tress. Throughout our ten miles we were met with mud, bogs, puddles, long never-ending hills, gravel, dirt tracks, headwinds, groups of cyclists, excitable dogs, nearly flooded footbridges and even more mud - and I loved all of it! It was refreshing to be running somewhere new, especially when everything around you is so lovely. It was tough going on the legs at times, but I was especially happy my calves did not hurt me one bit, and that we also ran a very good time of 1hr 25mins despite the conditions. A great morning which left us with a couple of pairs of very muddy trainers and mud splattered legs (see images) to show for it!