The Week of Filling Time

'Filing time' feels like a slightly negative way to describe life. However, what I mean is I feel I have reached a point where I have kind of slotted into a routine of what I am doing running/exercise wise before January hits and training for the London Marathon thus starts. I do have a couple of 10k events planned for November - a trail race, which will be a different form of challenge to try, and a race with my friend who is back from Australia for the first time in two years, which will be a special event. I know what I am doing at the moment is good for my body though, so I just need to keep disciplined, in a slightly different sense! 

MONDAY: Body Pump class

TUESDAY: 6 mild but noticeably dark miles. I was not even out running that late, but the sun had already long set and it felt a bit unnatural trying to run on some streets where lighting was poor. I found myself lifting my legs almost comically too high to prevent any trips. I can probably handle the impending cold of winter, but I hate the darkness. 

WEDNESDAY: 5.5 slightly quicker miles before Body Pump. I find I can push myself at the moment to run around 8 min/mile pace with it feeling harder than a steady run, but without it being a 'knackering' challenge to keep pace. This is pleasing for me, and one day I would like this to be my 'go to' easy pace - I can dream! Body Pump was tougher afterwards as my body felt slightly tired after upping the weights I used in Monday's class.

THURSDAY: my current routine of going to a Body Attack class on a Thursday was thrown this week with the class being cancelled. I am conscious of keeping my mileage in check at the moment in an attempt not to stress my legs too much before marathon training starts again, so I did not really want to run. I opted to just go the gym - something I have not done in absolutely ages. I instantly could tell why - it was rather depressing! No one else seemed to want to actually be there, so I quickly thrashed out 40 minutes of interval based cardio - boring!

FRIDAY: Rest Day

​SATURDAY: a cold parkrun. Shivering on the start in my loosely Halloween themed orange running vest (see image) I went out fast, simultaneously gulping in the cold air and trying to warm my body up. My first lap and mile was very fast, 6.40 min/mile pace; I knew I could not keep that up, but I hoped I would not fade too much. I managed to hold the two further miles at just over 7 min/mile pace and finished in 21:07 overall. This is further two seconds quicker than my time last week, and although it felt harder than the previous Saturday, I cannot complain with continual progress. I now would really love to run sub 21 minutes again before the end of the year...

SUNDAY: with the clocks going back an hour, my planned early morning run with my friend did not actually seem that early. It was a fresh feeling morning, however for some reason my legs did not feel quite as fresh as the conditions. I totally ignored my watch for the vast majority of the run though, it was hidden under a long sleeve for a start, but actually I was not really bothered by it, and when I run with my friend we tend to naturally slot to a pace anyway. I finished on 11.5 miles with an average pace of 8.38 min/mile - which I feel is a good region to be in without too much concision effort. Now with the clocks going back the dark evenings will truly land - I had better quickly get used to it!