The Week of Marginal Gains

Sitting writing this I am two weeks away from the Rock n Roll Half Marathon in Liverpool. Over the past few weeks I have vaguely been trying to work towards this race, whilst simultaneously recovering from the Manchester Marathon. It has now been five weeks since I completed the marathon, and the recovery, both mentally and physically, has taken much more than I thought it would. But things seemed to be slowly starting to pick up last week, and this week has again seen me accrue some marginal gains...

MONDAY: a very warm start to the week resulted in some very hot and sweaty exercises classes in the form of Spinning and Body Pump. My legs took a bit of time to get into spinning, and I could feel I had ran 12 miles on Sunday, my longest for a while. 

TUESDAY: Body Attack class - this week was the new release of exercises and it was very, very leg heavy; my quads were virtually screaming at one point. Not sure if its what I really needed... but I enjoyed it!

WEDNESDAY: I was expecting to be suffering from extreme leg DOMS today after yesterday's exercise class, but thankfully I seemed to escape them. I think my  diligent post exercise foam roller session may have saved them a little. I was thus able to head out for a 5m run before my Body Pump class. My legs felt better than last week, and on the same 5m loop, I cut my average pace down to 8.40 min/mile. 

THURSDAY: today I opted for the same running route that I completed last Thursday; spurred on by yesterdays run, I wanted to try and compare my progress again. This 5 m loop incorporated the local common, and the uneven ground here can force you to slow down at times. I was therefore pleased to average 8.29 min/mile pace, faster than last week and my quickest pace for a while for a mid-distance run. Furthermore, I also enjoyed the run 100% - which has not happened a lot lately. 

FRIDAY: Rest Day

SATURDAY: Back to Park Run today in an effort to shave some more seconds off my current 5k time. Last week I ran 24.26; and this week... 24.11. A small improvement, but still heading in the right direction - full blog to follow.

SUNDAY: with Liverpool Half Marathon in mind, I opted for 12 miles today and tried to keep things interesting by choosing a route I had not ran for a while. I really enjoyed the first section; a long straight, uninterrupted path alongside a river which lasted for approximately five miles (see image). I settled into a natural pace of just under 9min/miles, and my legs seemed a little less heavy than last week. As I hit 6/7 miles the heaviness then hit, and I started to feel like I was dragging my legs with me again, which was a little disappointing. Once I hit ten miles however this marker seemed to lift me and my legs, and I managed a stronger finish, rescuing a few slower splits, to average 9min/mile pace overall. I was 20 seconds quicker in total compared to last week when I also ran 12 miles - so another slight improvement. I just hope all these minor steps forward will come together in two weeks time so I can run an enjoyably half marathon in a respectable time - and a time which I can also be happy with!