The Week of Running Free

I have felt quite free this week - no training plan to follow, not having to solely focus on trying to do the right thing in order to recover from the marathon, just doing what I want. In the past this would have been something I hated, but I have enjoyed this week. I think because I trained so hard this time for the London Marathon and then the day itself was so demanding, I actually feel like I need a bit of a physical and mental break from pushing myself too much. I mean, this week has still contained a lot of running and a half marathon race (and also a lot of gin!) - but by my usual standards it has felt quite relaxed!

MONDAY: Body Pump class

TUESDAY: an early morning 5 miler. My legs felt very heavy from the start, which I think was predominantly due to there not being many hours recovery between a late night Pump class and an early morning running alarm. I managed to keep a steady pace though, averaging 7.57 min/mile. 

WEDNESDAY: another steady run, 6 miles this time on improved legs, but with a couple of hill challenges thrown in... just because! I have no real motivation to be running intervals or anything like that right now, so I guess hills were my form of natural test. 

THURSDAY: a run commute to the gym and back for a Body Pump class. I ran a faster 3 miles to the gym, around 7.30 min/mile pace, but was less bothered by my pace running the 2 miles home after the class and just kept it gentle. 

FRIDAY: Rest Day - and a slightly different Friday evening to my usual rather unexciting routine. I attended a friend's wedding reception and without the pressures of marathon training I felt fully able to embrace the occasion. I (literally) dusted off my high heels, drank too much gin, and danced without a care in the world until 3am - running was the last thing on my mind!

SATURDAY: after two hours sleep and a night of letting my hair down most people would probably have not been surprised if I gave parkrun a miss. I felt fairly reasonable though, so thought I would give it a shot - it would either make me feel better or worse! It was a gorgeous morning at Lincoln parkrun, so I was very happy to have made my decision. Running was an interesting experience - I felt no where near as bad as I potentially feared, but I definitely did not feel like I was firing on all cylinders either! I told myself not to worry about time today and simply just ran as best as I felt I could. I was shocked as I examined my watch in the finish funnel to see a time of 20:53 - it had not felt like I was running that well at all. Did I feel better for parkrun? Of course I did. 

SUNDAY: North Lincolnshire Half Marathon - another race on another scorcher of a day! My friend ran the race too, and after we had both battled the intense heat of the streets of London two weeks ago, we did wonder why we put ourselves through such madness! I had no real goal for today, I just wanted to give myself an extra half marathon test really. It was hot and hard, but I managed to finish in 1:41:28 - which I was really pleased with. At one point I was looking close to going sub 1:40 again, but my legs faded in the final miles, which I accepted and I didn't try to force  them to go for that target. I will review the race fully in a separate blog soon.