Run, Eat, Sleep...Repeat

They say it takes 1 day's recovery per race mile to totally recover from a race.  I don't know any runner who goes by this rule as most of us are impatient and generally not sensible.  However thinking I'd bounce back into training after 1 or 2 recovery days after a 20 mile race was slightly ambitious.  I'm hoping it's not down to old age (37) and more down to the fact that I've not raced that distance in years and wore my lightweight trainers which I've also never raced that distance in.

I have to give myself some credit though as over the years I have learned to listen to my body and ditch the plan when needed.  My body was saying no most of this week and I knew that trying to push a hard speed session too soon would have lead to both injury and disappointment as I wouldn't have been able to deliver.

So one easy day went into the next and I started to feel a little down hearted that I was taking too long to recover.  Even the buggy run on Thursday was not done at a very fast pace but my heart rate was sky high.

Not wanting to dwell on the negatives, here are the positives.  By Saturday we headed out onto the TPT to see if I could run with the buggy at speed, something I've not tried yet.  We did 4 x 1 mile reps with a 2 minute recovery jog.  Every other rep was slightly uphill with the stats showing that this slight increase in gradient added about 30 seconds per mile on.  It just shows how much pushing a weight up hill while running can take it out of you.  On the plus side I was flying running down hill and managed not to steer Archie into any hedges or dog walkers which was a bonus.

Sunday I started to feel just about myself again and put in some good pace on the Rotherham canal without feeling like I was running in sinking sand.  So it's back on it tomorrow, my hubby has some evil speed session for me to do now I've stop moaning about how much I hurt but he's not revealed it yet as I think he wants a peaceful Sunday evening.


RUN

SLEEP

                               

EAT



REPEAT!

I've had some unexpected sponsorship from people I don't know that have heard about my challenge which is heart warming as well as an old treasured Uni friend who has made contact to say she loves reading my blogs and has been extremely generous, you know who you are, thank you X.

Rotherham canal run

Summary of this weeks training:

Monday: Rest
Tuesday: 50 min Recovery bike
Wednesday: 50 min Recovery run, pilates
Thursday: 50 min Level 2 buggy run
Friday: 50 min easy run
Saturday: 4 x 1 mile buggy reps at tempo
Sunday: 10, 40 min level 2, 10 min