Monday 9th Fevruary - Sunday15th February

After the fun of running in snow I was glad to get back to normality this week.

I'd always thought I wasn't a creature of habit, doing the same runs at the same time every week, year in year out. I'd thought I was a lot more flexible with my training. If I felt good I'd make adjustments and do more or work harder, the same if I wasn't feeling quite right. But it turns out I like the reassurance of tried and tested routines. So it was with great pleasure that I donned my trainers for Monday's runs of thirty and forty minutes.
A Monday schedule I'd thought I was growing tired of. Not any more.
I never get tired of training on a Tuesday night. It's one of my real quality sessions of the week. But I guess you do take it for granted. Tuesday night is group-training night, only last week it wasn't and I missed it! At first I didn't think I really would miss it, but now looking back a week I know my mind and body longed for the extra impetus training in a group, doing hard and fast work, gives you.

So we tackled six 1400 metre loops on the road. I think everyone must have been missing working together as we were flying along. When I look back in my diary we were a good few seconds up on each rep. We were all up there as well, right to the bitter end. Quite often the group disperses a little after the initial charge to get away. Today, however, we were finishing more or less together. I started to wonder if my enthusiasm had got the better of me by the final two loops. I was starting to blow. But I dug deep and regained some form of composure to get the session done and done well.

Having had a bit of an up and down week due to the weather my coach decided to punish me! I told him the weather had nothing to do with me. He didn't listen to my pleas and upped my mileage for the second half of the week, beginning with a single 75 minute run on Wednesday. I decided to become a coach myself and included a very easy ten minutes in the morning. The first run after a hard Tuesday night session is always painful. My legs are tired and stiff and it all seems a chore. By doing a ten-minute leg stretch it got the aches and pains out of the system before my long evening run.
It worked wonders. I felt very little pain or fatigue in the evening. I almost would go as far to say as I loved every step of my longer than normal run. I particularly enjoyed being able to get a good distance away from home. The extra time gives me room to try paths and routes that I would normal only include on my long Sunday run. Having talked about loving routine I still had a soft spot for spicing training up with different training elements.

On Thursday training again was that little bit further than normal, my usual 15 warm up 15 tempo 15 warm down were increased to include a 25 minute tempo run. Keeping with routine I used my normal route, which takes my usual 45-minute session to complete. The spice was added by lapping Ashtead Village Green to add ten minutes to my run. Having just read back that sentence I guess I'm really easily pleased, I don't think Ashtead Village Green has spiced up many young men's lives! But to the long distance runner simple changes of scene like that can make world of difference. And I think it did make a bit of a difference. Just as I was beginning to feel the strain after ten minutes of tempo running, the diversion gave me a new impetus and I finished the run as strongly as I'd begun it. Exactly what you want from a tempo run.

Friday was an easy day. But I was told to run. Where normally my day's so easy I don't actually do a run and completely rest up, I was under strict instructions to get at least an easy 30 minutes under my belt. So I did.

On Saturday a small group tackled a session in Richmond Park, including tempo running, which always feels a lot faster and harder when I do it in a group, perhaps it is, and some hill running which, opposed to a normal hill session where you summit the hill and turn back, included a good four hundred metres on the flat once we we'd reached the peak. It's all about simulating racing. You never climb a hill then stop in a race. You have to quickly regain your normal cadence and form and by doing this sort of hill rep it teaches you how to cope with the change in style and work rates involved.

Thankfully my Sunday run was kept at just an hour and a half. It was about all my legs wanted to do as they began to feel a few side effects of the week. That said I'm sure I could have done more if required. My legs although tired are ready for more of the same next week, as we really get into the big races of the cross-country season.