Week in Review: 10 - 16 Oct '16

Picked up the distance again this week as I picked up where I left off last week in the final three weeks of the programme I used to train for the Berlin marathon.

Kept things relatively nice and easy during the week with the exception of Thursday and Saturday.

Wednesday I pulled out the 1600m interval session again and surprised myself with how fresh I felt. I managed to run all three intervals pretty consistently and within the planned pace range. The first and third were into a bit of a wind and the second with it, though that wind seems to have pushed me on just a bit more than I thought at the time as that second interval was quite a bit quicker than planned pace.

Saturday I headed down to TVP for parkrun. I haven't done one in a couple of weeks so thought I'd pop down. On the way down I thought I was feeling pretty good so thought I'd push things a little. Well, it turned out to be a great run. I held back ever so slightly until the bridge, crossed it first and never looked back. I felt pretty good and managed to keep a pretty consistent pace with the exception of the 4th kilometre, which is always slightly slower due to the little hill and the tail markers. Finished strong in a new season's best and only three seconds short of a PB.

This effort rewarded me with my first first place at my home parkrun of the year.

I skipped a run on Friday as I had that "pinched nerve" feeling in my back. In the past I'd ignored this, run, and then paid the price for days after. I didn't want to tempt fate so played it safe and stayed off the roads for the day.

Getting out for this morning's run was a bit of an effort. I had a few too many beers last night, shared a platter of chicken wings and woke to the pitter-patter of rain drops but I pulled on my Yuki-suit and headed out the door into the rain anyway.

The motivation for ensuring I did today's run was two-fold: one it's a last chance to get in a long-ish run before next week's taper and two, I wanted to try out a High5 EnergyGel Plus gel. I don't normally train or race with gels but I was wondering if part of my Berlin experience was down to an early bonk so I wanted to experiment, once 😉, with a gel before trying them out as part of my race nutrition at the Chelmsford marathon next weekend.

Well, I can say I certainly didn't notice very much in my run. My biggest concern was the taste and the effect it would have on an empty stomach: it didn't taste too bad and I didn't notice anything in my stomach. I also didn't really notice much of an energy boost which I suppose is a good thing too. Hopefully that translates into a good level supply of energy next week, but we'll see.

Ignoring the tiredness this morning, I'm feeling pretty good and think I may be able to pull off a good race next weekend. I don't think I'll get anywhere near 2:45 but I do think I can do better than I did at Berlin.