Week in Review: 18 - 24 Jul '16

I didn't do much running last wee. Instead I spent the time taking full advantage of our company annual Summit in Colorado Springs and spent a fair amount of time socialising with my colleagues in a swanky hotel, which of course came with a few beers, wines and cocktails, along with loads of activities.

It was a great week, but the late nights and early starts meant I had little time for running in the morning, had I been in the mood 😉. That said, I did get out for one more run on Tuesday before flying out on Wednesday afternoon. I ran the Colombine Trail. Still feeling very tired from The Incline I took it easy - I didn't really have a choice as my legs wouldn't go very fast - and took in the sights and enjoyed the trail. It's a lovely undulating and sometimes challenging trail ending at Helen Hunt Falls. Whilst struggling up a particularly challenging part of the trail, a middle-aged woman dressed in full on trail runner gear - fancy trail shoes, compression socks, camelpak and a peaked cap - shot passed me like I was standing still and soon disappeared into the distance. I guess she didn't do The Incline recently :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. Being short for time I took the road back, a lovely smooth downhill that had be back at the hotel in just over 20mins which was perfect for me to grab some breakfast and a shower before we were bussed off to an offsite event day.

Thursday was written off completely as I landed at lunch time and really didn't have the energy - I barely sleep on planes.

Friday's run was pretty terrible. I continued to feel the effect of too many late nights, too many beers, too much socialising, a 9 hour flight just as I was getting over the jetlag and the unusually hot and humid conditions back in the UK led to a very tough run. I started off feeling pretty good and was doing pretty well until the last 20-35mins when I really started to feel tired, in a big way.

Skipped Saturday to recover given Friday's poor run and then went for my planned long run on Sunday morning. This started off well and I ran the first 8k under 144 BPM as planned and then picked up the pace to marathon pace for the next 19k, however after about 10k I really started to struggle to keep at this pace. I struggled for another 2k before bumping it on the head and returning to MAF only for my bowels to decide that they had other ideas. I spent the next 5k run-walking fighting cramps and possible sharts before finding a petrol station that would let me use their loo. Oh what a relief!! I managed to finish my run running. I'm really not sure what brought this on. Yes, I ate a fair amount of rubbish in Colorado, but that was days before Sunday's run. I can only put it down to the large amounts of artichoke I had for dinner on Saturday.

I'd liked to have got in more running in Colorado Springs, but I rarely get to see my colleagues face-to-face and socialise with them, so opted for social time over running time. It's now two months until the Berlin marathon so time to put my head down and put in the final months of good training and diet.