Week in Review: 9 - 15 May '16

I started the week off with the idea of loading it up front to get in my mileage ahead of my holiday, but as they say, all good intentions and that.

I started off well with an easy run on Monday, which felt pretty good following Sunday's race. Tuesday was dedicated to another MAF test - I'm trying to do one every month, around about the same time each month - and it went really well, if you ignore the fact I used the wrong programme on my watch so had to do a little bit of magic to get my kilometre splits when finished. The MAF test, overall, showed continue progression with it being my fastest MAF test and first kilometre of the current batch of testing, ignoring the faster one I had a few months back which was wrong because I started off from rest.

Wednesday I hit the hills for the fun, yet tough, Woodlands 5-and-a-bit race. It's a small low-key race series that takes in two loops of a very challenging route in the woods next to Broadmoor hospital. I'd forgotten what a great run this was. I also forgot that it's a two lapper that involves running "The Hill" twice.

Not sure how I'd perform given I raced quite hard on Sunday and it was pretty muddy and humid, I started off at a moderately good pace and slowly made my way into the top 8 and quickly moved into third place just before "The Hill" on the first lap, thinking I could power up that and then breeze through the rest of the race. It was only once I'd crested the hill that I checked my watch and saw we'd only just covered 4km and remembered I'd need to do that again. Ooops, 😊.

Fear not, I held my composure and took my foot off the pedal just a little to try and recover for the second lap. The guy I passed going up "The Hill" passed me again - he was much better prepared 😉 - and I was then passed by another chap. I stuck with this guy and used him as a pacer until the foot of "The Hill" again, where I showed my climbing prowess :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: and shot past him and onto the finish.

This was a great challenging run which netted me a 4th place out of a small field of 85.

Thursday ended up in being a beer day. My HRV was waaaaaaay down and I was feeling quite tired from the two races in a week, so I took the day off running, headed into town, worked in the sunshine and then finished the day off working from my favourite pub. I got a little carried away with the selection on offer which meant Thursday night's sleep wasn't the best and I woke up feeling a little delicate on Friday morning.

Thankfully not too delicate as whilst my HRV was low - expected after lots of beer - I still had the energy and motivation to head out for a longish run in the sunshine, which was very enjoyable.

And that was the last of running for the week. Saturday was spent in airports and traipsing across Mallorca and this morning I really wasn't up for a run, so opted for a lie-in before heading down for breakfast.

For the next two weeks I'll be on my early summer holiday. I'm not sure how much running I'll be doing, but I do intend to use this time to relax, recover and enjoy myself because when I get back, it'll be 16 weeks to Berlin which means 16 weeks of grueling training. I will of course get out at least a few times: you can't travel without going for a run.

I'm off to relax and enjoy my holiday. 👋