Saturday to Sunday

Ok...that's actually last Saturday, to this Sunday, so a whole eight days to catch up :)

Saturday 2nd : 3.81 miles, 32:27
Had been kind of contemplating taking the day off running as I had work in the morning, and two ton of housework to do in the afternoon, but it was really nice outside, so after my third load of washing was hanging to dry, I donned the trainers and set off.

Of course, do do live in Gateshead, on the side of a bloody great big hill, so it was gonna be a hill session in anyone's book. From Felling up to Sheriffs hill, round to the Wrekenton XC course and up to the highest point in the area. Then back down through Windy Nook nature park and home.

Sunday 3rd : 12 miles, 1:44:28
After yesterday's slowish bimble I decided on a fairly brisk pace for my Sunday long run. I set off pretty early and managed to get 7 miles (an hour) in before meeting up with my club-mates. Felt totally worn out by the finish, but pleased with my pace. Need a new sports bra, the one I had on chafed a bit and needs to go the journey.

Monday 4th : 7 miles, 1:11:22
Fetch Everyone Rendezvous Café Run: a meet up for folks from the site to do a canny bimble around the coast. It ended up being the perfect recovery run pace for me, a little too slow at times, but that's prolly just what I needed. Had a good natter with everyone on the way too, picked up and dropped Shielsy off at home, and the bit bit - cake in the café afterwards ...yumm!

Tuesday 5th : 4.14 miles, 31:03
Reps of the slagheap (which sounds grim but is actually a pretty park). 1 large & 1 small lap .68miles & .35miles
5:04, 2:33, 4:50, 2:36, 5:11, 2:41, 5:15, 2:49

Wednesday 6th : 6.2 miles, 54:00
Even though we ended up taking a shorter route through the park for Wednesday's run, it still ended up just over 6 miles with the warm up I did. Felt completely knackered by the time we got back to the car :S

Thursday 7th : 3.11 miles, 21:56
Track session. Evil coach Jim had devised some new kind of torture session for us tonight, though to be fair it wasn't half as bad as one of his regular pyramid sessions.
The aim was for 10k pace: 1900, 1500, 1100, 700, 300 with 100m jog recovery.
Despite trying to get my lap times correct I still managed to run too quickly, plus I had to make an emergency 'pitstop' in the middle of the 700m rep.

This ended up being only slightly slower than my pace for last years 5k races, but a good deal quicker than this years so I'm not too unhappy ;)

Friday & Saturday - rest - if you don't count work, decorating and dog walking as cross training exercises ;)

Sunday 10th : 13.39 miles, 2:00:45
My longest run ever...literally :D
The furthest I've ran before is 13.1 miles in the Great North Run, but today I kind of had 13.2 pencilled in as the 12 miles from last week plus 10%. I got down to Jarrow early and ran the small Hebburn loop (York Ave-Mill Lane-Victoria Road-Bedeburn Road) on my own. Then I had a quick bimble into the garage for some Gatorade before meeting up with Alan & Helen for the big loop (basically the same but takes in Whitemare Pool, Wardley, Heworth and Pelaw too).

I felt really good after the first lap, and the quick swig of Gatorade really helped, it's sooo much nicer than Lucozade which I find far too sickly. Then we set off up Leam Lane into the wind. it wasn't too cold but a bit gusty in parts, but we dug in and cracked on with the run.

After leaving Helen at the lights in Hebburn, Alan & I continued down Victoria Road picking up speed as it's pretty much all downhill. I still felt ok at 11 miles if just a little achey. Went through a bit of a bad patch coming round to Jarrow Park and we pulled the pace back a bit. Then Alan dragged me all the way back along Bedeburn & York Avenue to the garage again. Picked up what remained of my drink (stashed in someones garden) and continued back along to where I'd parked up.

Felt great to be honest, I know it was a lot slower that my race pace, but heck, you're not supposed to train at race pace :D Felt canny for the rest of the day, but crashed and burned by 8pm and had to go to bed.

I'm really pleased for that extra .29 of a mile - it puts me in to unknown territory ;)

Happy running folks!