Super woman

Wow! what a week :D

If Carlsberg made training sessions, they'd probably be just like the week's running I've just had.

It started with the club time trial on Tuesday.  I had a bit of an incling that it was going to be the 5k, so I put my shorts on despite the cold.  Leggings are for training, shorts are definitely for proper running.  After my disasterous time in last month's club handicap (24:46), I wasn't hoping for anything more than just under 24 mins, but I thought that if I could just not fly off like a loon at the start, then I might manage 23:xx.

To be fair to Evil Coach Darth Jim, he gave me a decent enough handicap - off after Helen & Alan, so I wasn't chasing Jimmy.  The conditions were perfect so I just went for it.  I'd caught Barry (who missed his slot cause he was nattering), as we came out of Monkton Village, then I was tracking down Alan & Helen right up until Mill Lane.  Helen pulled ahead on the bank, and it was a real struggle to try and catch her, but I did (eventually) and then started the chase to try to get to Graeme & Rachel.  As I went past, Graeme left Rachel and was hot on my heels, We both flew by Maria, and the race was on.

York Avenue Garage to the finish is a lot longer than it seems, but I managed to hold Graeme off right through to the finish, and 1st across the line in 22:40 ! 

I have a feeling that I'll be suffering for the better time in next month's handicap placing.

Wednesday, saw a wee recovery run with Alan & helen, then the dreaded postponed 400s from last week was the track session on Thursday.  I had been told to try for consistency, and that's exactly what I pulled out of the hat!

16 x 400m, with 90 secs recovery:
1:43, 1:40, 1:41, 1:42, 1:42, 1:42, 1:42, 1:42,
1:41, 1:40, 1:41, 1:42, 1:42, 1:41, 1:41, 1:40

Aside from the first one, the others were all within 1 second of 1:41 :)

I had a break on Friday, then Saturday was the dreaded long run.  I'd planned for 19-20 miles, and had kind of a rough idea where I wanted to go, but no actual distances till I got out and on my feet, with the aim of running till I hit 3 hours or near enough.

Setting off from home in Felling, I ran down through Pelaw, Hebburn, Jarrow and Tyne Dock (cheers to the council guys who gave me a wave and a thumbs up) till I got to Laygate in South Shields (where I bumped into my aunt & uncle).  Then it was down Commercial Road, past the market place, round to the sea front,  along the promenade, onto the beach, then back up past the dragon playing fields.

At this point I thought I'd be hitting the 1:30 ish mark, but it was actually over two hours, so instead of going up to the Nook as planned, I headed back into South Shields, past the Town Hall and back towards Tyne Dock.  I ran past the same woman outside smoking at the Tyne Dock pub as I had on the way down (she smiled and said hello again).  The trip back up to St Pauls & Bede's World was pretty uneventful, and I got to Morrison's in Jarrow in just over 3 hours.

After a quick pitstop I thought it would be madness to run back up to Felling (which would have put the run at well over 3:45) so I jumped on the metro up to Heworth, then bimbled back up the hill as a warm down.

20 miles covered in 3:22:24

Pretty pleased with that to be honest, as I don't think I could have covered any more distance without some gels or more fuel.  Will have to look at picking some up from Start Fitness for next weeks run.

So, after all of that I'm feeling pretty happy with the marathon training so far, except for feeling like a narcoleptic cookie monster - alternating between eating and sleeping (with not much of anything else in between).