End of week reflections on my running and general health, but mainly my running.
Question I entered the week with: Can I keep running at the same level I did last week? (That was 4 laps of Roberts Park, trying to maintain a pace of 6:00 minutes per km, about 31 minutes of running.)
After resting on Monday, I managed four consecutive days of running, all at similar loads (distance, speed, time taken). After those four days I took two days off (which was the weekend, which is a little annoying as the weekend is prime running time, but rest is rest.
Monday: rest from running
Tuesday: 5.58km, 5:59 minutes per km, 33:26 minutes moving
Wednesday: 5.30km, 5:40 minutes per km, 30:01 minutes moving
Thursday: 5.39km, 5:38 minutes per km, 30:23 minutes moving
Friday: 5.44km, 5:49 minutes per km, 31:39 minutes moving
Saturday: rest from running
Sunday: rest from running
I am still recording the pain from my Achilles on a scale of 0 to 10:
- Before the run
- At the start of the run
- During the run
- At the end of the run
- After the run
I put this into every run I track on my Strava account and then carry that over to a little spreadsheet. It’s a really useful exercise to help me understand how breaks, my movement, and the daily rhythm of running might affect my Achilles.
For the week, my running was all steady — and I feel like running with my sore Achilles is doable with some management.
A seeming pattern: All my runs were morning runs. The less being up and moving about I was before the run the more painful the run seemed. Going into the next week I am going to see if I can make sure I am don’t just roll out of bed and out of the door, slide some movement in before running.
At the end of the week I’ve seen I’ve clocked up 46.8km for the month just from plugging away. There’s 13 days left in August and I need 53.2km to hit 100km for the month. That’s 4.09km a day. Or if I am sensible and have 2 days off that’s 4.8km per day over 11 days. That seems doable. If I can hit that target it’ll be a nice bonus — but I’ll keep plugging away. It’s a solid base.
I’ve decided to run 100 miles (160.9 km) in September to raise money for Cancer Research UK. They ask people to target £200. I think I could do better than that.
Doing 161km in a month will be as big a challenge for me as running the Manchester and Edinburgh marathons last year. I went into those off the back of some steady, gradual training to get me through something like 4 hours of running. 161km will be 16 hours of steady running across the month, likely to be at a slower, more controlled pace than I have previously been used to due to my Achilles (tightness and to manage it). As part of that I’ll be doing a 10km race, the Pudsey 10k on Sunday 15 September, which I will be taking steady. It’ll just be nice to run with other people and somewhere different (even if it is just down the road). If you want to sponsor me I have a giving page on the Cancer Research UK website.
On with the week!
Targets:
- 5 runs on 5 days, 25km (stretch: 6 runs on 6 days, 30km)
- 1 climbing session
- 1 bike session
- Daily stretches and heel raises
- 3km+ walks on 5 days
Also published on Strava.