The week in review: April 22 - 28.

Week 10:
 

Day	Activity	Distance (Total)	Time (Total)	Distance (Run)	Time (Run)	Pace (Run)
Sunday	Run	17 km	2:08:56	16 km	1:58:03	7:23
Monday	Rest	(Raining)
Tuesday	Rest
Wednesday	Run	8.56 km	58:31	8 km	52:01 (PB)	6:30
Thursday	Rest
Friday	Run	6 km	36:56	6 km	36:56 (PB)	6:09
Saturday	Rest	(Raining)

• Total distance: 31.56 km
• Treadmill runs:0
• Best average pace for an outdoor run: 6:09 (over 6 km)
• Longest outdoor run without a walk break: 16 km
• Total distance run since starting: 741.9 km 

Well I succeeded in my reattempt at the 16km on Sunday.  Came away fairly sore (particularly in the quads) and that combined with some really horrible weather led to me canning my Monday run in favour of some rest!

On the whole a fairly good week.  Sunday run planned to be 20km this week so that I can skip the long run next weekend in favour of the 10k at Scone on Sunday...

16km long run, take two...

So after the disaster that was my attempted long run yesterday (terminated at just over 9km due to feeling awful), I set my alarm for 6 this morning with a plan of trying again.

Today's attempt was much easier.  Didn't spend the whole run feeling like stopping was the best thing I'd even thought of.  Also managed to run it faster than yesterdays aborted attempt - nothing over 8 min/km.

Finished with an average pace of 7:23/km, which is actually me best long run pace to date, despite struggling to keep my heart rate high enough to be in the target range (minimum 148bpm).  In fact several times I looked at my watch to find my HR in the low 140s!

Lessons learned:

• trying to run 16km in 30C in the middle of the day was silly - I shouldn't have tried
• I'm getting fitter and faster by the week at the moment
• it's OK to pull out when you feel awful in training - there will be another day

The week in review: April 15 - 21.

Week 9:
 

Day	Activity	Distance (Total)	Time (Total)	Distance (Run)	Time (Run)	Pace (Run)
Sunday	Rest
Monday	Run	6 km	41:10	5 km	31:10 (PB)	6:14
Tuesday	Rest
Wednesday	Run	8.67 km	1:07:20	8 km	59:48	7:29
Thursday	Rest
Friday	Run	6.01 km	37:21	6.01 km	37:21 (PB)	6:13
Saturday	Run	11.25 km	1:34:30	9.35 km	1:11:12	7:37

• Total distance: 31.93 km
• Treadmill runs: 1
• Best average pace for an outdoor run: 6:13 (over 6 km)
• Longest outdoor run without a walk break: 9.35 km
• Total distance run since starting: 709.83 km 

Had a reasonable good week until I got to today...

This mornings agenda was supposed to be 16km, but by the 4km mark I was already feeling awful.  I suspect I was suffering from the heat (about 30C).  I didn't develop any issues with muscle pain, but was unusually thirsty and finally pulled the plug just past the 9km mark.

Hopefully next week is better.  I might re-try the 16km tomorrow if the weather is better...

The week in review: April 8 - 14.

Week 8:
 

Day	Activity	Distance (Total)	Time (Total)	Distance (Run)	Time (Run)	Pace (Run)
Sunday	Tempo Run	4 km	23:48	4 km	23:48 (PB)	5:57
Monday	Run	5.95 km	41:45	5 km	31:30 (PB)	6:18
Tuesday	Rest
Wednesday	Run	8.68 km	1:02:38	8 km	55:21 (PB)	6:55
Thursday	Rest
Friday	Run	6 km	37:59	6 km	37:59 (PB)	6:20
Saturday	Run	14.48 km	1:49:41	14 km	1:44:37	7:28

• Total distance: 39.11 km
• Treadmill runs: 0
• Best average pace for an outdoor run: 5:57 (over 4 km)
• Longest outdoor run without a walk break: 14 km
• Total distance run since starting: 672.81 km 

Another good week (with the exception of the stitch from hell on Wednesday).  Somehow managed 4 PBs, so my speed is continuing to improve.

Ran the long run this morning with the same game plan as last week, and not only was it easier to keep my HR down to the target level, I ended up running a much better pace than last week as well.

Stitches and sticking it out anyway

Today's task was an 8km run.

I got to about 1.5km in the run and started to develop an awful stitch.  I've been plagued by stitches off and on when I run, and they're usually associated with me breathing too forcefully, which is something I've been working on.

Today's stitch however was a bastard.

I managed to run through it (although looking at my GPS readout, I'm unsure how I can "run" that slowly), but it was a near thing.

After such a struggle with the first half of my run, I was anticipating a horrible time, but was pleasantly surprised when I hit the stop button to discover I'd knocked 2 minutes off my 8k PB!  Not sure where that came from, I certainly wasn't trying to.

I guess this just goes to show I really am improving, and I seem to have finally gotten to a place that I'm making regular improvements on my times.

The week in review: April 1 - 7.

Week 7:
 

Day	Activity	Distance (Total)	Time (Total)	Distance (Run)	Time (Run)	Pace (Run)
Sunday	Race	4.89 km	30:53	4.89 km	30:53	6:19
Monday	Run	6.04 km	43:27	5 km	32:31 (PB)	6:30
Tuesday	Rest
Wednesday	Run	8.9 km	1:07:13	8 km	57:25 (PB)	7:11
Thursday	Rest
Friday	Run	6 km	38:35	6 km	38:35 (PB)	6:26
Saturday	Run	12.89 km	1:42:54	12 km	1:32:35	7:43

• Total distance: 38.72 km
• Treadmill runs: 0
• Best average pace for an outdoor run: 6:19 (over 4.89 km)
• Longest outdoor run without a walk break: 12 km
• Total distance run since starting: 633.69 km 

 Good week this week.

Started off with the 5k race at Quirindi on Sunday.  Post race I managed to run 3 PBs this week - my speed finally seems to be improving after seeming not to change for months.

Had a good long run today, concentrated on keeping my HR at ~ 150bpm for the majority of the run and felt comfortable throughout (even if it was a little slow).

Race report: Quirindi Youngcare 5k

First (and most importantly) I finished.  I ran the whole way (the course was just short of 5km) and felt reasonably comfortable doing it.

I'm not going to give a km-by-km description - other than than hill going up to the 3km mark the course was fairly unremarkable, and I'm not much for remembering every little detail of a run course anyway.

I started with a plan to chase 6:10/km which I chased but didn't catch, however managed a respectable (for me at least) 6:19/km.

Final time was 30:47 (my Garmin time is a bit longer because I forgot to stop it as I went over the finish).  That's a whole 11 minutes faster than my previous 5km race time (although that was the Tamworth Fun Five, which is a bit longer than 5km).

Fairly happy with the end result actually.  Makes me feel I'm getting somewhere with my training.

I've now also found my next race - the Scone Fun Run (10km) on May 6th.  I'd better get back to my training...