Recovery/steady

12M double; recovery run & steady run
7M am recovery run
5M pm steady run

Just some slower miles today around the heath. My legs were still tired from yesterday, but felt great on my evening run (hence it was a steady run).

Back with a bang

12M incl first 11M hard

I have run a couple of days since last Wednesday, when baby 2 was born, but not anything close to my usual. As a result, my legs felt Kimetto-like and (thanks to my chipper mood and Dennis himself), I was of a mind to run myself into the ground.

The result was a pretty good, longish tempo session. Run at gone 9pm. On a stomach full of figs and ricotta.

Summary of week ending 28/09/2014

TOTAL =48M and a baby!

Just six

6M am recovery run

I had meant to run a bit of the way home today, but had various baby-related things to pick up and didn't want to miss any home time, so just ran once instead.

I'm not sure when I'll have any gaps that fit well with running in the coming days.

Eight

8M double; recovery run & short tempo
5M am recovery run
3M pm hard

We had a baby yesterday! I had clinic this morning (and do again tomorrow), so just ran to and from work. I ran home full pelt.

Good reps

20M double; steady run & rep session
10M am steady run
10M pm incl 6x1.2K off 2min jog

I ran a steady one this morning - fairly swiftly, as my legs were in the mood. On the way home, I ran my best rep session in quite a while. I ran just six reps of 1.2K off a slightly longer recovery (2 minutes). It meant I could really let rip from the beginning. Hopefully, the speed is beginning to come to me now.

Recovery and core work

14M double; recovery runs x2 and core session
7M am recovery run
7M pm recovery run
Core strength session

Two easy ones to/from work and a 30 minute core session today. My legs are fine after yesterday. I'll run a rep session tomorrow.

Summary of week ending 21/09/2014

TOTAL = 124M

A race!

10M pm incl 6K SEAA Road Relay leg (19m37s - a crap PB)

I raced for the first time in four months today. It was great, if a bit sluggish. My legs didn't feel bad, and I paced it pretty well (I ran a marginal positive split). But, despite it being a 13s PB for me on the course, I wasn't very pleased with the time. Having said that, it came at the end of a HEAVY week and I am sure speed will come in the next few weeks as I start to focus on it a bit more.

Recovery

12M double; recovery runs x2
7M am recovery run
5M pm recovery run

Just some easy miles around the Heath. My legs were feeling A+ this evening.

One steady run

10M am steady run

Just my (now regular) 10 miler around the top of the Heath to work this morning. No evening run.

Tempo

24M double; steady run & medium-long tempo
10M am steady run
14M pm incl 2x6M hard with 10mins recovery between

I ran a weird 'medium-long' run this evening, with two 6 or so mile sections separated by a good period of recovery. It was perhaps better in some ways than my morning tempo runs because my legs were more awake. But it was also a bit disrupted by traffic etc, which is less of a problem early in the day.

K reps

24M double; K rep session & steady run
14M am incl 8x1K off 90s/200m jog
10M pm steady run

I ran a K rep session around the track this morning. It wasn't my best, but it was early and a conversation recently has made me realise that the combination of my big trainers and the track surface probably make for a weird, boingy running experience... perhaps the reason I don't like running on the track. Anyway, it was a K session, so it got my legs ticking over pretty well. The evening run was the reverse of yesterday's morning run - pretty hilly.

Steady/recovery

17M double; steady run & recovery
10M am steady run
7M pm recovery

I just ran to and from work without too many frills today. My morning run was 10 miles around the top of the Heath, so the hills made it steady rather than easy, but it wasn't too hard. My legs were surprisingly ok after yesterday.

A Monday long run

27M double; long run & recovery run
21M am long run incl 5M steady then 7x1M hard off 2-3mins easy
6M pm recovery

I ran a weird but harsh long run this morning. I've run one a bit like this before (last year, just before Hana was born), but this felt harder. I ran the first six or so miles easy, then picked it up to a 6ish minute mile pace for four or five miles before running the second half as mile reps off 2-3 minutes easy running as the recovery. It worked out as a good little session I think. Short enough, that the risk of injury wasn't too high. But long enough that it gave me a proper long run workout.

Summary of week ending 14/09/2014

TOTAL = 104M

Not a long run - put it off til tomorrow

7M pm recovery run

I was going to run an evening long run today, but the day got busy. I'll have to run it in the morning.

Recovery Saturday

14M double; recovery runs x2
7M am recovery run
7M pm recovery run

Two easy runs today. Around the Heath.

A good longish tempo run home

22M double; recovery run & medium-long tempo run
7M am recovery run
15M pm incl miles 3-14 hard

I ran my usual longish tempo run in reverse this evening, i.e. running home from work rather than running to work from home. The route took me along the river and then around Hyde Park before heading up through Regent's Park, Primrose Hill and Parliament Hill.

I went hard after two miles of warm up and felt like I found a good, fast, threshold-type pace from early on. I was really dying up the hills towards the end.

Easy

13M double; recovery runs x2
8M am recovery run
5M pm recovery run

Just some easy running today. My legs are tired after yesterday.

Mile reps

22M double; mile reps & steady run
13M am incl 7x1M off 90s jog
9M pm steady

I ran a pretty sharp-feeling mile rep session in Regent's Park before work this morning. I have been running ten reps recently. I think I benefited from a shorter session. It freed me to go really hard right from the beginning.

My evening run was a steady one to Canary Wharf from work for dinner with Ron and Lesley.

Easy again (plus core work)

13M double; recovery runs x2
7M am recovery run
6M recovery run
30min core workout (3 cycles)

Another easy day - no time for a session between work and nursery drop-offs/pick-ups. But I did manage a core workout again. Hopefully I won't be so stiff after this one.

Recovery and core

13M double; recovery runs x2 & core exercises
7M am recovery run
6M pm recovery run
30min core session (3 cycles)

My legs were like lead again this morning. They only got going in the last mile. They were ok but not full of energy on the way home.

My core session was better than last week's. it's a victory just to fit one in.

Summary of week ending 07/09/2014

TOTAL = 120M

23

23 mile crescendo run at 7.00-6.00-5.40

This wasn't my best long run, but it was good enough in terms of effort. The slow section at the beginning felt like crap. The middle section was pretty easy. But then the final, fast section was hard work to keep it at 5.40 along the canal. Though it was better once I relaxed into a rhythm.

Steady / recovery

14M double; recovery run & steady run
7M am recovery run
7M pm steady run

My legs felt shocking at the beginning of my morning run. No energy. No spring. By the end, they felt acceptable but not great. Strangely, they were full of zip by the evening and I ran pretty steadily.

I've decided not to run the Great North Run tomorrow. I lost a week or so of training to the bug I picked up on holiday, so I want to concentrate on high mileage and solid long runs. A shame, but I'll never match the excitement of last year - probably my fondest running memory, meeting Kenenisa Bekele, lining up behind him and then running beyond what I thought I was capable of, sobbing with delight in a heap on the grass at the end, and Yasmin and Hana meeting me off the train at Kings Cross with champagne.

I'll have to nail my long run to make up for it.

Plenty of hard cross-country miles again

22M double; medium-long run & recovery run
15M am incl 12M hard around the National cross-country course
7M pm recovery run

I ran another 'medium-long' effort around the Heath this morning, slightly longer than on Sunday. I warmed up for a couple of miles before running three and a bit big loops of the Southern/National cross-country course (I think it's the big lap we do in the Southern actually, including an extra little section up at the top of the Heath). The last mile and a bit was along the path past the track and up by the eastern ponds. I felt like I got the effort about right - better than Sunday, thanks to remembering the course a bit better and working out how and where to push. I jogged the mile home at snail's pace. My legs were in a state all day.

I was dead tired at the beginning of my evening run, but got going surprisingly well by the end.

Recovery

10M double; recovery runs x2
5M am recovery run
5M pm recovery run

I ran gently to and from work today via Regent's Park. I was really tired in the morning.

Steady

19M double; steady run & recovery run
13M am steady run
6M pm recovery run

I ran a pretty steady 13 miler on my way to work this morning around Hyde Park and briefly along the river. My legs were shot after last night's mile reps. They felt no better by the time I ran home. I'll take it fairly easy again tomorrow but run a session Friday morning I think.

Ten mile reps

19M double; recovery run & mile rep session
3M am recovery run
16M pm incl 10x1M off 90s jog

My morning run was very short thanks to nursery drop off and an earlyish start at work. But I made up for it in the evening by leaving work promptly and squeezing in 10 really good mile reps around the grass loop in Regent's Park before Hana's bath time. I was on the floor by the end of the last one.

Recovery and core work!

10M double; recovery runs x2
5M am recovery run
5M pm recovery run
30min core session

I ran two easy ones today and then managed my first core session in about 18 months! I really want to make this block of training count, so I've decided to get back into the rhythm of fitting in core strength exercises a couple of times a week. I have struggled to find time (and inclination) to do them since Hana was born, but it shouldn't be so hard. I spend plenty of evenings sitting around achieving very little.

Today, I did just three cycles of the following: squats, single let toe-touches, deltoid extensions, sit-ups and single leg plank. I also did one cycle of calf raises on the stairs, which is supposed to be good at keeping Achilles niggles at bay.