Hows the training for The Great Scottish Run going?

Well, as I mentioned before I was going to post more regularly but it’s been bedlam recently and I just haven’t found the time.

Training has increased somewhat. Last week I covered over 27 miles and I will do more than that this week. The schedule has moved up a notch to include 5 runs a week, with the hardest part being two runs at the weekend. I should have seen that coming! I’m wondering if I could switch my Saturday and Sunday easy runs to be run on Friday/Saturday instead. That means I miss the Friday off, but you know, I’d prefer one day off at the weekend. We’ll see how I get on this weekend, I managed both runs last weekend, so I suppose I could just deal with it.

Last Monday (14/7) was a hard tempo run, doing 4 miles at just under my 10k race pace. I did 6.9 miles with 4 miles @ 7:46 min/mi. This run was interesting as it took me from Blantyre, through Hamilton, through Hillhouse and back to Blantyre. It was suggested by Ann who had ran that way earlier in the day. Was quite a good run, although I did notice a difference with the amount of traffic on the road compared to my normal runs.

Last Tuesday I had a nice easy run ( haha ) with 4.24 miles @ 9:00 min/mi - 4 miles is easy these days. That’s funny!

My long run on Thursday I did from my house to Strathclyde Park, around the loch and back home. This covered 9.71 miles and I managed to pace it at 8:41 min/mi. This knocked nearly 6 minutes off my previous time only 2 weeks before, when I’d paced at 9:05 min/mi. What a difference. I had gotten to mile 5 and had been averaging 8:25 min/mi or thereabouts and feeling great, then I got hit by a stitch. My 2nd in my running career, but this time instead of stopping, I ran through it, reducing the speed slightly to see if I could get my body to recover. I dropped the pace to 9:00 min/mi and ran this way for a mile before the stitch started to subside. I felt better after that but didn’t want to tempt it by upping the pace too much.

Saturday and Sunday I managed my two easy runs quiet well, considering I always manage to overdo it on Friday and Saturday nights.

Monday I was dreading as I had a speedwork session to do. This was:

Dist: 7 mi; inc

Warm; 3×1600@7:19; w/800 jogs; Cool

As mentioned before, this is mile splits with 1/2 mile jogs in between. I managed this, although for the 3rd mile I cheated a bit, during my 1/2 mile jog after my 2nd mile split, I jogged to the top of a hill, meaning I had a nice start to my 3rd mile split. I felt slightly guilty at this, so I made up for this later by running a 1/4 mile at almost 6 min/mi pace. That was tough! Total distance covered was 8.47 miles, as I managed to accidentally misjudge the run My 3 speed miles I did in 7:11, 7:15 and 7:11 - impressed?

Yesterday, another easy run I did a 3.5 miler @ 8:50 min/mi pace.

Today - a well earned day off.

Tomorrow - 10 miles, still to decide where/when!

Weight: 12st 8lb - having to eat more and more to maintain this