Verbal Diarleah (The Diary of Leah)

Tonight was a tempo run. A mile warm up then three miles at 9:00ish pace and a mile cool down.  The last time I ran this pace was several weeks ago when the training was really kicking my butt. Tonight was a tale of two halves. The first half I struggled slightly to not only find the pace but to cope with very tired legs and feeling slightly overwhelmed by the pace. Feelings of ‘I can’t do this’ crept in often. Then I hit the halfway point and things turned around, as they often tend to do. I find in tempo runs I tend to struggle for about two miles and from then on I hit my stride and find it only slightly harder than an easy paced run. Tonight was no different. After about 1.75 miles I hit that point where everything clicked and the pace seemed much easier. I even had to continually rein myself in from 8:40-8:45 territory for much of the last mile. The pacing was set between 8:48-9:08 and I managed it at 8:56 per mile. I like to keep it in the middle.

Tomorrow is a rest day and I even have the day off work. I’m going into central London to a running-specific shop to look for a bum bag (fanny pack to Americans) or waist belt thing of some sort for carrying gels or other carb goodness on long runs and in the marathon. I’m looking forward to the trek.

I ran home today for my slow six miles. I mapped a route through Claygate as I mentioned yesterday. It was a nice route but there were a couple of drawbacks. Mainly, a lot of the route was very rural, which means little to no pavement to run on. I am alright running on the road as I’m wearing a bright pink jacket so I can be seen but when you come up to a blind bend you get a bit nervous. Happily I’m still here. The only other minor point is that it was a bit hilly in places. I have mapped longer routes through the same area. I may or may not run them. It’s a lovely route for scenery but I just don’t like having to run on the road. They’re definitely daylight hours runs, not for after it gets dark. You can see a map here.

Tonight was a speed work session. I started with the usual mile warm up at 10:40ish pace. I then did 8 x 400 metres (.25 miles) at very fast 8:00ish pace with 200 metre (.12 miles) recoveries. That followed with the mile cool down at 10:40ish again.

I felt good tonight despite feeling very tired when I left work. Since we got back from Norway I just do not feel rested. Even at the weekend I was rather tired. But thankfully the run tonight wasn’t nearly as difficult as I’d thought. Especially since I was expecting the previous speed work pace of 8:26-8:46 and was a bit shocked when 7:47-8:07 flashed up on my Garmin. Tomorrow is a slow run which I’ve decided to do from work to home instead of coming home and then going out. It’s a new route that goes through the nice little villagey place of Claygate nearby. I’ll post a map tomorrow evening.

I tried to paste this week’s schedule in yesterday but it wasn’t working for some reason. Here it is:

Today was the first long run for a few weeks due to last week’s Norwegian expedition. Today was hard, I’ll definitely say that. Eleven miles at slow pace of 10:30ish but it was hard going for the first few miles. Then, when I finally got into my stride I encounter the longest hill…ever! I ran up to Epsom Downs racecourse because I needed the extra miles. You can see it on the map here. Unfortunately I didn’t check the elevation on that map and was rather surprised at how long and steep this hill was. I was barely getting below 11:00 a mile it was so tough; but I slogged on and got to the top. I rounded the corner and it was all downhill from there, literally. I made up some of the slower pace by really throwing myself down that hill. There was one more hill awaiting me coming out of Epsom town centre but I’ve done that one before and was prepared for it.

My lungs and chest are hurting a bit now and I feel as though I have a bit of a chesty cough. This is because I gave my lungs such a good workout today with that hill. As hard as it was, in a way, it was a good thing. It really threw me back into the training properly so I’m ready to start up again. The runs this past week on Wednesday and Thursday, while challenging, were very low on the mileage scale. Five miles just isn’t a lot when you run 11, 13, etc. This week, though, the mileage really starts to creep up. Next Sunday I will 13 miles, which I haven’t done since December. Onwards and upwards!

Tonight was a steady run of five miles at 9:25 per mile and it was very hard. It’s only the second run back from holiday and the quicker pace really got to me. I was barely hanging on in the last mile. I knew it was going to be hard. I knew I’d lost a bit of fitness over the week off. I managed to finish though, at a pretty respectable pace. Rest day tomorrow then easy four miles on Sunday preparing for 11 miles on Sunday. That’ll be a test.

Well, hello. It’s been a week. Back from Norway and back to marathon training. Slow five miles today except my Garmin GPS was dead so I had to guess at the pacing. I ended up going just a bit faster than I ought to at 10:22 per mile. It was still within the range but I should have been closer to 10:30-10:35 per mile, especially since it was my first day back. No problem though. I managed the run feeling just a bit unfit but not altogether bad. Tomorrow is a tempo run so the faster pace may get me. We shall see.

I have to make this quick as I’m super busy tonight. Tonight was a long, slow, wet run of seven miles at 10:25 pace. It rained on me the whole damn time. I do hate those runs. Oh well, I have five full days off now in Norway with my husband for his birthday. I have snow and sub-zero temperatures to look forward to now and NO runs! I will enjoy the time off and our holiday. Dog sledding, skiing, cross-country skiing and hopefully the Northern Lights await us. I won’t run again until next Tuesday so check back then.

Good evening. Well, this evening was a good run. It was speed work tonight, which was a mile warm up then a half mile at 8:30ish pace with just over tenth of a mile recoveries done four times followed by a mile cool down. Speed work is always a tough session and tonight had its moments but also because yesterday was a rest day it was easier than if it were on Thursday evening. But, by far, the best thing about tonight’s run was at the very end.

There is a relatively steep hill about a quarter mile from where I start running. I was headed up said hill tonight running around 10:45ish pace in the cool down mile. The teen boys in this country tend to wear hooded sweatshirts with the hoods up and, as they have done for more than ten years, jeans hanging half off of their ass, underwear proudly on show. A boy who looked around 15 or 16 came riding up on a BMX-style bike by my side and overtook me at the bottom of this hill. Technically it is illegal to cycle on the pavements (sidewalks) here in the UK but unless you’re an adult and/or doing it dangerously you can generally get away with it. It doesn’t mean that it’s still not just a bit annoying and unsafe.

This young’un just had to squeeze past me on the pavement and started up the hill. He got about half-way up and gave up peddling and started walking the bike up. A good song came on and I felt a surge of energy so I picked up the pace by quite a bit and zoomed past him up this steep hill. You could say I left him in the dust. It just made my day to go past this little twerp at some speed up a hill when I turn 29 in a couple of days. I smiled all the way home and actually didn’t want to stop running I felt so good.

Tomorrow is a slow seven miles.

It’s Sunday. It’s long run day. Nine miles today at 10:26 per mile. I’m still just a bit hung over from early birthday celebrations last night with friends. It was a lot of fun and I knew it would hurt today so I waited until 3.00pm to let the hangover ebb slightly. The run wasn’t too difficult but I could have very easily stayed on the couch all day and been happy. But I got out there and did it. And you can see the run here.