This week was a super week of training and ended on a real
high as I completed my last harder session with a twist as I ran the Bedford
Parkrun 5k as part of a session of 1 x 5k, 2 x 2k effort (the 2k is
actually 1.17 miles, but near enough).
I had been getting some grief from my left leg all week, numbness
in my calf and a sore IT Band, an old injury serving as a reminder of the
volume I’ve banked recently. By the end of the week this had eased off somewhat
and I felt really good on the Saturday morning as I headed over to Bedford
Park, my favourite training venue, for the session.
I jogged the three miles from my house to arrive at the
start line ready to crack on with the session. The start was delayed so I got
some strides done before we were off. I was keen to treat this as a session,
not a race. I didn’t want an eyeballs out 5k race followed by two piss poor 2k
efforts.
I was soon out on my own and felt smooth and relaxed for the
entire 5k, covering the two full laps in 5:42 and 5:52 – I cruised the final
half lap and finishing straight full of running before going straight through the
funnel oblivious to the finish time (15:42 – a course record) and straight into
a five minute jog before cracking out the full lap ‘2k’ efforts off two minutes
rest. These I did in 5:49 and 5:54. This made for a really satisfying morning
of running.
During midweek I’d managed a 10 mile tempo run at ~5.30 pace
and didn’t need to push too hard for this, another encouraging sign with
Toronto now less than two weeks away.
My England kit turned up on the Friday, which gave me a real
boost heading into the weekend. The embroidered red rose on the chest a nice
touch.
The weather was lovely and hot all week and I managed 85
miles, reducing things enough to start feeling stronger when I felt ready to
push my runs. The Sunday run of just over 18 miles was a bit of a grind but nothing too hard was
called for. It’s taper time now and I am really looking forward to this
marathon.