Not such a long one today although I’d appreciate comments on my training plan as I reach the last (ish) stages. But first my exercise week.

Tuesday – I didn’t do a recovery run on Monday as had only run 12 miles on Sunday as my rest weekend, so was able to do our last winter club run of the season – “Feck Hill”. I started off with Mary Ellen and enjoyed speaking bad Spanish to her (I’m learning Spanish but haven’t got very far yet!) and then teamed up with another Liz, who I ran with on her first run with club. I ran up clutching my friend Maria’s new Run and Talk / Mental Health Champion t-shirt and wore mine, too (I’m glad we ordered the women’s Large! I’m also glad it has the Mind charity logo on the sleeve, my second to have that after my RED January one).

Mental Health Champion!

Ran there, round and back in one go and it was still pretty light when I got home!

Still light!

5.4 miles, 12:29 mins per mile

Wednesday – our two yoga classes on a Weds and Fri have been combined into one class each day so we had a mixed levels class with Dave. A balance we only do in the 10am class had some people squeaking and there were lots more (optional) transitions between poses, but a good class. I then got changed and ran with Ruth. We met up near my house and did 2.5 miles of jeffing (walk 30 sec, run 1 min) then when Ruth finished and left me to get back home, I decided to swap it around and sprint 30 sec, run 1 min, which I did by counting paces but it was fun and did work (and I got reverse splits on my mile times.3.1 miles, 12:27 mins per mile

Friday – A combined Claire yoga class that was quite hard and I couldn’t bring myself to go up into a shoulder stand. I have been doing my physio exercises regularly and could hold my legs straight up while lying on the floor and back bends a  bit more effectively.

Saturday – Met up with one of my cousins and his family in Herefordshire and had a lovely c 5 mile walk around an arboretum

Sunday – Long run day. Run up to meet Jenny, seeing Tara’s other half Matt on the way (and telling him how far I was going, which was handy as that convinced me to do it) and we ran a loop then I made it to the park for the next stage with 4.5 miles under my belt. Then met up with Ruth and Tara – Ruth was doing yet another half marathon distance, this time a virtual race as she’d missed her last one through illness. We went out and back along the bus 11 outer circle route, jeffing 30 sec walk, 1 min run, and made it to Bearwood before coming back – here’s a pretty photo of another clock:

Bearwood Clock

and here’s a photo proving Ruth got to Bearwood because the sign says so: we actually ran past the sign and up the road.

I know a lot of readers like the pretty stuff I post but this industrial/commercial/residential mix from the 1910s, 1930s and 1970s is very representative of the areas we run in, too. Tara said goodbye and popped on the bus after 10 miles and Ruth and I got back to the park for her 13.1 yay! And THEN I met Fay who had heroically come to meet me and run with me even though she’d done an Easter Egg 5k in the morning!! and we did a flattish route around the place before I said goodbye to her in the park and ran home a slightly wiggly way for another 4.5ish miles.

I found this hard. I know why. I have NOT been going to bed early enough. I worked really hard on Thursday to give me time to go and visit a friend who has just had an operation, worked really hard on Friday to get something finished so I didn’t have to get up early on Monday to do it, and out all day Saturday (that wasn’t too bad but still not an early enough night). I REALLY have to work on this. Anyway, I was really pleased with my pace – still within 6 hour marathon limits!

22 miles / 13:36 mins per mile

Hayulp! Hayulp! Am I even doing this right?

So that was a long one even though my marathon isn’t until the end of May. But I am aiming to do another long one next weekend, then have a rest week, then another long one before I taper a bit for the marathon, then 2 weeks of taper, 2 weekends of back-to-back runs (with a 10 mile trail run in the mix) then tapering for the ultra. This feels sensible for me so I’m accustomed to going long, the mara will be “just another training run”, I am not overstraining myself in the week or rest weeks, and the 31 mile ultra is a natural progression. But I’d love comments on how sensible this is, given I’ve invented it for myself (this is my 4th marathon and I enjoy running long).

Miles this week: 30.5 Miles this year: 337.

weekly-run-down-final-300x300The Weekly Run Down is run by two wonderful running women and joined by lots of other inspirational women. Kim’s weekly wrap is here and Deborah’s is here.