easyrunner

Nice steady run with Brian, Tony, John and a few more members of the club.
We picked up the pace in the last couple of miles on the down hill section of the course.

End of the run was good, felt still fresh and capable of doing a few more runs, but decided to end the run as I had done weights and swim on the previous day, less than 24 hours before.
Will keep an eye particularly on the recovery this time

Good steady run with John, Tony and one more member of the running club. Kept an average of 8:40 min/mile through most part of the course until the canal crossing and the hills started at approximately mile 5.
Finished with a reasonable good average of 8'52 min/mile. Still a long way from my peak fitness level at 7'25 min/mile.

The longest run so far this year this is the first time I felt my hamstrings responding well during the recovery parts of the course.
At mile 9.5 we tackled the steep hill in course and managed to keep my heart rate below 200.

I find runs at the end of the day giving me cramps and stomach pain after I finish the run. Its an awful feeling because instead of being on a high after such a great run I struggle to cope with the pain.
I am almost sure now that the difference is when I run in the mornings I run with an empty stomach. I get up and just take a cup of mint tea and thats all. After the run I have my breakfast.

The run previous to this one I felt great after the run, and that was in the mid morning, I had just corn meal and mint tea for my breakfast and then couple of hours later went running. This time although I had an early lunch around 2PM but still felt that my stomach was carrying a load and through the middle of the course I had started feeling the signs and was certain that after finishing it I would be struggling big time.

I will try to do my next couple of runs in the mornings with empty stomach just to ascertain that this is the reason.

Other than that the run was great, legs felt good and finished the course still feeling strong

Definitely an improvement compared to my previous run. But I still need to shed around one minute off the pace average. My cold and cough took its toll but certainly improving now. Quite tempted to commint myself in doing the February half marathon, but will see how my next couple of weeks runs go.
Not having Andy and John during the runs definitely affected my average a little, although I dont think I had enough in my tank to fire up a lot more pace compared to what I ran.
Next week is another week but if I recover enough I am tempted to go for another run on sunday. It will depend upon a gym trip to do some strength training on friday or saturday. I want to put in a bit of strength training on my legs so I suspect sunday its going to be still a struggle. If not running then I will go for a bike ride. Not as enjoyable as a run though but still better than not working my legs at all on sunday.

A gruelling 15 minute bike ride to test my lungs. It has one of the steepest hills in the area.

Decided to give it a go to test my lungs especially as I have been trying to shrug off a nasty cold and a bad sore throat for the past week. I was in a masochist mood so decided to try the Potter St route and tackle my nemesis, the Potter St hill which comes between mile 3 and 4. I knew I had enough fuel in my legs as I hadn't done any vigorous exercises with exception of laps in the pool while fighting my cold, the question was if my lungs and heart would cope with the steep hill after the Fore st hill at mile 2. Kept the low average of 8.45 min/mile to avoid a burn down before the hill and off I went. I was mentally really determined to not let it get the better of me one way or the other, pushed it to the end and made it and as it had got the better of me time wise ( my average was almost 1 min below my PB covered just 9 days ago) I wanted to have the satisfaction of having one better than the hill itself so I made sure to cover the whole 10 miles and a few extra steps :).

Decided to tackle the 10 mile route this time, encouraged by Andy who had just done the full 10 mile and returned to the club and tempting us all to do it again with him. A few of us started and soon after the first mile a small group got detached which included Nigel, Andy, John, Melissa and myself, and Nigel dictating the pace. Soon we could feel that the pace was faster than what we had wished, but carried out. After about 2 miles Nigel stopped to stretch and Andy fell behind. I knew if by that time I lagged behind I would be in deep trouble so carried on with the same pace along with John and Melissa, by now Melissa flying through Fore Street. It turned out to be just the three of us alone and completing the 10 mile, but boy oh boy, was Melissa on fire. Me and John struggled to keep up with her but in the end I was extremely happy as I beat my PB. Returned to the club with sore calves and quads, and later in the evening with tummy cramps and stitches too, but it with a huge grin on my face :). Andy and Nigel came back after 8 minutes. Gosh, Andy is on track again for his London marathon, he did his 20 miles on the day haa.

Tuesday club run, I started the run with Andy and Steve, obviously knowing I was going to struggle trying to cope with the pace of these two excellent runners. Steve loves hills and Andy is starting his London marathon training so I could just about see myself dragging and struggling to keep up the pace. I knew somewhere along the course I would be lagging behind, only question was after how many miles of starting. Kept up through the Fore Street hills and managed the first 4 miles and the two just disappeared from my sight. I was quite happy to have managed to finish the hill keeping up with Andy's pace, obviously Steve just surfed through all the hills and then waited for Andy to catch up.
Overall I was extremely happy with my average pace, managed to improve almost 20 seconds per mile off my previous run on the same course. Hamstrings aching now, hope I haven't oversaturated them with the hill and pace. Quite happy with my heart rate too, kept it well within my maximum which is around 203.

Thursday club run, ran 5 miles only as we were short on time. Most club runners had to finish early so completed the 5 mile course only. Weather pretty cold and wet