Woo Hoo!

So, wow, another week has yet again flown by!  I'm sure that I ask myself the same question on a week by week basis but, truly, where does the time go?  It's been a hectic week to say the least.  Less intense than last week but no less pressured, draining or busy to say the least!  It has been the week where work has decided to be full on with report writing, training primary school maths teachers, after-school coursework assessments, marking and meetings galore.  All I can say is, thank goodness that the end of term is nigh!

Having said that, I've been very fortunate that the girls have had a couple of days with their dad which has enabled me to work late and still focus on my running.  Consequently, I have happily made up for the lack of distance from last week.  I've been really tired and am typically on around 6 hours maximum sleep per night but have SO enjoyed my week and really feel tonight that things are coming together.

So, the week that was:
I hit the school treadmill on Monday straight after work to squeeze a steady 8 miles in (65mins 45 seconds) which is fine by me.  Not my best but I wasn't trying to achieve that, it was as planned, just a happy and steady run.  I had intended to run on Tuesday night but between work and going out, there simply wasn't the time (not good).  Also not a great session on Wednesday night due to having such a late night out on Tuesday but did manage 5 miles of fartlekking at the gym (I could not have managed a single metre more if I tried) - so followed this up with a reasonably fast 4 miler first thing Thursday morning before work.  I took Friday as a rest day as I had made the decision to sack the Joe Cox half on Sunday and put the distance in on Saturday instead.  It was actually quite a tough decision to make as I know I'd have run better in race conditions and really wanted to don my Pacers vest but felt that I needed the miles and not the pace.  So, with my sister-in-law Tara on the bike next to me to keep me sane, I ran 22 miles on Saturday.  22 VERY slow miles on Saturday.  I'd set my pace at 9.15min/mile which felt horrendously slow for a very long time.  I did, however, want to be in a position where my legs would recover quite quickly and that I could complete the route.  On the positive, I DID complete it and whilst I had had enough (I SO had had enough), there was enough fuel in the tank to speed up for the last 3 miles or so.  This is encouraging in itself and also knowing that I've spent 200 minutes on the go is, perhaps, the sign that I needed to be convinced that I can happily complete the Milan marathon.  It is now Sunday and I've completed 39 miles this week. So, woo hoo!  :o)

My plan for this week is to get some miles in still but to drop the LONG run slightly down again:
Monday - highly likely to be a rest day due to meetings and parenthood
Tuesday - I could probably get 8 miles in at some point, depending upon whether I have the girls at home or not.
I could probably get 10km in on Wednesday straight after work.
Thursday - rest day.
Friday - 10km perhaps
Saturday - 3 or 4 SLOW miles
Sunday - I would quite like to get 16 miles on the clock but time permitting may push for a fast half instead.  I'll play it by ear as I have to with pretty much most things!  Either way, I certainly anticipate on completing 35+ miles this week.

I also plan on getting some more sleep in which looks to be quite achievable as the workload this week is far less intense than in previous weeks!  Also, given how 'fine' my legs are today, I'm certainly geared up for Milan and beyond.  By the way, when I say 'fine' I really couldn't just knock out another 22 miles tomorrow but I'm walking fine, managed an afternoon of rollerskating with my daughters and am looking forward to my next (shorter) run.  There's a lot to be said for slow running sometimes! 

21 days until Milan, 63 until Edinburgh!