Tuesday I was supposed to do speedwork at the gym but forgot my trainers so came back to the cottage. Luckily as it turned out, since Fi and Ailsa dropped by to pick up Fi's bike and Ailsa got to see round the cottage (and use the loo). It was another nice evening so I headed along the back road to Tilli (the long way round with the farm hill at the beginning) and back along the railway track. Felt good to push a bit harder and I quite enjoyed the hills which are tough enough to feel a sense of achievement without being actually impossibly hard.
Had Wednesday off to see Cal's school musical, which was very professional. He had a lead role with a couple of songs and lots of costume changes. At one point he was up on stage and looking so much like Al that it was quite uncanny - knowing that Al would rather have red hot needles stuck in his eyes than ever get on stage again after his swing dance experience. Cal definitely takes after his mum in that respect!
Yesterday I got to the gym for speedwork - made myself go even though I went to Tesco's first and it would have been all too easy to turn the car for home instead. Not only did I manage to get myself through the door of the gym but also managed 9 whole Yassos - though I had to have a loo break after numbers 6 and 8. I also lowered the incline to 1.5% for numbers 7 and 8 and 1% for number 9, instead of my usual 2%.
Altogether, did:
- Cross trainer, 6 mins, staying above 10 mets
- Treadmill 9 x 0.5 miles at 8 mph with 0.15 mile breaks at 4 mph (plus a couple of brief extra breaks)
- 2 x 12 reps on each of 2 chest grips and 3 back grips, all at 20 kg
- Treadmill 0.5 miles at 7.2 mph (1% incline) and 0.5 miles at 6.5 mph (1% incline)
Today, drove back to Edinburgh and straight to Holyrood Park. Parked at the Palace car park and ran up the Radical Road the steep way - had to walk the very steepest bits, but for no more than two minutes, probably one minute. Then did one loop of Queen's Drive anti-clockwise and one clockwise and finished by running back up Radical Road the less steep way (no walking!). The whole thing took longer than I would have liked. It would have been great to have done it in an hour, but I think it was more like an hour and 10. Still, it definitely counts as the '1 hour hard hilly run' recommended on the official website for 'serious runners' at this stage. Not that I'm following that schedule - who the hell has time for six runs a week?
Long run scheduled for Sunday: should be 19 miles. I'm going to try and do some of the marathon route from Cramond out to Portobello. I have also booked myself a massage for a week on Sunday, which is a treat to look forward to. Though Fiona wants to practise her massage technique on me tomorrow, which is even better!
So I'm hopefully back on track but am going to have to work really hard for the next three weeks. I'll take the garmin on my long run and see if I can average somewhere around 8 minute 50 second miles.
Weighed myself tonight: 8 and a half stone, which is my official 'running weight'. I don't normally reach this weight till about three weeks before a marathon, when my mileage peaks. But then I was ill. And I have just eaten about three pounds of pizza and drunk a litre of water and juice, which should bring me up to par. I didn't take any water on my run so I'd probably sweated off about a pound of liquid too.
I have just discovered that if you mix half water with half apple juice (my regular tipple) but then add a few drops of lime juice it is really lovely and refreshing.
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