Monday
What better way to begin my Christmas Holiday, than with an early morning recovery run! 6 miles at 9:09 min mile pace felt fairly comfortable considering the 17 miles the day before.
After running, I drove to London to visit my sister Amy who lives in Canary Wharf. We wanted to go out for dinner but after being well and truly glutened last week, I was trying to be extra careful with what I ate. Amy researched restaurants with good gluten free options and booked us a table at Jamie's. I was really impressed with the gluten free pasta - really well cooked and delicious. Cheeky bonus- As Amy was a gold card memeber, she got a free mince pie; the waiter realised I couldn't have the mince pie so brought me a free mango sorbet instead!
Tuesday
It's always more difficult running in an area you're unfamiliar with. Staying at my sisters, meant I wasn't confident enough to go out on my own around the streets of London. What with Christmas shopping and celebrating my Mum's birthday, I wasn't able to fit in a run.
I do however have another excellent gluten free recommendation to share. For my Mum's birthday, we'd booked an afternoon tea at the Kensington Hotel. Now, afternoon tea is possibly the most glutenous meal you can get! I can't eat sandwiches, cakes or scones so was delighted when the hotel staff produced a vast tray full of gluten free alternatives: sandwiches on gluten free bread, home made gluten free scones, macaroons, jelly cubes, a passionfruit posset and a gluten free fruit cake- very impressed. I'd definitely recommend the hotel for fellow Coeliacs.
Wednesday
I drove back to Bristol and had a physio appointment with Jenny. Legs weren't too bad for a change so she went to work on sorting out a shoulder pain I'd developed. Jenny really got into the small nooks of my shoulder...ouch at the time but felt wonderful afterwards.
After physio, was this weeks PT session. As I had a race the next day, Jules (for once) went easy on me. Rowing to warm up, followed by lots of core and flexibility exercises. My core is pretty strong but I definitely need to work on my flexibility and balance. Homework - to practice the 'superman' exercise (where you are on the floor on all fours (with hands and knees very close together), and lift and straighten the opposite arm and leg).
My next physical activity of the day, was the GWR headtorch run. But of course, 10 miles wasn't enough, so we added on an extra 3 miles to start making a total of 13 miles at an average pace of 9:11 min miles. Slower than I'd like normally but it's a hilly route and more difficult to run quickly in the woods. Plus it was more of a social run; wonderful to run as a big group, chat and catch up with my running buddies.
Thursday
I had a visit from my wonderful friend Feliciy and her beautiful daughter today. Lots of fun playing games and watching my 20 month old God-daughter walking around and chatting away merrily. It was fab to have a restful day (normally I'd be working) before the evening's race.
The evening brought the 4th Weston Prom race of the series. I was feeling in good shape so was eager to see what I could do.
During my warm up, I spotted Julia Belyavin who I know is a really strong runner and my top competition for this race.
My race strategy was to stick with Julia as long as I could and see if I could keep all my miles under 6:15 pace. For the first two miles, everything was going to plan. I was matching Julia's strides and clocking 6:02 and 6:08. Unfortunately, mile 3 brought my downfall. Turning into the wind, Julia kicked and I couldn't quite keep up...a bit of a mental blow and my pace slowed. I then realised my breathing was laboured; my chest felt tight and I think I was suffering with a bit of acid reflux. Every time I checked my watch, I felt more cross that I'd let the pace drop. Mile 3 was a tragic 6:28. Turning around, the wind behind me gave me a bit of a boost and I picked up the pace a bit and tried to sort my breathing out. Then, out of nowhere, appeared my hero of the evening- in the form of Dave Wintle- a GWR running legend. His encouragement and simple advice such as 'relax' was clearly exactly what I needed and my pace picked up to 6:12 for both of the last two miles. One of the best things about the Prom race, is getting to see the runners going the other direction. It's always wonderful to hear people's cheers and shouts of support. It was also brilliant to see John at the sharp end of the field looking strong and finishing in an impressive 8th position (out of 322). Feelings of pride spurring me on, I breezed past a group of men (always a nice confidence boost) and finished feeling strong and positive- once I realised I'd clocked a new 5 mile PB of 31:15 (6:12 mm) and finished as 2nd lady.
Friday (Christmas Eve Eve!)
Just a recovery run today: 3.5 miles at 9:04 pace. Lovely to be joined by Marcus for a little while as well. Calves feeling rather tight but other than that, all in working order.
Saturday (Christmas Eve!)
After realising that I probably wouldn't want to run long on Christmas day, I managed to convince John that we should do our long run today. He came up with a very detailed plan of how we could get in 17 miles while incorporating parkrun and some miles at marathon pace.
6 miles before parkrun- longest warm up ever! My calves were feeling super tight so I started parkrun at a steady pace. Once at the top of the hill, my legs were feeling better so I decided to play my favourite parkrun game- chase the women! It simply involves me running as fast as I can for the last 2 miles and trying to pass as many women as I can. Today was successful...I moved from 6th to 2nd position- not too shabby!
Parkrun might have been finished but me and John had another 8 miles to go! Running down the towpath, we weren't quite able to get up to marathon pace (but it's ok, the Maestro said we didn't need any more MP miles this week- phew!) we did however manage to get a couple of faster miles in which kept up the average pace of the run.
A really enjoyable 17miles- especially because it felt much better than last week. Feeling positive and delighted with an average pace of 8 minute miles.
Total mileage for the week (so far) 46.5 (rather disappointing- shouldn't have missed Tuesday's miles).
Next weeks goal- MUST get over 60 miles.
I'm writing this on Saturday because (hopefully) by this time tomorrow, I'll be too drunk to write coherently! I am planning on running tomorrow morning - I'll do at least 4 miles to get up to 50.
So the only thing left to say is...
Happy Christmas!
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