On Saturday I didn't run at all. Mr Matty Fixit, however, did some bike repairs and a bike service for Sarah and John. I did escape to the gym for about an hour and a half, doing strengthening work including single leg squats whilst balancing on one of those wobble ball things - not an easy exercise to do. My knees felt a little uncomfortable after that but the legs overall felt like they had had a good workout. It was a largish night on Saturday night (the Meantime beer was of course pain-relief for the knees!) and so I had decided to push myself for my big run on the Sunday.
It was a fabulous run around Oxleas Woods and Eltham Woods, following the forest trails through the mud. To be fair it was a bit slippery!! My loops around the woods were around 45 mins or thereabouts, so after four loops, hey presto, 2 hours and 50 minutes run in the bag. Difficult to know the total distance as it was all in and out of trees, but I think even in such terrain I should be able to maintain around seven miles in an hour, which would put the distance at around 19-20 miles. The hardest part was at 2 hours 20 minutes in, when I suddenly felt devilishly hungry and low blood sugared... was that the wall? For me this was a terrific milestone, particularly given that at the start of the year I was only able to run for 20 minutes and only then in short intervals of 1:30 minutes running, 30seconds walking.
Monday was a rest day, though my legs felt great and if I didn't know them better, I would have said they would have liked a short trot - but they had to make do with cycling instead. I ran out of time to do anything other than a few stretches on Tuesday.
So with two rest days, there was nothing else for it, I had to do my 6:30 am run again this week. An hour of running including 10 sprints up the steps to the top of one-tree hill. It's a great view of London from up there! Thursday morning felt like a harder wake up a call. I had to literally drag myself up to the park, but once there, I soon got into the flow and did another hour with plenty of fartlecking, including one minute sprints along a parade of trees repeated fifteen times. On Friday afternoon I completed another hour of running involving a mixture of hill work and circuits on the flat. Including the cycling to work and back on four of the days, I felt happy with the training and the body is still feeling pretty good. Two people commented at different times that they thought I had lost weight and another person thought I would be a good look-a-likey for Vladimir Putin...
Apart from a big session on the wobble ball, Saturday was a rest day and a beer free evening. I planned to test the theory (ok, Charlotte's theory) that the 2:20 wall was a product of the beer the night before. After a large bowl of porridge and plenty of fluids, I was back off up to Shooters Hill to run around Oxleas Wood and Eltham Woods. I used a two stop strategy this time; pausing briefly to take on fluids, a few dried apricots and a penguin at each stop. Despite the rain, it was actually quite warm and I managed to run for 3 hours 30 minutes. Again I am unsure of the total distance, but it could have been 23/24 miles, or possibly more given the time taken and that the pace felt fairly good all the way. No wall this time at 2:20, so plenty of porridge in the morning and no beer the night before must be the answer -- or was it the penguin?
Which brings me back to the original question - yes, it is feeling more likely! I am very much looking forward to the 17th April.
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