I continued my habit of following the Tempo run with a double the next day. My legs were a little tired in the morning, but in the evening I found myself going at a fair old clip. While it was enjoyable I had a feeling I'd pay for it Wednesday morning.
AM 8.2miles @ 7.18 HR 139
PM 8.4miles @ 7.15 HR 138
Sure enough Wednesday's AM run was a little slower but I think it was more to do with the headwind than fatigue. By Wednesday evening there was a storm blowing so what little temptation there was for another double quickly dissipated.
AM 10 miles @ 7.29 HR 135
Thursday was track time again, the weather was still far from ideal with strong winds and flurries of snow. My hope had been to be close to 5.40 for 6 mile repeats since last week had gone so well. I didn't get off to a great start and my legs felt tired from the off. I decided there was no point in trying to force it on the first repeat so struggled to a 5.45. The second was even worse, partly due to absent mindedly doing too short a recovery so I ended up with 5.51. By now I resigned myself to the fact that if I managed to stay under 6minutes I'd be ok, just finish it out. After a more sensible recovery I managed to get down to 5.49. Sort of miraculously and with the help of some extra long recoveries I managed to bang out two 5.39's and a 5.36 to finish which was great considering how the session had started. Not sure if it was the weather changing slightly , the longer recovery or the GPS playing tricks (I take the distance from my watch rather than the track) but I didn't complain. Finishing out the session was the important thing. Warm up 3miles, 6x1 3miles warm down.
Felt pretty crappy on Friday, not sure if it was because I had a long run hanging over me all day or what. My sleep is still pretty bad but probably got my best nights sleep of the week on Thursday night. Anyway the hope was to do another 20 miles but so that I didn't feel under too much pressure told myself that anything more than 13 would suffice. It's still early days. Felt rubbish from the off but my pace was fast, hovering just over 7min /miling - I think I just wanted to get it over with!
By 6 miles I had slowed up though and really felt like stopping but decided another 6 miles feeling awful would be good for mental strength. By the time I got back to the start I had 13 miles done and said I'd do another half mile and once that was done was able to struggle on for another mile. Never strayed far from the office and continued like this, thinking about every mile being one less to do at the weekend. Once I got to 18.5, decided there was no way I was going to get this far and not do 20 and sure enough I did exactly that. Toughest run in a long time, but definitely a good tactic to stay close to base when knackered and only having to worry about each 1/2mile at a time.
20 miles @ 7.21 HR 139
Another brutal nights sleep but this time it was due to having to be up at 3.30 for a flight home. Nice to know I can take today off but will decide later if I want to go for a nice easy run. Weighed myself when I got up and am down to 64.8 kgs which is nice, considering I seemed to be stuck on 68 only a few weeks ago. Haven't been starving myself at all but funny how cutting out the little things like hot chocolate are making all the difference. No doubt I'll spring back up a bit as always on weekends at home but managed to resist the pastries in the lounge at Copenhagen airport earlier so there's hope for me yet!
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