Phew, what a week! I hit my highest mileage ever, with 90.3 miles ran including a midweek 21 mile long run and then the Worcester 10K on Sunday. But more on that later!
I rejigged my schedule so that I could do my long run in the week leaving Sunday clear for the 10K race. That meant an early start on Thursday morning in an attempt to beat the late-summer hear we’ve been having lately. Overall the run went well – I tried to keep the effort slightly easier than normal, thinking ahead to Sunday, but despite the heart rate being a little lower the pace was still decent, averaging 7:32/mi.
I ran the run fasted, and with just water to keep refreshed. In the last few miles I could definitely feel the lack of fuel, but still managed to push on and finish without slowing too much. Hopefully that’ll be good for teaching my body to burn more fat on long runs, which should help me avoid “the wall” towards the end of the marathon.
After the long run, all sights were set on the Worcester 10K on Sunday. The legs recovered well and my recovery runs in Worcester before the race were feeling really good – nice low HR for a given pace, and legs feeling relatively fresh. They also felt good on the morning of the race, and I was lucky to get very good weather, cool and still.
You can read the full report here, but in short I ran a 35 second PB, pacing the race really well and feeling pretty good the whole way around. I am really pleased with the performance given that it was at the end of a 90 mile week, and I actually ran nearly 100 miles in the 7 days leading up to Sunday.
Overall a great way to end a 90 mile week, and a big confidence booster that things are heading in the right direction for Frankfurt next month. I have the Bristol HM next Sunday which will be another good test. Hopefully the legs will hold up and I can put in another good performance there…