I was definitely feeling the heavy mileage more this week – on several days the legs felt pretty heavy and sluggish, but I was careful to keep recovery runs truly at recovery pace, and the legs held up well. Indeed I ran my mid-week short intervals session (200m and 400m reps) better than I ever have before despite doing it early on an empty stomach, which was pleasing.
I was also happy to PB at the City of London Mile on Sunday too, even though my legs felt heavy from the start. Given that performance on tired legs, I think I could probably go a little faster still if I was fresh. The long run afterwards wasn’t much fun and my legs were definitely feeling every 1 of the 82 miles ran this week, but all good practise for running on tired legs I guess.
Having had a decent few weeks of training I now feel quite well prepared for the Swansea Half next Sunday. Having ran a PB this week, and close to one last week at parkrun, I know I’m in pretty good shape, so hopefully I can run well. In an ideal world I’d have perhaps done a few more tempo runs, but I did put in a few decent tempo efforts at the end of long runs, and the mile repeats on the track have a tempo element to them I suppose.
I think the plan will be to head out at 1:25ish pace and see how I feel. I’d love to run 1:25, and I managed three miles at that pace (6:28) at the end of a 16 mile long run a few weeks ago, so I feel like it could be within reach. It’ll definitely need all the stars to align though, so if the weather isn’t perfect or I’m not feeling it on the day, I’ll be ready to drop down to 1:26 or even anything sub-1:27.
Main thing though is to get to the start line well rested. I’m definitely ready for a taper week this week after weeks of 74, 82 and 82 miles, so aside from the track session on Wednesday – part of my 10K preparation that I don’t want to drop – I will be running very easy, and nothing above five miles. I’ll probably throw in a few strides to stay sharp, depending on how I feel. Looking forward to getting to Swansea and seeing what I can do…