I broke my mileage record this week, hitting 86 miles over 8 runs. Very pleased with the week – it’s one of those times when everything seems to have clicked in to place, with my legs feeling fresh despite the high mileage, and my runs averaging good paces for the heart rate/effort I’m aiming for. The slight drop in temperatures has no doubt helped as we slowly work our way in to autumn, but it’s quite pleasing nonetheless.
During the week I ticked off a 5 mile tempo run and two medium-long runs (15 miles on Wednesday and 13 miles on Friday) happily, with good paces for all of them. By Saturday I was a few miles above the planned mileage, and knew my 22 mile long run would bring me tantalisingly close to 85 miles for the week. I therefore decided that assuming I got to 22 without any issues I’d push on to 23 so I would achieve an 85 mile week.
The long run this morning did indeed go well. I ran it without breakfast again, and happily my body seems to have adjusted well to this. I took a soft flask of Lucozade Sport along with me, and just had a few gulps every so often more to wet the whistle than anything else. The legs felt really good and although they obviously tired slightly towards the end held up pretty well. I felt fine at 22 so pushed on to 23, and indeed Strava reckons I did 23.4 which coincidentally brought me up to 86 miles!
Overall then a great way to end the first heavy block of training for Frankfurt. I now have a slightly easier week (“just” 70 miles) before a final big push which will feature a few more 80+ mile weeks, as well as the Worcester 10K and the Bristol Half Marathon, both of which I will probably race all-out assuming I’m still feeling good.
Just 56 days until Frankfurt, and at the moment I’m feeling really excited and looking forward to it!