Week 13

5 weeks to go until the big day, how did it get that close?! Some days I really don’t think I’ll be able to reach my target of a 55minute 10k, then other days when I’m out running and it’s going well I think maybe I can. If I could do it in training I think I would be happy enough with that! I signed up to the Great Scottish Run at the same time as the 10k and I am planning on keeping this blog going throughout the summer for that. So hopefully if I don’t achieve 55mins in May then I’ll be able to do it for September!

Well onto this weeks training, Monday night was my usual Spin class, and Tuesday was Body Balance. Enjoyed both as usual and there was a new release out for Body Balance. It was really good doing a different routine as I was starting to know the old one really well and knew exactly what was coming up next. By changing the routine every couple of months it definitely keeps the body working that bit harder, trying to figure out what comes up next!

Wednesday night I was able to get out for a run, it was a lovely night so went out in just shorts and t-shirt, a first for this year! I did a 6k run, managed to do it in 33mins 56secs, averaging 10.6kph. My first mile was 8m53s, second 9m12s and third 9m13s. I was really pleased to have done a 6k, especially as I am dong a 6k run this Sunday at Strathclyde Park!

I wasn’t able to get out running again until Saturday, but I made it a worthwhile one as I managed to do a 7k! My time was 40m49s, averaging 10.3kph. So it wasn’t quite the speed I wanted but I’m happy just to be able to start doing longer distances now, it felt a really good run (and I wasn’t sick after it!). One thing I always find with my running is how consistent I seem to be over it. A lot of people run negative splits, where the second half of their run is much faster than their first, but the mile splits on Saturday for me were 9m22s, 9m22s, 9m16s and 9m23s! After the run we went up to Glasgow Club Easterhouse Pool for swimming and a nice long sit in the steam room, perfect way to recover after a long run!

Sunday I wasn’t able to go out running till late afternoon. Nearly didn’t go at all but the motivation of something to write about in this blog forced me out! I decided after my longer runs during the week I wanted a short, fast run, so decided I would see how quick I could run a mile!! Now I did this last year and managed it in 8m15s, but as I have been running 8m45s miles within longer runs I wanted to see if I could do it in under 8mins. I did a warm up jog for a kilometre, then set off, and was very happy to complete the mile in 7m52s! Would never have thought I could do that before! Now I just need to figure out how to keep that pace up 5 more times for a 49min 10k! The very first time I ran a mile, which would have been about 2 years ago now, I did it in about 11 and a half mins (and collapsed at the end!) so it’s nice to be able to see such a massive improvement!

Well this week, as I said above I have a 6k run on Sunday. I am not focusing too much on the time, I am hoping more to get more experience of running amongst other people before the 10k next month. I also would love to run for 8k now, having done 6 then 7k this week, hopefully it will be possible! I then need to work on getting my speed up for these longer runs, should be achievable….right?!

Training song of the week – Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell – the full version! By time its finished that’s another mile covered!