Manchester - Week 7

The week in numbers ...

Miles ran: 61
Mushrooms eaten :  a few
Chocolate spread eaten: one jar
Wine drank: 2 bottles
American waffles eaten:  1 pack

Weight: Monday 11st10lb
                    Sunday 11st10lb

It's an old school classic tonight at the club and we're doing Domebusters.

Out for my usual 4 mile warm up to Cullercoats and back and then down to the seafront for the session.

Have a chat with Wendy before the session where I tell her I'm not going to be a twat and stick to pace tonight unlike last week when we had the same conversation and I then went into fast B team. 

B team splits in two, I'm sensible and go into the second B team, we're aiming for 1:35-1:45 per loop with reducing recoveries.  We shoot off and Wendy and Georgina take the lead and rep one in 1:33, rep 2 in 1:35, rep 3 another 1:35 and now I'm warming up and getting into it.  I get to the front and 1:31, 1:35, 1:33 and a silly final rep of 1:27 and we're done.

Basically the same paces as the other B team so sensible Simon didn't last long but I blame Wendy for setting the pace with rep 1.  I'm very easily influenced and just do whatever everyone else does, my school reports always said much the same.  It was usually 'Simon could achieve so much more if he didn't just arse about with his friends' and whilst this is true I thoroughly enjoyed school and that's what counts and I don't think my teachers used the word 'arse' but that was the general gist of it.

Easy plod home to hit another 8 miles for the session.

Get home, make a cup of coffee and eat some chocolate caramel spread cream crackers.

It's threshold Thursday.

I ballsed this one up last week and couldn't hit the paces and had zero enthusiasm to do it.

Last week was 4 x 2 miles.

This week it's 5 x 2 miles.

An early appointment and then out for the session and the wind is shitty.  I know this is going to be a struggle today and decide trying to hide down on the prom night be the best chance of getting it done.

I was wrong.

Oh hang on I forgot to say what I had for breakfast.  It was a chocolate caramel spread sandwich.

Back to the running...

Session should be one mile at 6:50-7:05 into a second mile at around 7:30 pace.  With the wind behind me I'm hitting 6:30 pace no problem, turn into the wind and struggling to hit 8 min pace, I got the overall pace I needed for the 2 miles but it's all over the place and I'm not having fun, not even The Proclaimers can help with this.  Did I mention I'm really into The Proclaimers at the moment?

Whilst on my recovery I  spot a seagull attacking a bloke trying to eat his ice-cream, this lifts my mood quite a lot, I do enjoy laughing at others misfortune.  I once saw so a man fall down a manhole, not fully down, it was just one leg and he kind of did the splits and he smacked his crotch into the edge.  Loads of people rushed over to help, I just walked past shaking my head at him in disappointment at his inability to fall straight down like in a cartoon. The funniest thing I have ever seen was a man falling over at the Metrocentre, I may have told this story already in a previous blog, I'll have to go back and check and then tell it next week if I haven't.

Anyway, I do two of the planned 5 reps and decide a better use of my time is eating chocolate so I go to co-op and buy chocolate and reminisce about that man falling down the manhole.

Tonight I'm planning to head to the gym at the clubhouse for half an hour and then doing some extra miles tonight to make up the shortfall from today.

I obviously don't do this, instead I do a few miles easy and then do some extra Domebusters at threshold pace to make up for the earlier abandoned session.

Long run day.

I need to do 20 miles but I also need to do parkrun because I like doing parkrun, so do I put parkrun at the start or the middle ? If it's the start then I can have a decent lie in and go down, run the 5k and then head off for 17 miles, alternative is to do maybe 10 miles and then parkrun and then up to Tynemouth and back but the downside of this plan is I'd have to leave the house at 7:30 and I don't do early mornings.

It's 6:40 in the morning and I'm halfway to Blyth running on that shitty path past the caravan park in the dark because I'm a fucking idiot.

Yes that's right, I got up at 6:10 to leave the house at 6:30 to do 17 miles before the parkrun because I have no self discipline and if I do it any way other than ending with the parkrun I won't do the 20 miles.

The plan today is simple, 17 miles at 8:30 mile pace and then tag parkrun on at the end and maybe see if I can lift the pace a little for that bit.  5 miles to Blyth and the slowest ones been 8:20, turn and now heading 8 miles into the wind up to Tynemouth so this should slow me a little.  As always, Simon's a twat and it's all too quick and each mile sitting close to 8 mins.  Get to Tynemouth and do a small loop before heading back to Whitley for the parkrun.

I had a chocolate caramel spread sandwich for breakfast today, I forgot to say.

Got a couple of miles to go and pace is picking up a bit, I'm hungry, I'm thirsty and I'm about 5 minutes up on where I should be.  Get to Whitley, run to co-op and get a bottle of lucozade, I want coke but learnt my lesson last time I downed a bottle, also want some chocolate but resist the urge.

Open the bottle and run across to the start line, quick chat with Lita, John, Parky & Adam and we're off. 

Standing still for 2 mins was a mistake, my legs have seized up a bit and takes half a mile to loosen them off but then all is good and I'm back to sub 8 min miles.  Finish parkrun strong and 20.38 miles done at 8:08 mile pace.

Tomorrow is rest day.

I've ran 52 miles this week, just need 8 more, or 7.6 more to be exact to got 60 for the week.

Tomorrow is rest day.

I don't need to do 60 miles.

I need to rest my legs.

Running 60 miles is utterly pointless and would be junk miles.

Want to read all about my London adventure in 2023.

It's mostly about Ben, my sausage dog nemesis and wine.

LONDON CALLING