Road to London

Monday as always = gym day

Kettlebells at the ready as usual and some core stuff but not much as it hurts and I don't like it.

Then home for a shower and some breakfast and a day's work.

Had a double decker and a cup of coffee for breakfast. Gail was disgusted, told me I couldn't have a double decker for breakfast.

Thinking of having fruit pastilles for lunch.

Turns out when you're an adult you can pretty much do whatever the hell you want.

Tuesday was traaaaaaacccckkk.

It's that funny session with long slower reps and long recovs and then short faster reps and short recovs in-between them, I like this one.  I'm a lover of sessions that involve playing around with pace, and I like a nice long recovery.  I don't like the fast 200's, they're bloody awful.

Top work from the group tonight, kept it tight and we only lost one person during the session even though we had Tom P turning up and leading from the front and stretching us out way too fast.

I'm not naming names on who it was that dropped out.

His name rhymes with Pen.

Ben.

It was Ben.

Wednesday is easy miles and I had a manic day today with back to back appointments starting at 8am and working through to 8pm.  

This meant I had a short gap where I could fit a run in and when it came to the time to go out I instead decided to lie on the settee and was soon joined by both Marvin and Murphy and we had a chat and they persuaded me to have a  snooze instead.

It was bloody marvellous.

Then I felt guilty that I hadn't gone out and that double decker breakfast from 2 days ago was playing on my mind.

So against my better judgement I went for a run, it was cold, it was raining and it was windy.  The moral of this story is don't have a conversation with your pets and definitely don't listen to what they say.

Threshold Thursday is back again.  Today was 3 x 3 miles at threshold pace, this is supposed to be around 7:20-7:30 mile pace but always tends to be closer to 7:15-7:20 which is okay.

So these are the longest reps I've done so far and decided to do them on Whitley parkrun course, don't know why I chose to do them here as midway through first rep I decided it was a stupid idea.  Now obviously I could have changed the session after the first rep and ran elsewhere but didn't want to have my coach whinging at me about not being committed so I stuck with it.

Happy now are you Simon ? 

Happy I did a horrible session on a horrible loop and it's all your fault?

First rep bang on pace and felt okay, 4 min static recovery and went again and my watch decided to arse about and kept freezing so didn't know what pace I was doing.  Then it came back on and I was a little fast but okay. 2nd rep done but wasn't sure what time as watch was being a twat again.  Started last rep and pushed on a bit, got home spent an hour messing on with my watch to get it to upload and all 3 reps were fine, a little fast but basically 3 back to back parkruns(ish) in around 22-23 mins.

Went to co-op to get a healthy lunch.

Got some fruit pastilles.

Ate fruit pastilles for lunch.

I'll have healthy lunch later.

Or I might have some chocolate.

Had some chocolate.

Friday is 4 miles easy and Friday also happens to be De La Soul day.  

So for the first time ever their entire back catalogue is on Spotify and I shall be spending the entire day listening to 3 feet High and Rising.

Nice and easy with a few hill sprints chucked in for fun and lots of De La Soul.

Now if you're not familiar with a bit of De LA Soul you should be, so get yourself on Spotify now and listen to them and have a little dance around the living room to 'Eye Know' which is a classic and deserves a little dance.

#eye know I love you better…

Parkrun Saturday and as always the plan is theshold pace of 7:10-7:20 per mile.

Had a chat with Mike at the start and told him I was doing threshold as had a 20 miler on Sunday and didn't want to do anything silly.

As always the plan changes very quickly and got a bit silly.

First mile 7:08 and felt very good so just picked it up a little and ran a progression run with each mile faster than the last, nothing too daft but average pace was 20 seconds or so too fast.  Now, a good coach will always tell you to stick to pace, so I should have stuck to pace and followed the plan.

Spotted Dr Tom on the final mile and started to reel him in knowing full well he'd come tearing past me in the final stretch as he does in training every week.

But hang on, maybe, maybe this time I'll hold him off.

Maybe this time I'll break his spirit and he won't have enough of that kick left to come back at me.

Maybe he'll just think, you know what Simon's got this one and I just can't get back at him.

Tom came tearing past me.

I may as well have been crawling.

Sunday was my first 20 miler, did an 18 a couple of weeks ago and that went fine so pretty confident for today's effort.  No booze last night and got up at 8 and had a bagel and some coffee.

Kit on and ready and took 3 gels with me and planned to have one on Monkseaton Drive at the entrance to Beaumont Park, one at the Village Hotel and one at the Magistrates Court in Shields, now normally you would plan them at specific mile splits but as I've explained before I don't know my mile splits as I dont pay attention to things like that, so these seem like 3 good markers I would easily remember and after all 3 is the magic number.

A little De La Soul humour for you there….

Usual route today with a big loop to Tynemouth and back chucked in at the start and then the familiar loop.  Decided in Shields it might be short so chucked an extra loop in at Kiki's Kabin and back round Trevor Terrace and then carried on into Tynemouth.

Pace was supposed to be 8:00-8:10'ish.  I don't check my watch often but when I did it was showing 7:45 pace quite often and that was too fast, as I've already mentioned pace is important and I knew I needed to back off a bit and stick to the well thought out plan.  I genuinely tried to make a point of slowing down but again it seemed to sit around the same pace and legs were starting to feel a bit heavy. 

Took my final gel and into Tynemouth and awaiting the beep of the Garmin to see where I was, hoping for 17 miles.

Beep……18 miles.

Very happy as this meant I finish near Turknaz and then a little stroll to co-op for a coke and a glorious Nutella filled croissant or maybe, just maybe I'll have two.

I've told you about my love of Nutella filled croissant's before haven't I ? 

20 miles done, average pace 7:59 and last 9 miles all around 7:40-7:50 which is too fast but felt fine, will see how my legs feel tomorrow.  Got heckled from Natalie O as she rode past and walked to co-op a happy man.

Got my coke.

No Nutella croissants.

One bloody apple thing left.

Apple ! As in the fruit.  

Not even a chocolate apple which doesn't actually exist anyway but should do, not a hint of chocolate in sight.  Or even custard, at least cover the apple in a thick layer of custard for gods sake.

Oh there was a croissant there, a sad looking air filled pathetic croissant sitting there that nobody wanted to eat. 

What I refer to as a 'shit croissant' , I mean is it even a treat really? I thought about buying it and sticking a Yorkie inside it. I wish i had.

An apple thing and a bottle of coke. Ate the apple thing and now I had stopped running and was walking I noticed what I'll refer to as something of a chaffing incident. Nobody mentions chaffing incidents when marathon training, not pleasant and it's probably best if  we just leave it there.

I should have bought a Yorkie.

Now I can't stop thinking about eating a croissant with a Yorkie stuffed inside it.

All previous blogs are available to read HERE