Back on the road

After having had an unplanned week off and not too successful run that morning my post on last Sunday was a bit of a 'downer'. I really didn't believe that the week off could have made me be so much out of shape!! So I reviewed my diary and in truth my running has been a bit erratic since the Great North Run in October. October and November have been very 'infrequent' running months and my monthly mileage has taken a nose dive!! My mileage June to Nov'08 was 89, 122, 164, 143, 95, 59. Spot the trend!! But so far this month I'm at 46 miles and hopefully the mileage will be back up in Dec/Jan.

On Monday I thought I'd recheck my current fitness level and planned a steady 6.5mile run at lunchtime. The run went well enough and I finished the route in 45:21 that's an average 6:59 pace @ 163bpm. I felt good at the end so not too bad overall and a big improvement on Sunday's run. :)

On Tuesday I took it a bit easier with a 5.67mile run in 41:54 i.e. 7:23min pace @ 153bpm.

Today was a bit of a test for me. I decided to repeat Monday's run but at a 'tempo / progressive' pace. Here's how today compares [pace (bpm)] to Monday:-

Monday / Wednesday
Mile 1 7:06 (144) / 7:10 (140)
Mile 2 6:58 (159) / 7:12 (150) (grass/trek & slippy)
Mile 3 7:20 (163) / 7:20 (162) (grass & slippy)
Mile 4 7:06 (165) / 6:57 (158) (uphill)
Mile 5 6:57 (170) / 6:46 (167)
Mile 6 6:47 (172) / 6:21 (173)
Mile 6.5 6:19 (178) / 5:49 (172)

So today's 6.5miler was all good - it lasted 44:39 min i.e 6:52 avg. @ 159 bpm. Although afterwards my body did let me know that I'd pushed the boat out I recovered quickly (a good sign!!).

Point proven I think - Sunday's run can be classed officially as a 'blip' and that's enough fast running for this week. I'll try and put in some easier / longer runs over the remainder.