Loch Ness: First Week’s training

Good grief, I just cannot believe that we’re back into this already!

Falkirk Parkrun In The Rain

Training started badly this week when I missed my Tuesday lunchtime run because a meeting over-ran.  But on Thursday I went for my usual six mile run out to Aberdour and back.  It was meant to be four five-minute threshold sessions with a minute recovery between times, but I misjudged the pace at the start, and blew up a bit.  So I managed three “over threshold” sessions, and an elongated cooldown!

On Saturday at Parkrun, “cool” was the word.  In fact, “Bloomin’ cold” was more appropriate.  And it was wet.  And windy.  So in fact, maybe “miserable” was the summary.  But huge credit and thanks to the organisers and the volunteers, they were there braving the weather and the run went ahead.

IMG_1364
Ally Mckay’s photo of me from Parkrun

When I got up in the morning I decided to wear nice cosy running tights over my shorts, and a waterproof jacket over my vest, just to wear until the moments before the start of the run; I would take them off and run in vest and shorts.  Well, I managed to get the jacket off but changed my mind about baring my legs, which stayed cosy, warm and covered!

As for the time, well I forgot my barcode (idiot!), but my Garmin time was 23:49 – which is a touch faster than average, so I was happy!

Today we moved on to my first Long Slow Run of the new session.  This was a route that was one I had done many times before, but with an extra tweak at the end to get the distance up a bit.  Eleven miles, just enough to get me over twenty miles for the week.  And why did I care about my weekly total?  Well…

Which part is towpath, which canal?

1,000 miles in 2012

Apart from the “run a marathon” thing, another challenge that a lot of distance runners seem to set themselves is to run 1,000 miles in a year.  And no, I still don’t quite have the confidence to call myself a distance runner, but it might be worth going for the 1,000 miles.

As of today, I stand at 455.98 miles for the year.  And it’s mid-June.  So I reckon I’m pretty much on-target, and if I manage the distances I’m hoping to achieve in the next few weeks I should be able to get ahead of the game

So, it’s time to reset the statistics, and start the tables afresh:

11-17 Jun 2012

Number of runs Three
Links – Thursday – 6.01 miles (706 cal)
– Saturday – 3.07 miles (367 cal)
– Sunday – 11.05 miles (1440 cal)
Total mileage this week 20.13 miles
Calories burned this week 2,513
Total mileage Loch Ness training 20.13 miles
Calories burned Loch Ness training 2,513
Total mileage this year 455.98 miles
Calories burned this year 47,289