And so we hit the first week of taper. The mileage starts to fall, the muscles get a chance to recover and we are getting ourselves into a place where we are ready to run the marathon. Which is, you know, still months away, right?
In truth the programme is fairly similar to that from two weeks ago, the week between the two longest runs. So we started on Tuesday with a five miler round Linlithgow Loch. It started fairly tough, but once I loosened up it was okay.
Max elevation: 80 m
Min elevation: 41 m
On Wednesday I was stuck in a lunchtime meeting that went on so long I really couldn’t go for a run until the evening. I was taking Cameron to the gym in the evening anyway, so I ran there. But my heart wasn’t in it, and I only managed five miles instead of the programmed eight. I don’t think that that will cause a problem.
On Thursday, it was another five mile run and so I again ran the Loch. Honestly? It’s starting to pall…
Max elevation: 80 m
Min elevation: 41 m
Friday was a rest day, and I had booked a sports massage with Carolyn from Life Fit wellness. She did a great job of finding all the tight muscles in my legs and working some movement into them. It felt great!
Saturday was a four mile pace run, that ended up being significantly fast than it should have been. I blame technology – my running app has updated to a new version, and the “30s moving average” display field is broken – the numbers are all over the place.
Max elevation: 79 m
Min elevation: 71 m
On Saturday evening I watched the marathon from the Commonwealth Games, and was distressed to see Callum Hawkins collapse at the 40km point of the men’s race. I hope that he makes a full and rapid recovery. As I explained to my wife, however, she needn’t worry – I don’t know how to work myself so hard as to get into such a state!
I had planned to take my Garmin watch with me on the long Sunday run, but I forgot to put it in my bag – so I repeated the problem on the Sunday run. This was a rather nice run, however, and I was able to enjoy views of the Falkirk Wheel, the Kelpies, Falkirk’s human sundial the Love and Kisses sculpture all on the one run.
Max elevation: 88 m
Min elevation: 2 m
So another week done, and the marathon another week closer. It’s going to be on me before I know it.
