Week 5 – The Wheels Falling Off!

Week five was a busy week. I mean in the real world, not the world of running. And that had a bit of an impact on my plans.

Tuesday was fine, though – four miles at lunchtime round Linlithgow Loch. The weather is starting to get pretty warm, though – it was a pretty hot and sweaty four miles

Total distance: 6790 m
Max elevation: 82 m
Min elevation: 47 m

It was Wednesday when things started going less well. I had to go to Pittenweem for the day and just didn’t manage my run.

Thursday I also spent at Pittenweem, and didn’t make it back home until about 7pm. I couldn’t let two days slip, so after a day spent carting black bin bags into a van I eventually got out just before 8pm and did four miles.

Total distance: 6770 m
Max elevation: 149 m
Min elevation: 72 m

On Friday I decided to try to catch up on the missed miles, so after work I went out and did seven miles. This was two laps of the Loch plus a couple of extra bits to get the mileage up.

Love the flies on my face. Actually, I don’t
Total distance: 11900 m
Max elevation: 82 m
Min elevation: 46 m

That brought on the weekend, and on Saturday I had another seven miler. My car had to go in for some work, so I ended up running around Stirling. A nice change of scene, and the scenery around that area is always enough to take my mind off the pain. I was tempted to stop in at Corrieri’s for some food, but gamely kept running!

The Old Stirling Bridge. And a sweaty old bloke!
Total distance: 11842 m
Max elevation: 27 m
Min elevation: 2 m

And then it was Sunday. For the first time my training plan broke the thirteen mile marker. There’s a psychological breakpoint when you run beyond 13.1 miles.

I had planned to go earlier in the day, but after a bit of a long lie I realised it was much too warm to go running around lunchtime. So I waited until much later in the afternoon. It was still very warm – 18-20C throughout. Wallacestone Brae and Standrigg Road were brutal… but I got there!

I picked a bad day to try compression – too hot!
Total distance: 22061 m
Max elevation: 184 m
Min elevation: 61 m

But, the main thing is, training is still on track…

End of week five