Having missed Sunday’s long run last week, I spent the week playing catch up again, but I managed to complete the 55 miles I had scheduled.

What’s worrying me is the lack of progress over the last eight weeks. My average pace and heart rate don’t seem to be improving at all. I guess it’s early days and I’ve only been running easy, but I did expect the heart rate to be tumbling by now, even if the pace was constant. I do hope things improve soon, but I can’t help feeling a bit despondent given all the effort I’m putting in.

This week is a step back week, so it’s just 37 miles running. Give those muscles a rest.

Have to confess to slipping a little over the last couple of weeks and need to arrest that before it deteriorates. It’s largely been around scheduling, but that’s no real excuse – I should always be able to find time for a run. This week is officially a step-back week before I start Block 2 next week. At that point, I’ll be adding tempo runs into the mix and increasing the distance of the long Sunday run to fifteen miles.

It’s great to be back in the trainers again!

Today was warm for running even though I waited until early evening to get out. I’d planned to run four miles on the road, but with weather like this, Lyme Park couldn’t be avoided so I cut the usual 6 miler in half and enjoyed some hills and spectacular scenery with the dog. I think she appreciated the run even more than I did!

Not quite sure what happened with the Forerunner. Looks as though I didn’t switch it off properly at the end of the run as there’s a straight line from the front door to the start (end?). I’ll discount that and assume that the moving time is correct.

No surprises that today was very slow. The climb up to Peter’s house always destroys any average pace and combined with the warmth and the fact that this was the first time out in three weeks, well….

MotionBased Log

View Larger Map

5.95m | 59:43 | 10:09 | 165bpm

Another lovely afternoon in Lyme Park – really enjoyable (but hard work!). That climb up to Peter’s just doesn’t get any easier. I never pay any attention to pace on this run. The hills are challenge enough, so I’m not concerned about how fast (or slow) I’m running.

I think Lyme Park is one of my favourite places. Get half a mile from the house and car park and it really is a place of tranquility and escapism (and so close to such a huge conurbation of South Manchester.

MotionBased – bad news is that Garmin hasn’t got any better since I last gave up on them. They should have launched Garmin Connect for Forerunner 305 (subscription paying) customers over a year ago and it’s still not live. Worse still, I’ve tried three times today to upload my data and the site keeps kicking me out. (Server overloaded.)

I’m always prepared to see really slow times for my morning runs. I could blame the dog, but you’d know I was fibbing. (Actually she was pretty tired for the last half mile of today’s gentle jog around the park and I had to more or less drag her home.)

Beautiful morning and always a great way to start the day, regardless of how it feels as I step out the door!