This week is a step back week, so cutting the mileage back to 37 miles. That said, I was fifteen miles short of last week’s target, so I might try to drop some of those into this week.

I was supposed to run easy yesterday (and just seven miles), but got caught up in the moment and a mile into the run I decided to step up to tempo pace (166-172bpm), which I sustained for five miles. I could have kept going at this pace until the end – it felt very comfortable – but decided to slow back down to marathon pace for the last mile. I don’t want to rush into things!

Looks like we’re going to have a great week weather-wise, so looking forward to the running in the last 7 days of Block 2. Next week I’ll be introducing an interval session into each week’s training. (That’s when it starts to feel tough!)

Step back week completed – back to the grind. First off this week is a fifteen mile run and since my watch is being replaced by Garmin, but hasn’t yet made it to Cheshire, I’m running “blind”. This may be no bad thing. I can listen to my heart and breathing, rather than scrutinising the 405 every mile or so.

All in all, the training’s going well so far. 350 of the 1,100 miles completed for the GNR 2010 schedule. I thought I might have shed a few more pounds than I have, but there’s plenty of time and I’m being pretty methodical, so it’ll definitely happen. What’s more important is that 10 weeks in, I’m really enjoying it and I’m definitely feeling the benefit. It’s a great time to be upping the miles. Summer’s here.

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.

Last week’s mileage successfully completed, the start of Week 2 was briefly paused yesterday. With a touch of metatarsalgia, caused by worn out trainers (roll on pay day) and too many miles, I thought it prudent not to head out for a further fifteen miles yesterday. Instead, I’ll add 7 miles to today’s running and a 4 mile run to each of Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s schedules.

Despite the very slow pace, I do feel as though I’m finally shedding a few pounds. I’m curious to see how tomorrow’s tempo run shapes up, but I’m hoping it’s a little cooler than the 27 degrees we’ve been enjoying over the weekend.

Block 1 is behind me, but I’ve missed more runs than I should have (184 miles out of 229 scheduled, or around 80%). I need to fix that in Block 2, but I’m not feeling too despondent since Block 1 was devised simply to get me running again – just a whole load of easy miles.

That said, I am going to try to replace those 45 miles through Blocks 2, 3 and 4. I’ll distribute them through the step back weeks and with six of those left, adding one 7 mile run to each one will bring me more or less back on track.

Here’s what’s in store for the majority of weeks in Block 2.

Shorter distance to cover this week (42 miles), but a couple of quality sessions (finally) after the drudgery of running at easy pace for five weeks. I also have to work around business travel, which despite only taking a relatively small chunk out of the week, invariably interferes with my “flow”.

It’s important not to add too many intensive sessions straight away, so I’m sticking to two tempo runs and another Lyme Park hilly run on Saturday. My midweek long run will be tomorrow (not really midweek) and with these dark winter evenings, I’ll miss the early evening park runs with the dog. We’ll make up for it on Saturday, Buffy.

Wanted to control today’s run and add the first quality session. Decided on 6.5m with a nice long warm up (15 minutes at easy pace) followed by 20 minutes at tempo and the remaining distance at easy pace.

We managed the warm up and tempo sections properly – although I miscalculated and we did an extra two and a half minutes in the threshold zone. What didn’t happen was a proper cool down. We slowed a little but didn’t get the heart rate back to 150 beats per minute.

6.5m | 57:02 | 8:45 | 164bpm | Tempo Pace

Garmin Connect Log

Those adjectives would be great for some physical activities, but when associated with running, neither are desirable.

It’s going to take a while to find any form and for that reason alone, it’ll also be some time before I post anything even vaguely interesting about my runs, but I’ll continue to upload them here anyway.

4m | 33:39 | 8:26 | 171bpm | Tempo Pace

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