This week I was going to write about food and how what I eat affects my running. I was also going to cover what I eat in the lead up to a race, what I eat on race day and how I gorge after a race.
It is therefore ironic that I should pick up a stomach bug which basically prevented me eating for two days!! I have therefore decided to not write about that this week!! So this is a shorter than normal blog covering just my training.
Training Week 3
This week saw some normality returning to my training. The plan was to run at lunchtime Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the longer club run on Tuesday, parkrun on Saturday and a longer run on Sunday.
Mileage for the week was aimed at around 35 miles. Intention was to run the lunchtime runs at around 8:30-8:45 pace and the Tuesday and Sunday runs at around 9:00-9:30 pace. parkrun on Saturday I was aiming to run in around 23 minutes.
The bug I picked up meant I didn't run on Wednesday but apart from that the week pretty much went to plan.
Monday was a standard Tedious route with Aaron and Simon. It was a good start to the week with a nice steady even pace. Anything under 40 mins for a tedious is good so we were pleased with a 39:46 for the 4.5 mile route.
Tuesday was my first Tuesday night club run for some time and it was nice to back out. On a Tuesday night we usually do a route which is called "The Meandering", so called because it meanders around Branksome Park, Lower Parkstone and Lilliput. It then goes up and over Evening Hill, down to Sandbanks and along the beach front. The route is good for a club run as it offers opportunities to cut short at regular intervals, meaning the run can be anywhere from 5 to 10 miles. There was group of 8 of us out so it was a nice social run. I had aimed to run 8 miles but ended up running slightly further. We also set off slightly faster than normal which I paid for in the latter part of the run.
Wednesday I was unable to run due to a sickness bug and Thursday was always scheduled to be a rest day.
Friday I managed to drum up a good group of runners. We decided on the Cliff Top tedious route which, as the name suggests, is a Tedious route but instead of running along the beach front we run along the cliff top, before dropping down to Bournemouth Pier. Having felt awful for the two previous days I was surprised that I was able to keep up with the strong early pace. The first three miles were completed in just 24:30. We managed to keep up a good pace through the gardens and, despite feeling sick for the last mile, finished the 4.7 miles in 39:25. 
Saturday is parkrun day! As I had Olivia this weekend I was running "at home" in Winchester. I had also volunteered for set-up again so was down at River Park at 08:15. I love being there that early...it is great to see a parkrun take shape and then, at around 0:85, suddenly see 200+ people materialise out of all corners of the park and assemble for a run. I was trying to run around 23 minutes this week, but I just wasn't feeling it. I started off steady for the first 2 miles and then decided to push myself for the remaining mile and a bit. I finished strong but again felt sick at the end. It turned into a good progression run with each mile being faster than the previous. I finished in 24:34 and 104th place (out of 269 runners).
Sunday I was scheduled to run 10 miles but had a busy day planned so if I was going to do it it was going to have to be in the evening. So at 6pm I laced the trainers up and got out onto the streets of Winchester. Aim was to run the 10 miles at about 9:30 a mile. I set off at a steady pace with the first few miles being fairly undulating. Once I got onto my more familiar loop of the water meadows I pushed the pace and managed to get a few miles in at target marathon pace. I got to mile 8 feeling relatively good however it was here that the wheels came off. I AGAIN started feeling sick and fairly dehydrated, unfortunately it coincided with hitting the huge hill that is Stanmore. 1 mile all uphill with a couple of steep sections. It was a hard slog...and I had to walk some of the harder points. Once at the top I started running again but my body was shot and it was more of a shuffle back home. I managed to hit my target pace (just under 9:30 a mile), but was disappointed with the way that I got there and the way that I felt at the end.
Summary
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | Total | |
| Target | 4.5 | 8 | 4.5 | REST | 4.5 | 3.1 | 10 | 34.6 |
| Actual | 4.51 | 8.46 | 0 | N/A | 4.69 | 3.21 | 10.93 | 31.8 |
| Time | 00:39:46 | 01:14:18 | N/A | N/A | 00:39:25 | 00:24:34 | 01:43:32 | 04:41:35 |
| Pace (Min/Mile) | 08:49 | 08:47 | N/A | N/A | 08:25 | 07:39 | 09:28 | 08:51 |
Next Week
The training plan for next week (Week 4) is a progression on Week 3. It sees a slightly longer run on the Tuesday night club run and the introduction of a Thursday morning (pre-work) 10km. In addition I also intend for Wednesday's lunchtime run to be either a hill or interval session.
Here is the summary:
| MON | TUE | WED | THU | FRI | SAT | SUN | |
| 19-Oct | 4.5 | 9 | 4.5 | 6 | 4.5 | 3.1 | 10 |
The next blog will cover my week 4 training and...me and food (2nd attempt)
Thanks for reading!
James
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