Today's Training

[Travs]

A jaunt across to Church Stretton for more hill reps on the Lawley.

Last time i managed 4 reps between 8:39 - 8:45

I felt good warming up, but how would i fare in the heat... and carrying a litre of water.

8:21

This first rep felt surprisingly easy and i didn't feel that i had pushed too hard.

8:33
8:39

Suffering in the heat. Did i go too hard on the first one, or is it just the heat making things difficult.

8:37

Debating whether to even start the 4th rep, i threw everything i had at it, would have liked to take more than a couple of seconds off, but it was full effort as evidenced by my slump against the summit pole (much to the amusement of the walkers in attendance)

It was a sorry trudge indeed for the three miles back to the car, down off the Lawley, over Caradoc, and back into Stretton.

Average those reps out and its about 10 seconds quicker than last time, which i'm very pleased with considering the prevailing conditions.

11.5 miles.

[Travs]

Bread-and-butter 40 minute continuous treadmill hill session this morning.

Struggled a little compared to last time... got to about 30mins and had to have a few mins power-walking, before pulling myself together for a final 5mins back running up the full gradient.

Thats not to say it was a bad session... its bloody hard even on a good day...

10 miles for the session, and 3 miles easy this evening, brings the week to an end with 61.5 miles.

Next week is my last full week of traiing before the Welsh 1000.... so club night tuesday, treadmill hill reps thursday, and repeat this morning's session either saturday/sunday.

Welsh 1000 is less than a fortnight away... although i'm doing the short course, at (hopefully) very close to 2hrs, its still going to be a bit over-distance for me with what i'm currently training for.... that said i'm still very much hoping to challenge at the front of the overall race.

[Travs]

Club night tonight, and i think my best ever session.

3 x 1 mile.

Fastest i've ever done any single mile rep is 5:19, and i was expecting to be in the 5:30's, perhaps the mid-5:20's if it went really well.

5:22
5:16
5:17 (this last rep was made even more difficult because the quicker guys, who had all done multiple races in the track league at the weekend, all dropped out after two, leaving me front-running the final rep with nobody to chase).

Really pleased with that effort. I guess the big hill sessions are having a positive effect, and when i turn up to club nights and show that kind of improvement (plus the better times i've been doing on the track recently), it justifies my decision to only do one club session per week.

10.5 miles for the session, plus 4 easy miles this morning.

Riding the crest of a wave, its tempting to go to the track session on thursday, but must remain focused... so its hill reps on the treadmill thursday, and a continuous hill session again on sunday.