Well, ok, maybe the blogpost title isn’t quite spot on this week, because if anything my complaint is that things haven’t been happening fast, and it doesn’t look like they will, but it was close enough for jazz! Moving on…
Monday was a very short, ploddy recovery run: 4 miles, with a running rucksack full of empty cat food sachets. It turns out that a local cat rehoming charity, The Moggery, has a Terracycle point which takes the sachets for recycling, and so in an effort to improve the carbon footprint of our lovely two moggies, I did an eco-friendly round trip to drop the empties off. That evening, keen to keep up my good work on strength and conditioning, I did a session at home.
Tuesday was a rest day, as I had a bit of work I hadn’t finished off on Monday to sort out ahead of my hearing that day.
On Wednesday I had time for a steady 7 miles in the morning, and another strength and conditioning session in the evening.
By Thursday morning the weather had turned a bit, and it was only just above freezing, with a pretty decent covering of frost on the ground. It made running downhill a bit exciting, as it was hard to judge whether the pavements were icy (I don’t think they were, as I stayed upright!) and my hands were very cold as I ran into a headwind for a few miles, but it was a crisp, clear day, and lovely to be out for a steady 10 miles.
Friday morning was both frosty and foggy, which meant slippery pavements (no doubt about it this time). I planned to do 7 miles, and did, but had a bit of a wibble (literally – damn those trees having roots which aren’t totally flat when your foot lands on them!) and then jarred my right leg quite badly as I overbalanced, which lead to my right hamstring, hip and glute tightening up nicely. Once I was home I spent quite a lot of time using my massage ball on the glute and hamstring around my hearing, but late afternoon discovered that what really needed a gentle release was the ITB (iliotibial band: it kind of goes from your hip to your knee).
By Saturday morning the hamstring was feeling fairly ok, but slightly tight, so I abandoned my plan to do some shorter, faster efforts, and repeated the marathon pace split tempo from the previous week. I could definitely feel the hamstring pulling ever so slightly when I upped the pace, and so although I felt aerobically strong, I couldn’t quite get into my stride, and so the times were a few seconds per kilometre slower than last week. Nothing awful, but mildly frustrating.
Today I ran a steady 18 miles out-and-back on the Bristol-Bath bike path. It’s been pointed out by others that after Tuesday we’ll all need to be careful to turn around at an appropriate point, as Bristol will move into Tier 3, whereas Bath and North East Somerset is in Tier 2. Funny times we live in. On a personal note, funny but ever so slightly higher mileage times. 58 for the week and – as things stand, and assuming I stick to my plan to rest tomorrow – 233 for the month, my third highest of the year. Partly helped by having 5 Sundays, and so 5 long runs, rather than 4, but also helped by running over 50 miles each week.
running home for christmas 
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