Plus Ça Change…

In terms of running, the tail end of 2020 and the very beginning of 2021 went as follows:

On Monday, a steady 6 miles plodded. I then did some strength and conditioning work in the evening, conscious I’d not managed to fit 2 sessions in the week before (my dedication draws the line at doing a run and strength and conditioning on Christmas Day. I’m not Daley Thompson!). On Tuesday I did 8 miles, with 8 sets of strides and 6 sets of hill sprints. Well, I say sprints, sprinters would probably say jogs. I was trying to focus on fast turnover, decent knee lift, and driving upwards and forwards. On Wednesday I met up with some clubmates for a medium long run. It was pretty icy out and about, even with our late-ish start (9.30am), and we all had to keep our wits about us to stay upright at times. There was also a distinct advantage to loitering at the back of the group to let others explore the terrain first!

On Thursday (New Year’s Eve) it was the final club session of the year: 4 fast laps of our summer training field (we can’t generally use it in the winter because it’s not floodlit, but that is not a problem at 3pm, even at the tail end of December!). I was the slowest person there, and so didn’t actually do full laps (because we stopped on a whistle when the fastest person finished their full lap). I’ll be honest, my legs felt a bit tight and rubbish, probably because I’d done some sort of effort the last 4 days (long run on Sunday, some jumping in the s&c session on Monday, hill sprints on Tuesday and a longer than usual medium long run on Wednesday). I also realised I was also overdue a rest day, having run for 10 days in a row (and covered 96 miles in those 10 days!).

If there’s any day which is made for resting, it’s New Year’s Day. I’m not great at drinking booze in any sort of quantity, and definitely not good if I’ve stayed up past midnight, and so NYD was a rest day, bar doing housework (and that elusive second strength and conditioning session of the week). I appreciate that tradition says to do the housework by the end of New Year’s Eve, but better late than never!

On Saturday, my first run of the year was a very steady 6 mile plod over icy pavements to run some errands: dropping empty cat food sachets to our nearest Terracycle point, posting something through a friend’s door and buying bread (and, since they were freshly baked and smelling rather lovely, croissants. I cut the run slightly short to ensure they were still warm for breakfast!).

That left 18 miles to cover today. I was feeling a bit tired and flat, so it was one of those long runs that feels ground out, and the satisfaction comes from having done it, rather than having run well, but 60 miles for the week done and dusted. With a return to work tomorrow, and having done two consecutive 60 mile weeks, I’ll cut back a little next week (plus I’ve got to go into chambers each day so I’ll be cycling again: always a shock to the system!).