10. The One Where I Ran Super Slow

12 August 2015

Today's set was a track set - one I do every week.  It's basically six sets of 800m with three minutes rest in between ... yet another set that sounds pretty anodyne, but nearly kills me in the event!  I'm so lucky - I get to train in Battersea Park at the Millennium Arena which is the most gorgeous setting!

I'd been doing really well at this, managing to drop down my PB to 03.12 on the first rep and then steadily increasing overall to about 03:35.  That was a massive improvement on a few weeks ago, when I had been at a PB of about 03:30 for the first rep, with my times climbing up to about 03:50 for the rest of the reps.

For the last couple of weeks though (ie the week before I went to Ibiza and this week) I have massively, massively struggled!  My fastest split each week was 03:24, which is a full 12 seconds slower than my PB, and the rest of the reps have been right back to where I started.  This is horrific!  I partly put it down to the fact that I've done a speed set the day before each time, which is silly, so I'm going to move that back to a Friday because my muscles feel like someone's injected them with lead.  I also partly put it down to the fact that I've been sleeping so badly lately - before I went to Ibiza I was generally sleeping badly, in Ibiza I only got about three hours a night, and now I'm back I'm sort of still on Ibiza time.  For the next week, therefore, sleep is my massive priority!

I actually only did five reps today because Boris Bike issues meant that I was 15 minutes late and therefore ran out of time.  I am mortified by how much I've lost on this though ... the answer has got to be a) sleep; and b) move that sprint set to after a Wednesday.

It's a bit dispiriting to have lost so much when I have been training hard, but I have to bear in mind that my focus has changed and also that things go up and down.  I'll keep plugging away and hopefully next week will be a different story!

	Best week (16 July 2015)	Today (12 August 2015)
1.	03.12	03:24
2.	03:24	03:29
3.	03:26	03:40
4.	03:46 (oops!)	03:43
5.	03:39	03:47
6.	03:34	-

9. The One Where I Didn't Run Very Fast

11 August 2015

One of my regular sets is to do 15x 30 seconds sprint as hard as possible, then rest for 90 seconds (at a full stop), doing it on the Woodway Curve machine at the gym.  This sounds like a perfectly do-able workout.  It isn't.  It's the hardest one on my schedule, and I've been neglecting it for a couple of weeks while I focus on long distance.

However, after a chat with my PT, who is the ultra-marathon man (he's doing the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in a couple of weeks time), and after some shocking 800m rep results, I've come to the conclusion that doing the speed work is as important as doing the long distance work, not least because I don't want to lose everything I've been working towards!  In addition, the Curve is the best training tool around - it's a manual treadmill and the belt is incredibly heavy to push around, so you're adding the weight of the belt to your own weight while you run.  Obviously the heavier you are the easier that is, so for a midget like me it's seriously horrible!

Therefore, I hauled myself back onto the curve and completed my sprints.  My ultimate aim is to get to 2km in half an hour doing these (seriously) and the best I've ever done is 1.96km.

I was a little nervous about getting on the Curve again, not least because it is HORRIBLE and because I expected to have lost some real speed on it.  The set felt appalling, but in terms of overall distance it wasn't too bad - a total of 1.92km which isn't great, but could be worse in the circumstances.  Here is the breakdown of my splits:

1.       0.13

2.       0.27 (+14)

3.       0.40 (+13)

4.       0.53 (+13)

5.       0.66 (+13)

6.       0.78 (+12)

7.       0.91 (+13)

8.       1.04 (+13)

9.       1.17 (+13)

10.   1.29 (+12)

11.   1.42 (+13)

12.   1.54 (+12)

13.   1.67 (+13)

14.   1.79 (+12)

15.   1.92 (+13)

I am looking forward to getting faster again soon ... please!!!!

8. The One With The DOMS

8 August 2015

I woke up INSANELY stiff this morning!  I think a lot of it was to do with the hill sprints yesterday, because I haven't done anything like that for ages, but it wasn't helped by an hour SUPing in the sea in the afternoon, plus a cold fan over my body all night (no a/c in 35*C heat meant the fan was unavoidable!).  However, it was a good opportunity to see what running on sore muscles meant and how easy it was to recover once I'd warmed up.

I did the same work out as yesterday because it was really the only option available - but it was a lot slower!  Whereas the day before I'd run up the hill in no more than 10 seconds and down in no more than 8, I was running 11s and 12s up and 9s and 10s down.  I warmed up a bit after about 10 minutes and started to run faster, but man it hurt!  However I got through it which was all good - it meant that I am tough enough to do it two days in a row which is a big relief (even though that's nothing compared to the actually challenge!).

I spent the rest of the day lying in the shallow kids pool, alternating with sliding down the slides.  You have to be under 160cm to go on these slides so most of my friends were barred, but luckily I'm such a midget that it was fine for me!!  Sadly we have to leave tomorrow to get back to London for work on Monday so it'll be back to the grindstone, but we've had an amazing year - bring on next year!

7. The One Where There Was Nowhere To Run

7 August 2015

I was super lucky in that after my epic Ibiza Town run/walk day, I didn't suffer a single bit of stiffness!  However ... I was really tired, so I decided to have a rest day yesterday and get back to it once we'd relocated once more - this time to Formentera, a little island off the coast of Ibiza.  That worked out fine, because I'd planned to do five runs in the eight days I was away, so missing out the 6th meant two more runs in Formentera.

I'd been a bit worried that we'd have a horrific boat ride over and I'd be incapacitated for a couple of days but luckily we had the BEST BOAT EVER - huge, so we couldn't feel any motion, plus we had the entire outside deck to ourselves!  That meant I was in good running form and didn't have to worry about any lingering seasickness.

However ... whilst Formentera sounds like the perfect place to run, actually, there was NOWHERE to run!  The resort we were at was on the coast, but the only road near was a main road with no verge (something the Balearics seems to specialise in!) and there was no coastal path.  Therefore, I decided that sprint hill sets were the order of the day.  I found myself a little path (which was either 40 metres or 50 metres, depending on how my Garmin was feeling on each rep) and did 40 minutes of every-minute-on-the-minute sprints up/down the hill, before resting for the remainder of the minute.  I massively enjoyed it!  Not only that, but it was perfect for me to work on my hills techniques - I learned that I'm okay going up hill, but down hill is a lot more of a challenge and totally kills my muscles.

I didn't take any pictures of the hill, but here are some of the resort.  It was absolutely beautiful - and the best bit was it was all inclusive and it was PROPER all inclusive, being an Italian brand, so there were Italian standards of food and drink.  Bliss!!

6. The One In Ibiza Town

5 August 2015

After a lovely rest day yesterday (which was perfectly timed, having had a good night out at DC10 the night before), I felt totally ready to rock my run to Ibiza Town.  I know the route from Platja d'en Bossa to Ibiza Town really well because I've walked it loads of times before.  I wasn't sure whether to run all the way to Talamanca or to run around inside Ibiza Mediaeval Town, but on the day I decided that it would be better to do Ibiza Town because the route to Talamanca is flat and all on road, whereas the Old Town is (extremely) hilly and has various different surfaces to run on.

I set off at 07:00, to the deep, deep confusion of my friends who were still up from Pacha the night before (we operated on wholly different time zones in Platja d'en Bossa!).  Once again I was running fasting because I hadn't had time for breakfast, so I scarfed an Oreo cookie (delicious and nutritious, uh huh) on my way out which helpfully (if confusingly) someone had hurled onto our balcony the night before (in a sealed packet, to be clear!).  It seemed to work, and I tootled out along the flat beach path between Platja d'en Bossa and Figuretas, the next village along.

I absolutely love the beach path, which then leads into a cliff path which takes you up and over into Ibiza New Town.  From there, you just have to find one of the entrances into the Old Town - you can either use the big gate at the front or one of the more hidden entrances around the side.

I chose to go through the Porto Nuevo, because it was closest, and was immediately faced with some serious steps!

 I managed to hoof it up, although considerably more slowly than the old man already running up them (the shame) and found myself at the top just in time for sunrise.

The top of the Old Town has the most amazing views on all sides, and I took the opportunity for a few pictures before I ran around and about inside the walls.  I basically continued running up and down and around until I hit 11km, knowing that it was 4 kilometres home and that therefore, all up, I'd have done 15km of pretty significant hills, which was what I wanted.

 

I felt really felt good on this run!  I set it down to the oreo cookie.  One of the ravers must've known it was exactly what I needed ... well, either that or getting five hours sleep rather than the two to three hours I'd had every other night was what I needed haha.

In fact, I felt so good that once I got back and had had breakfast, my friend Harri and I decided to walk back over the cliff path, through Ibiza Town, and over to Talamanca.  Platja d'en Bossa to Talamanca is a 13km walk, so there and back added another 26km to my daily tally which was perfect.  Okay, a lot of it was walking, but at least I managed to hit (justabout) the same distance as one of the days of the challenge, so at least I am now aware that I can physically do it!

That night we ended up back in Ibiza Town for supper, and two of my friends had never been into the Mediaeval Town.  Therefore, four of us decided to go back in for a midnight walk ... I might or might not have mentioned the hills before we went in (tee hee).  But it was well worth it - the nighttime views were gorgeous!

5. The One With The Fartlek

3 August 2015

My second run in San Antonio was straight up into the hills on the east side of San Antonio, up towards Santa Agnes.  I was absolutely SHATTERED for this run - on reflection, I had had less than three hours sleep a night for two nights by then, I'd done a long run the day before, and I was running with no fuel (since I was getting up so early, I had no opportunity to eat before I ran).  I can't imagine why it was hard ...!  Luckily I only had to do 8-10 kilometres.

Since I was so shattered, and because it was literally straight up a hill and then straight back down it on an out and back course, I decided to do this run as a fartlek.  This actually worked really well - it meant that I could keep going where if I'd tried to do it straight out, I know I would have ended up walking the whole way.

The views were amazing - I passed some of the quirkiest houses along the way!

I didn't manage to get all the way to the top (again I was constrained by time, because I had to get back to be ready for breakfast by 09:00) but I almost made it, and the views even from that level were absolutely lovely.

 It wasn't my quickest run, with only 8.83km being covered in an hour, but I was pretty pleased with it given how shattered I was to start with and the fact that it was up some serious hills (of course, it was also down some serious hills on the way back, which definitely helped!).  The best bit was that it meant a rest day the next day - wooooooooo!

4. The One Where People Thought I Was A Hallucination

2 August 2015

I have had a holiday booked in Ibiza since the start of the year - some of my lovely friends and I go every year (though I'm not sure how we're allowed in, being over 30 now).  Although it would have been amazing to have the usual drunken holiday, instead I conscientiously brought my running kit with me - including my running hydration vest, which was SUPER necessary in the 35*C heat! - and planned a few runs around and about Ibiza.

For the first three days we stayed in San Antonio ... which does have nice parts as well as the chavvy West End!  I got up at 06:00 for my first run, which I hadn't planned exactly, but which I intended to be up into the hills to the west of San Antonio and to be about 15 kilometres.  I set off along the beach front, much to the absolute disbelief of the crowds of partyers who were still hanging out from the night before (I am fairly certain they thought I was a hallucination, judging by the incredulous stares I got).  The beach was lovely, but navigating hordes of ravers was a little tricky so I was pleased to get to the other end and head up into the hills.

I didn't know that part of San An at all, so I literally just followed the road up BUT I was lucky enough to find this little pine forest!  It was ideal - really small, so I didn't have to worry about getting lost, but beautiful and off-road.  The best bit was that it was sunrise while I was up there, so I could appreciate the early morning beauty even more!

I did venture out of the pine forest on the other side, but I ended up on a main road with no verge and cars hurtling along at a good 100 mph or so, so I thought the better of that and headed back down into the wilds of San An again.  Fortunately by the time I got back down to the beachfront the majority of ravers had passed out in gutters somewhere, so I managed to get back without quite as many stares ... there was even another runner out!!  Ooooooh!

All in all the run was okay - it wasn't easy but then again it wasn't that hard either, with a total of 13 km (it would've been longer had I not hit the main road, though I could easily have stayed in the pine forest for a little longer).  It was also boiling hot - even at the sunrise it must have been 28 or 29*C, and by the time I got back it was already in the 30s.  However I can't complain about that since I spend the rest of my time at home complaining about the cold, so it was all good!

I've finally worked out how to use MapMyRun, so here is my workout summary.  I won't bore you with the full deets for now although I'll add them in as the race gets closer!