Fri, 11th Jan - 8.0km Recovery Run
In between leaving work and boarding a flight to London for the weekend I managed to sneak a recovery 8km around the block. A nice easy run with nothing much exciting to report.
Sat, 12th Jan - 21.7km LSR
While my mate Ronan was managing his football team to only their second win of the season (which moved them off the bottom of their league and into safety!) I was off on a trail run along the Thames.
I started at the football pitches of Civil Service in Chiswick which is on the banks of the river. There are easy to follow trails from here along the riverside in both directions and I decided to veer West. Keeping to the North of the river the path was a little boring as there was lots of dodging rowing clubs and veering around homes before I got to Kew bridge where I changed onto the South bank. Here I was tempted to run through Kew Gardens until I realised it was £15 admission fee! Instead I kept to the river banks until I got to Richmond. I then veered inland for about 10 mins where I got to experience Richmond Green, a model British village green with grand houses facing onto it from every angle. I returned to the river trail only to find that in those 10 mins the tidal Thames had risen enough to flood over the path for my return journey! Amazing the difference a few minutes make. This led me to a more boring run along footpaths and busy roads back to Kew Bridge where I rejoined my riverside path. Another easy few kms and I was back at the pitches where I threw in a 1km lap to bring the total to 21.7km. An enjoyable run but later that evening I felt more tired than I’d expected so glad I didn’t go too much further.
Sun, 13th Jan – Rest Day
Mon, 14th Jan - 9.0km Easy-Tempo Run
Returned from London by about 7pm so I went out for a recovery run but after about 500m I realised the legs were feeling quite fresh and certainly the best so far this year so decided I would up the effort a bit. For the next 2km the icy cold Northerly wind was on my back and the terrain was downhill so even though I was moving along nicely my HR was staying in the low 140’s. As I turned the corner at Griffith Ave this extra support faded but I decided to maintain the effort anyways. Back up towards Santry along the Swords Rd the wind was now in my face but surprisingly wasn’t as strong as I’d expected. The hill brought the HR into the early 150’s until I crested the top when it dropped back to the 140’s again. For the last couple of kms I pushed it a little more and managed to finish off with about 1,500m at tempo effort.
A good run overall and signs that I might be close to being back to top fitness. Hopefully!
On my return from London I read a good chunk of Scott Jurek’s ‘Eat & Run’. Inspiring read but his meals at the end of each chapter are lost on me! I also managed to pick up 3 books on offer at the airport: ‘Bradley Wiggins: My Time’, ‘Slaying The Badger: Le Mond vs Hinault’ and ‘Born to Run’ so plenty to be getting through over the next month or so!
Week 2 Summary:
RTW: 6 from 7 days
DTW: 84.2km
Week 3 Summary (to date):
RTW: 1 from 1 days
DTW: 9.0km
DTY: 142.4km
