Today was day one of my Great South Run training.
Up until now (since the marathon) I’ve largely done runs of three miles or so but with the GSR being 10 miles I’ll need to start racking up the distances again – so for today I decided to do four miles and then increase the mileage every Sunday one per week so that by the time of the race I’ll be ready for the distance.
So, here’s the idea:-
11th September – 4 miles
18th September – 5 miles
25th September – 6 miles
2nd October – 7 miles
9th October – 8 miles
16th October – 9 miles
23rd October – Great South Run
During the week I’ll complete either two sessions of the Ballymena Runners class (Tuesday night with them and Thursday on my own) and parkrun on a Saturday morning, using the class schedule (once I find a running buddy) – or if parkrun doesn’t happen then all three class sessions, only making the last one 5k.
That means two relatively short runs per week, one intermediate and then the long one on Sunday. Hopefully that’ll be enough preparation.
I had four weeks to prepare for the Hastings Half Marathon, managing 41 miles training from a zero start, the plan above should see me reach around 80 in six.
Anyway, today’s run was 4.22 miles first thing this morning, lovely and peaceful, no-one to annoy me. I wasn’t too worried about speed, this was more a case of laying down a marker, seeing what my speed was over a longer distance and working on beating that pace week on week.
Because of that I didn’t really push it, today was just all about getting the miles in my legs and listening to my body.
As a guide the MyAsics app recommended an average speed of 16:35 min/mi so, as you can see, I was quite comfortably below that. My last run of a comparable distance was back at the end of July and I was around 10 seconds per mile quicker today which was good, especially since, as I said, I wasn’t going for speed.
It felt tough today at times, quite sluggish, but since I’d only run just over a mile this week that’s perhaps not surprising. I do know that the more I run the less sluggish my legs feel, I just need to remember that.
Also, in the warm-up walk today I felt something inside my sock rubbing against my heel and whilst it seemed to disappear once I started running it turns out there’s a little cut there now, so I’ll need to keep a wee eye on that.
It was also good to get out this morning because it meant I could watch the Great North Run guilt free.
I knew a couple of people running in it and whilst I’ve always been aware of it I hadn’t really paid it too much attention until now ….. but after watching today it’s firmly on my running bucket list (that’s a future blog right there!).
I’ve entered my name on the registration reminder list, the ballot opens in January so I’ll be all over it as soon as I get the chance.
HUFF, PUFF AND SHUFFLE 