2010 Progress Entrant - Iola Wilson

Contents:- -Intro- Report -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- -14- -15- -16- -17- -Final-

Report 14 - Week beginning 12/04/10

The X-ercise Files - Diary of a 'wannabe better' long distance runner

Well it's four weeks until the Mey 10k and I'm getting excited about it now. I'm also starting to plan for the rest of the year. I have entered the Hoy half marathon which is in June, and worryingly described on the entry form as being 'extremely hilly'! I've really caught the bug again and want to challenge myself now that I've gained confidence again.

Tuesday's endurance session was really hard this week. We did a mile warm-up, then 5 x 5 mins (turning half way in each rep and aiming to make it back to where we started) tempo with 1 min recoveries, and a mile cool-down. It was on grass and the ground was firmer under foot than the week before. I still find running off road quite hard on my ankles, especially when I am trying to run quickly. I also had to check my attitude during the reps, I was focusing on how painful it felt and thinking 'I can't do this' which I am sure impacts on my pace. My average pace for the reps was just under 7.30/mile which is a good target pace for the 10k, but I'm not sure I could keep it up over the distance. The overall mileage for the session was 5.7 miles.

On Wednesday I did a 5 mile recovery run. My legs felt tired after the night before so I tried to stay at a comfortable pace and took it easy going up the hills. I had my ipod on and enjoyed zoning out with the music for a while. I have noticed that even my recovery pace has increased significantly since I started training in January, and is in fact about the same as my quickest pace was a few months ago.

Friday was the harbour hill session again. I ran nearly 2 miles before starting the session. We did our usual 2x halfway up the hill, 2x the full hill and 2x halfway up again before a short cool down jog. I found the session hard work and felt sluggish going up the hill. However, when I looked at my splits afterwards they were significantly quicker than the week before (probably on account of having a very talented young lady breathing down my neck on her first hill session... you know who you are!).

On Saturday we had a family trip to Inverness so I didn't really get any exercise. I managed to fit my long run in on Sunday thanks to granddad taking on babysitting duties. The weather was very changeable. As I was about to leave there was quite a heavy hailstone shower so I decided I was going to the gym and looked out my stuff, but by the time I was organised it was passed so I changed again and headed out. I went up Newton hill again and through Tannach. This time I ran out 5 miles and back. I had layered up and ran in my waterproof jacket for the first 3 miles. Then the sun came out and the wind was behind me so I ran in my vest until I had to turn around at 5 miles and the wind was in my face again. I felt very cold after about half a mile as the clouds were coming over again. At about 8 miles it was freezing cold and there was a light hail shower again. However, the cold helped me speed up and get home faster! My average pace was 8.34/mile and I ran home faster than I ran out. I had a fairly positive mental attitude throughout and felt like I could have kept going when I got home so was very pleased with myself.

I feel my running is improving every week at the moment, as is my confidence. I'm also finally losing a bit of weight which will help my pace too. My aim for next week is to work on the mental attitude in tough situations. I don't want to get to the end of the 10k and think 'I could have done that faster if I had dug in a bit more at 5 miles'!