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 16 - Week beginning 26/04/10

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

Well, it's two weeks until the Mey 10k and I've had one of my toughest training weeks. I was completely exhausted at the start of the week after bunching all my training runs together at the end of the previous week and working at the weekend.

On Tuesday I was too tired to make it through to the endurance session. Instead I went to Reiss beach in the afternoon and ran 4.5 miles. I did a warm up then 10x 400m hard with 1 minute recoveries and a cool down to finish. It was lovely, the tide was out and the sand was firm. It was cool and drizzling, and there was a strong headwind on the way back. My splits varied from around 7 mins/mile pace to just over 8mins/mile for the last couple.

I went out at lunchtime on Wednesday. It was a beautiful sunny day and I felt really positive and comfortable whilst I was running. I did a 5 mile round town route and my average pace was 8.16/mile. Initially I felt disappointed, but when I got home and started complaining Neil reminded me I'd had a tough session less than 24 hours before and I hadn't set out to run really hard. He's always my voice of reason!

The rest of the week was pretty busy and I was too exhausted to go to the hill session on Friday night. I had a good, long sleep instead and got up on Saturday ready to tackle my long run. It was overcast and cool and there was a significant wind once I got up Newton Hill. I ran 10 miles at an average pace of 8.30/mile which I was delighted with! The first 5 miles felt pretty good but when I turned round into the wind it was tougher, I kept pushing though and ran home slightly faster than I ran out.

On Sunday lunchtime I dragged Neil out to the harbour hill. We ran nearly 2 miles before starting some reps. We ran halfway up the hill 3 times, twice to the top and then halfway up 3 times again. It felt like the hardest hill session I have ever done, I think because my legs were stiff and had nothing left in them after the long run the day before. However, I worked as hard as I could and our times for the hills were pretty much the same as previous weeks.

This coming week will be my last hard training week before I taper for the 10k. I will also try to fit in some pilates as I haven't had the energy to get up in the mornings this past week. My wee sister phoned tonight to tell me she had finished the Great Edinburgh 10k today in 49.31. I'm delighted for her and her news has made me feel more determined to meet my target of under 50 minutes!