Another easy run at lunch time. My main aim for this week was to have 4 easy runs at around 8min mile pace and make sure I didn’t pick up an injury.  After a race like Saturday’s 53miler I’m at my most vunerable injury wise. 

I learnt that the hard way after my first Fling in 2007 when I went along to our club Fartlek session on the Monday and ended doing the half of the session and picking up a shin injury a few days later.

So now I try and make sure I have an easy week before picking things up again.  This is especially important with the whw race only just over 7 weeks away.

April was another solid month of training with the Highland Fling as the highlight at the end. I opted for a 10 day taper which I think worked out about right.

Here are the basics …

and in a graph (from RunningAhead) ..

I ran just over 200miles which for me is a good solid month.  I’m really enjoying my running at the moment as I’ve no injury niggles and feel I’m running well.  Long may it last!

Here is my summary of the first four months of 2013 ….

During the race on Saturday I started thinking about my training plans for the next 8 weeks leading up to the West Highland Way Race on Saturday 22nd June.  In particular I started wondering whether I should be doing my Fartlek and Tempo sessions during this time.

When I was running with Andy Cole he mentioned that he doesn’t do any speed work frm now on as he concentrates on endurance.  In particular he gets out into the hills once a week to condition his quads.

I did feel on Saturday that my quads were sorer than they have been so I obviously need to get them in better shape for the big race.

Here is my original plan for the 8 weeks between Fling and whw ….

I’ve changed my Fartlek session ion a Monday to a longer run. This will be after back to back runs at the weekend so I’m aiming to run it on road but very steady working on running smooth.

I’m going to replace my Wednesday Tempo run with a harder hill run.  On 8th May I’m running Drymen to Balmaha and back with my friend Jonny and Katrina. Then 15th May we will run up and down Ben Lomond.  I also hope to do one more Ben Lomond run after my 2 day whw run.

Add in my Braes runs at the weekend and I feel and hope that will be enough to trash my quads a few times so they will come back stronger!  We’ll see.

So here is my revised plan …

The 2 day run on Sunday 26th May (Balmaha to Bridge of Orchy 42miles) and Monday 27th May (Bridge of Orchy to Fort William 35miles) will be the key sessions.  I love doing this 2 day run as it really helps me to prepare for the race 4 weeks later.  Katrina is running with me on the second day.

Once that weekend is over I’ll have more of an idea of what time I will be targeting for the whw. At the moment based on my Fling run I’m leaning towards a sub 21hr time as my gold medal goal. That will be at the challenging end of my spectrum.