With the Inverness Half Marathon a week away I decided to do both my weekend runs on the road. Once next weekend is over my focus will fully be on the trails and the five ultra races I have planned for 2015.
Last night I attend the Kilbarchan AAC 40th Anniversary Meal. We had a great night. The food was superb and it was good to chat to lots of friends in the club. I spent some time chatting to Robert Hawkins who coaches his sons Derek (Marathon) and Callum (10k) and Bobby Quinn (a runner I and everyone in the club admire for this ability and work ethic).
I was asking both of them did they think that the speed work I’ve been doing will have a positive affect on my ultra training. Basically they both feel it will as long as I also work on the technical aspects of ultras, ie the long slow runs and the quad preparation.
I must admit I’m really looking forward to seeing how I get on in the Hardmoors 55 in March and the Cateran 55 in May. The first one will be on the back of my Half Marathon training so I think will be a bit of an unknown quantity as I’ve not been doing my ‘normal’ ultra build up but I will really be targeting the Cateran with lots of specific training.
I’m still thinking about whether I will continue with some ‘speed’ work whether that is a weekly Fartlek (more unlikely) or a Tempo session (makes more sense) over the next few months.
Saturday - 9 mile road run
I set off to run about 8 miles but slightly misjudged the distance as I ran out to Johnstone so ended up with over 9 miles.
I wanted a steady run rather than a tempo effort and so I didn’t look at my watch much. I just tried to gauge my effort by my breathing. If I was running with someone I could have had a conversation but I would have been asking the questions and allowing my partner to answer!
My legs felt good and once I’d finished and saw the pace was 7.39 I was quite happy with that. I didn’t wear my HR strap but reckon my hr was low 130’s.
Sunday - social run with Katrina and Tracey
I gate crashed Katrina and Tracey’s run. Katrina had 8 miles on her plan and Tracey 12 miles. I took them on the run I did yesterday but forgot until it was too late that we added a mile or so on to meet up with Tracey and even though I shortened it around Johnstone we ended up running 10.58 miles!
The weather was a bit mixed with some hail and a little bit of sun. The wind was mainly against us on the was out but with us on the way back.
So another good solid week. My plan for next week is a Fartlek session tomorrow night then easy runs Wednesday and Friday before the Inverness Half Marathon on Sunday.
A nice gap is opening up on my 2015 miles in 2015 graph.
