With the National Cross Country coming soon and then the Inverness Half Marathon two weeks later I wanted to work on my speed this week. I know ‘speed’ is a relative term but for me I’m talking about getting my heart rate higher and running as fast as I can!
Monday – Hill Reps with the Club
Our normal Monday Fartlek session is on the flat either on the cycle track or on the trail behind the ON-X centre but every now and then Donald puts in a hill session. This week was one of those sessions.
Our normal hill was out of action so we ran 2.5 miles past Asda to a suitably tough hill and did 10 reps. Each rep was 0.18 mile and I really felt it! There were 6 of us and I was hanging on at the back.
In my defence I had missed the last 2 weeks and I had run over 30 miles over the weekend! I think we all found it a tough session but I’m sure it did us good!!
On numbers 5 & 6 I tried to go off a little more conservatively but I couldn’t pick it up so decided to start just ahead of the other 5 and hang on as best I could as they went past!
My heart graph shows the effort of the 10 hill reps!
Wednesday – Lunchtime Tempo Run
I was based in another school on Wednesday at the other side of Pollok Park so I was able to do my normal run but starting and finishing in the different place.
The plan was 1 mile easy, 2 miles at tempo pace, 1 mile easy, 2 miles at tempo pace and a final cool down mile.
I was working pretty hard and happy with my effort. The second mile of the second tempo effort included a lot of uphill!
Thursday – Cross Country practise
Last year Brian Graham gave me his cross country spikes because he felt he wasn’t going to doing anymore cross country. So I was keen to try them out before the National Cross Country.
I stopped at Brodie Park on my way home from work having changed into my running gear before I left as I didn’t fancy running the half mile on road in the spikes!
I did a warm up loop which is just over a mile and then 4 more loops. Each loop has two uphills and two downhills so I decided to mix things up a bit.
On the second and forth laps I pushed hard on the uphills and took it easy on the downhills. Then on the third and fifth laps I took it easy on the uphills and pushed hard on the downhills.
The spikes were great and gave me a lot more grip than my Sketchers but that’s to be expected.
My plans for the weekend are a run on the Kilpatricks on Saturday with Cammie and then on Sunday either to do a run on the Braes or take part in our club cross country race. At the moment I’m favouring the latter but I’ll see how I feel after Saturday’s run!
