I have decided to alternate harder weeks with a medium week in this final block of training leading up to the Dragon’s Back. The main difference is going to be the longer run at the weekend. This week I did my Braes run rather than a longer Munros run.

I really want to make sure I’m not over doing the training as arriving at the start line ready to go is the aim rather than arriving feeling tired after too many long training runs.

Monday 1st April - Club Fartlek Session

• 8.06 miles in 1:06:44
• Ascent - 286ft

There weren’t so many of us this week probably due to the school holidays. The weather wasn’t very kind with wind and rain. The session this week was 6 x 5mins. Donald who leads the sessions set us off from the same point each time which meant that once we had done the first one we had something to aim for each time.

For the first three I finished just short of a particular post and the last three I got past the post so I ran further on the second three which was encouraging.  Here are my stats for the session.

Tuesday 2nd April - Cycle to and from work

• 8.10 miles

This week I have a Holiday Sports Club at the secondary school I work with so I decided to cycle to and from the school on Tuesday and Friday.

Wednesday 3rd April - Lunchtime Run at Pollok Park

• 6.68 miles in 1:02:13
• Ascent - 502ft

The school is slightly further from Pollok Park from where I normally work but I can run on grass most of the way there and back and a shorter loop around the park. Last week the ground was dry and I covered the ground quicker than normal but this week it felt like winter again and it was very muddy and a lot harder going!

Thursday 4th April - Conic Hill Run

• 10.49 miles in 2:07:12
• Ascent - 2183ft

My original plan was to run Ben Lomond but my friend Cammie had been up on Wednesday night and he said that there was a lot of snow on the top which made the descent very slow. I didn’t really fancy it especially as I was on my own.

So I decided to drive to the car park at the Garadhban Forest and run from there to Balmaha and back which meant that I would be going over Conic Hill twice. I must admit I wasn’t looking forward to it somehow but once I got going I enjoyed it which is often the case.

I did this run on 7th February and I averaged 13:13 and I remember walking most of the way up Conic Hill. I was feeling good and ran the vast majority of the hill on the way up so that was really encouraging.

The second ascent was tougher as it is a lot steeper on that side and the head wind was very strong. I averaged 12:07 for the whole run so a good minute a mile quicker than the February run which hopefully shows my training is going well.

Friday 5th April - Weigh in and Cycle

• 11st 6 7/8lbs
• 8.10 miles

My weight is staying around 11st 6lbs which I’m more than happy with so if I can stay around this weight for the race I’ll be very pleased.

I cycled to and from work again.

Saturday 6th April - Gleniffer Braes

• 15.06 miles in 2:48:53
• Ascent - 1581ft

I was keen to try and run steady for my regular loop. I set off at 7.25am as we were planning to go out late morning to Rouken Glen with two of our grandchildren.

I felt good all the way round. I was aiming to get into an easy rhythm of running and stay there for as long as possible.

In the Dragon’s Back there are sections where I’ll need to run at a steady pace so I was trying to imagine how much effort I would need to put in to achieve this.

With 6 weeks to go to the race I am feeling good and happy with my fitness. I have a few more key sessions to go but I also want to make sure I give myself plenty of easy / rest days as well.

Sunday 7th April - Road run with Katrina

• 5.30 miles in 46:38
• Ascent - 325ft

Katrina was keen to have a run before we headed to church so we had a run together. It was a bit cold setting off but we soon warmed up as the run went on.

Summary of the week

I ran five times but I didn’t quite manage my aim of 5,000ft but I purposely wanted to have a medium week rather than another long Munros run at the weekend.

Photo of the week