As it was bank holiday monday, Charlene and myself decided to make use of the extra day off & head back to Strawberry Hill to tackle some hill reps. This time we drove to Chesterton and jogged over to the hill. I managed 4 reps, jogging up and down so I was pretty chuffed, boy my thighs and bum were hurting by the end of it.

2.5 miles

37 minutes

4 reps

You know when you have one of those great runs that cements that you are actually a runner...yeah I had one of those.

On Saturday I joined Charlene, Sarah, Mandy & Becky for the infamous Haddon route (I have heard alot about this route over the past few weeks). I was fairly worried about this as I knew it was a 9 mile loop, not to bad as I've covered this distance before, more concerned that Sarah, Mandy & Becky run nearly 4 minutes faster per mile than Charlene and myself do, but I'm always up for a challenge.

When we set off the others ran off ahead at their pace and had promised to loop back round to check we were ok, Charlene and myself stuck to our normal pacing and I was feeling good. We first took the same route up to Strawberry Hill (thankfully going past not up) where the others had stopped to wait for us. Charlene was starting to struggle and had stopped to walk so Mandy dropped back with her and I went off ahead with Sarah and Becky, I was making a concious effort to keep my pace up but to stick to something I was comfortable with as I didn't want to burn myself out. I found the route really interesting, I think because I had never run this way before and to be honest had no idea where I was. Sarah dropped back to help Charlene and I stuck with Becky for miles 4 & 5 (hence why they are slightly faster split times), we looped back a couple of times to check everybody was ok.

And at mile 6...the infamous Haddon Hill arose, I have never seen anything like it. I would like to let you know that Peterborough is as flat as you can get. I dug deep and powered my way up, only stopping briefly at the top to catch my breath back. From this point Becky and myself stayed on ahead, with the others only slightly behind, Mandy kept alternating between the two groups and it was really nice to have different people to chat to, I think this really helped as it took my mind off things.

The last 2 miles, I was starting to struggle, I have never run more than 7 miles without stopping and I was feeling it. Nothing noticable, my legs felt ok and so did my breathing but I felt exhausted. I pushed through and suprisingly managed to keep up my pace and I made it back. All 9.3 miles as we looped back a few times. I'm so proud of myself.

Looking at my splits I maintained a really good pace, you know except that massive hill!!!

Thursday saw the return to Strawberry Hill, my nemesis. It was a really miserable day and I was feeling tired but decided to give it a good go anyway.

The run there felt really hard and I felt ridiculously slow. I manned up and dragged myself to the hill. I managed 3 reps up and down at a slow jog, these honestly make my legs burn so much. As I wanted to do 3 reps, Sarah stayed with me whilst the others headed back. As Sarah and I got to the bottom of the hill to head back the heavens opened, and I mean it chucked it down. This honestly felt like the worse run I have done ever, I was so wet and couldn't shake the rain from my face so I was constantly trying to wipe it out of my eyes. Sarah asked me if I could up the pace so we made it back quicker and I just about managed it. I honestly thought at one point I was going to throw up.

Mile splits -

11:11
14:12
14:09
12:30
11:45
11:16
12.29

Very wet and cold

 

Monday

Treadmill - High Incline power walk - 15 mins

Cross Trainer - Level 6 - Interval Training - 30 mins

Leg press - 20 reps x 4 sets - 32kg

Leg curl - 20 reps x 4 sets - 32kg

Squats x 185

Sit ups x 185

Tuesday

Run - 4.26 miles - 58 minutes (I took out two new runners so pace was a little slower than usual)

Squats x 190

Sit ups x 190

Wednesday

Rest day

Thursday

Squats x 220

Sit ups x 220

Run - 6.08 miles - Hill reps x 3

Friday

Squats x 225

Sit ups x 225

Saturday

Run - 9.27 miles

Squats x 230

Sit ups x 230

Sunday

Rest day

Tuesday rolled around again and I joined another club session. My collegue Sofia is over from Sweden and staying with me for the week and she decided to come along. She does run but fairly inconsistantly, however last weekend she watched her Dad run the Prague marathon and it has spurred her on to keep it up.

 

There was also 2 new women at club, Ally & Emma who Mandy asked if they could pair up with me and all 4 of us go out. We set out at a slow pace as I really didn't want to burn the two girls out too quickly. I had planned a fairly easy 5k route and told them if they really needed to walk that it wasn't a problem. We came to a turn in the road and I gave them the option as to whether they wanted to go further or shorter. Surprisingly they both said further so off we went.

 

We did 4.26 miles, which for a first run in years for both of them was amazing and I felt really proud that they stuck with it. Fingers crossed I didn't scare them off and they come back next week.

 

After Thursdays pub run, Grumps scared the living day lights out of me by letting me know it's only 4 months until the Great Eastern Run, meaning I really need to get my distance back up. I've found myself becoming comfortable with running on average 5 miles per session. Which is great as before I could barely run more, but I really need to be comfortable with between 8-10 miles if I want to do well in the half.

 

On Saturday morning I dragged Charlene out with me at the crack of dawn (8am) to run round Ferry Meadows. I had a route planned in my head as we wanted to do 8 miles. I wanted to head out to Castor and back down the hill into Ferry Meadows, unfortunately I couldn't find the path I needed for this and we ended up changing the route. On the way back round I was worried we wouldn't make it to 8 and I knew we would be dissappointed so I added in a lap of the rowing lake (much to Charlene's disgust) and managed to get back to Bushfield clocking up 9.48 miles. 

 

 

I accidently stopped Map my Run & had to do it in two parts

 

I felt really good on this run and really enjoyed it, not sure the same can be said for Charlene! We took a few walking breaks as she was having trouble with her hips. Judging by this time, if we ran/walked the GER we would complete it in just under 3 hours. So now I need to work on getting this down to 2 hours 30. 

On Thursday we took part in the Yaxley pub run. This is put on by Yaxley joggers and is an event where they invite clubs from around Peterborough to all take part in a run together. We all met at the pub before hand where everyone had a little chat and got to know each other. The initial route was planned for 6.5 miles ish (this normally means more I have come to realise). So I set out with Val, Paula & Sarah (It was really nice to run with some different people) and we headed out on the route, we did just over 2 miles before turning around and heading back. This is not my favourite thing to do but as none of us knew the area we knew it was for the best.

The pub run was a great idea but I think most people ended up sticking to running with members of their own club as they then knew who they were matched with pace wise. Once everyone had returned those who were eating ventured inside for a cavery. Unfortunately due to my tight purse strings and trying to eat healthily I headed straight home. All in all it was a nice change.

Distance: 4.08

Time: 49 minutes 30 seconds

Average Pace: 12:08 (slowly going down)