Another week in the books.

I wanted to give a massive shout out to James (aka Shoulder Runner) for running a 14+ minute PB this weekend, whilst chatting with him on Insta – and planning our dream racecation – I asked him what had made the biggest difference to his training. And he said that strength training made a big impact…so next week the goal is to add two really good strength training sessions into my schedule.

Monday: Barrecore Class

Tuesday: Track Tuesday

Rolling 200s… 6.30-45 min mile pace, with the ‘off’ 200 at 8.30-45 pace. But I def ran most of the recoveries slower than prescribed.

Want to join us for track sessions? Sign up for the free workouts (and free coffee!) here.

Wednesday: 4 mile run commute home – testing backpacks for a blog post and chafed SO badly! The run was miserable.

Barrecore Stretch class – LOVE this 45 minute foam rolling and stretch class.

Thursday: Unplanned rest day as I was exhausted

Friday: Threshold session, swapped from Thursday.

1 mile warm up 9.15 pace, 3 miles at 7.30-45 min pace (7.23, 7.41, 7.50) – 0.1 mile cool down straight into the coffee shop. I struggled to stay in the mile and to keep pace. I wanted to quit SO badly but I was proud of myself for pushing through. I listened to Hungry Runner Girl – Janae Jacobs – on the Rambling Runner podcast, talking about her sub 3 marathon and it really helped me not give up!

Saturday: Rest Day – final day of learning on my No 1 Fitness personal training course.

Sunday: Royal Parks Half Marathon

I considered doing this as a separate race recap but thought that considering I’ve run this race three times before (and therefore have three previous race recaps) it might be a little boring. You can read them here 2013, 2016, 2017.

The weather was horrendous, like torrential rain and heavy winds when I left the house. My plan to walk to the train station to collect my car was swiftly abandoned and I got a taxi the 1.5 miles. I made some last minute changes to my race day outfit to include an anorak and a cap to protect my face – choices I was really glad to have made.

As usual, RPH had a great set up, however the queue for bag drop was really long and I only just made it into the corral before the second wave started.

My plan was to go easy, running my target long run pace, set by coach Ash, at 9.00-9.15 pace however it was soon clear I was being swept up by the crowds…and feeling great.  The miles ticked by, 8.10, 8.15, 8.20, 8.05… and so on, breathing easy despite the wind and crowds. I felt like it became a little bit of a battle around the 10 mile mark, however even the slightly harder effort was an 8.25 pace and so I continued.

Hitting the 12 mile marker, I realised that I could run a sub 1.50 if I pushed a little in that final mile. So being competitive with myself, I did just that, and came across the line in 1.49.33.

8.14 average pace for 13.3 miles

Huge thanks to Runner’s Need for the bib to the race. You can recycle your old trainers at any Runner’s Need stores in exchange for a £20 voucher. Find out more here.