4 Feb - Sessions 15 - 20

2133 GMT - Been quite a while since I last posted. I have been pretty busy with work and family. Been on travel 2 days last week and all this week. It's tough enough to keep training while traveling let alone posting on the blog! I'll try to recap the last 2 weeks as best as I can remember. I'll be on travel quite a bit between now and April. I will make an effort to keep updating the blog. It helps keep me motivated. Also, it's much easier to write about one or two days, than 10!

Last time I wrote it was a rest day and I was lamenting about resting and being sore. I ended up running the following day, 25 Jan. My hammies were no longer sore and it was good to get out and run. I also checked my resting heart rate in the morning...51bpm. I figured it was ok to train. During the week if I don't otherwise have something on my calendar (diary here in the UK!) I run just before lunch. It helps break up the monotony of sitting at my desk all day. Anyway, this was an interval day and it was a pretty tough workout. By the 8th interval I was pretty tired and I labored pretty hard. I'm not sure I reached the target HR. Still a great workout. I was happy I could do all 8 intervals! It You can view my data in the links below, along with all my other running sessions this week!

Wednesday I was up early to run. I had to catch a 0630 train to London for a 2-day conference. I don't remember much about the run except it was early. I logged some thought in the notes section on the Garmin site (again, link below). Wednesday is also an SnC day. I brought my gym clothes along so I was prepared (mostly). After the conference I checked in to the hotel and began looking for he exact location of the health club. The club, Esporta, we belong to is a national chain and I was told I could use other clubs while travelling. It took a few minutes to locate the closest one and then determine how to get there using the subway (London Underground or "Tube" as they call it).  Once I got off the tube,  I had a bit of trouble finding the place. It was located inside a large shopping center. Once I was inside and waited in line, I learned that this particular Esporta is a "premium" club (whatever that means) and I had to pay to use it! Ugh! By this time it was almost 1930, by the time I finished working out, it would have been after 2030, and probably 2100 or so before I got back to the hotel, and I hadn't eaten since lunch. I was a bit annoyed by all this (especially the pay part) so I just left and went back to the hotel. I was tired anyway from the early morning. The fee wasn't all that much, around £8, but like I said, it was annoying. Had it not taken me so long to find the place, I probably would have paid. I did a short workout of push-up and core exercises in the hotel room before going out for dinner.

Thursday was supposed to be an interval speedwork day and I had planned to get up and run before going to the conference. When the alarm went off I was too tired to get up and go. I don't really sleep well when travelling. I hadn't been diligent enough about scoping out a place to run the day before. Since it was dark, and I didn't really know where I was going to go, and I was tired, I opted to skip the workout and have an extra rest day. I figure it wouldn't hurt. I was also uncertain of the traffic. I'm sure at 0600 in the morning it wouldn't have been a problem, and had I not had speedwork scheduled, I might have gone. I really hate getting interrupted by traffic as it is. I just figured it would be best to skip. It turned out to be a good decision.

Friday is just an SnC day and I had a good session with my training coach, Paul. I'm working on new routines and exercises which look easy, but they're not!

Good runs over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Sunday is my LSD day and I ran 13 miles - my longest distance since I began the training program. What a great run. Since it was Sunday, very few cars were on the road and it was nice and quiet. The sun came up while I was running and it was a beautiful sunrise on what turned out to be a very nice day weather wise here in the UK. One of the things I love most about running is just enjoying the outdoors. In this case, the peace and quiet and the lovely sunrise.

Well, I was going to write about my experiences this past week, but it's late, I'm tired and I need to get to bed. Running tomorrow of course. We'll also be at Esporta tomorrow. Tanya has an appointment with a trainer at 0930 and Marshall has his swimming lesson at 1000. I'll write about the past week sometime probably tomorrow.

Links to my training runs:
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 15
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 16
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 19
Edinburgh Marathon Training Session 20