Hold your horses!

Wooooah there fella!  I think I got a bit carried away in my last post.  Those of you who know me will know that I have a tendency to get a bit obsessed with things and throw myself into them with an all consuming passion.  It's probably an Aries thing.  Anyway, in my headlong charge to achieve the two goals I was talking about in my previous blog entry I forgot the golden rule of running... Thou shalt not over-train!  Tuesday night was a high point in my build-up so far.  I went out and did the new improved 7 miler as a tempo/fartlek run and went round in 1:02:22 which equates to 8:55 mins per mile.  Now I've run under the 9mpm pace before, but it was the first time since 2007 that I'd managed it for a distance as long as that.  So I was well pleased!  Wednesday, not unsurprisingly, I felt a bit sore in the legs and had a rest day.  Last night was due to be another 7 miler but as soon as I started out I knew that it wasn't going to be another speed session.  I felt lethargic and my legs were really heavy.  My calves had been replaced by two blocks of concrete and despite stopping several times to stretch them out they didn't really ever loosen up.  I struggled round to about three miles but it just wasn't happening, I was feeling knackered and wasn't running smoothly at all, so decided to cut my losses and head back home.  I ended up only doing just over four miles and with the stretching and a couple of walking breaks I finished with a 10:46 mins per mile pace, somewhat slower than Tuesday's effort!  It wasn't that I was in any physical pain, more like that I had somebody else's hips and legs on and they didn't fit properly!
When things are going well it is all too easy to push yourself ever harder, to go further and faster, but it is so important that you give your body time to recover from the exertions and rebuild stronger for the next time.  I think last night was just my body asking for me to slow down a bit, I've been running so much more in the last few months and whilst I've been following the 10% max increase rule since the start of 2011, I have to remind myself that I'm not a twenty year old any more!  (For those of you who don't know, the perceived wisdom is that you should not increase your training week on week or month on month by any more than 10%, to give your body a chance to repair, recover and be ready for the increased stresses of the next level of training).  With this in mind tonight's planned seven miler is now going to probably be no more than four miles and then I have Saturday and Sunday as complete rest (in the Cotswolds with my lovely wife!).  That way I will still keep up the four runs a week and depending on what I do on Monday, I still might just get to my 100 miles for the month mark!  Have a great weekend one and all. (S)