Are The Wheels Falling Off Already?

The wheels on the bus go
round and round,
round and round,
then fall off at week 3…

Well, okay, they’ve not quite come off, but the nuts are somewhat loose.

This week I did not do my Monday run or my Monday strength and conditioning exercises. I did manage a run with the club on Tuesday that involved a couple of steep inclines, so I’ll call that a hill rep session. Wednesday, nada again. Today, no bike ride but an attempt at a long run because we’re away at my brother’s this weekend.

I wanted to do 2.5 hours, but managed just under 2, and at a very slow pace. Just over 9 miles. I’m going to attribute this to it being the second day of my period, which always seems to be a slump day in my cycle. I felt fatigued before I went out, but that’s often the case, so it didn’t bother me to begin with. It was a gloriously sunny midmorning after an early morning deep fog, and I lined up my next Marathon Talk podcast.

I was on episode 110, and it was the one where there is a first mention of some bloke called Eliud Kipchoge beating Mo Farah into second place at an indoor 2 mile event in February 2012. It’s funny listening to a podcast so many years after it was created, and hearing, sometimes, famous names beginning to emerge. To be fair to Kipchoge, he’d actually been on the scene from way back in 2002 as a Cross Country Junior competitor, but I had never heard of him until he started setting the marathon world on fire in the last few years.

I hadn’t actually worked out which route I was going to follow but I found myself heading to Port Sunlight, so after a random loop around the lovely Lady Lever Art Gallery, that I didn’t take a snap of, I headed down to the River Park again to get a few miles on the soft paths. Normally, after ten minutes or so the tiredness in my legs gets shaken off and they start feeling bouncy. But today, despite the beautiful day, and despite the interview with the very inspirational Paralympian Karen Darke, there was a distinct lack of bounce.

Part of me wondered if I should just adopt a run/walk strategy to gain another forty minutes on my feet, but I gave myself permission to bow out. It is only Thursday, and I’m hoping to do one of the Sheffield Parkruns on Saturday, so I can, hopefully, bag that as another speed session.

Regarding my training plan, I realise I made a bit of a school-girl error, in that I didn’t take ‘life’ fully into consideration. For example, we’re away for October Half Term with Anne’s kids and their families so there won’t be a bike ride then, and I should probably put in a quieter week in around 4 weeks’ time from now. So a few things to learn when I try and draw up a decidedly longer Marathon training plan for next year.

Still, I think this bus is chugging along, just about. I’ll find out next week if I’m back up to bouncing, so fingers crossed!