Reflecting on the Week - 16th May

Well, I must say it’s quite nice to be sitting down - it’s been a solid week of training and I’m looking forward to a rest day.

Sunday night checking in with Fletch “Evening, all uploaded. Big week this week." - he wasn’t joking. Tuesday and Wednesday were double run days. I enjoy the mental game of the second run. It hangs over you during the day somewhat, but in a good way - reminds me to think specifically about what I eat and drink, not that I don’t normally, but just a bit more dialled in.

Wednesday session one was the “over and under” session. 2mins just over threshold and then 2mins just under, the lack of rest just starts to creep up on you. By the tenth set you know about it, a good session though. Previous Wednesday’s have been focussing more on speed, so this is a new stress to acclimatise to - that’s the point. Keep doing the same thing over and over again and the body adapts and you no longer reap a training benefit.

Saturday and we are into the 30km progression run, or negative split session. 10km @ 5:15min/km pace, then each 5km taking 15s of the pace - so the the last 5km is at 4:15min/km… except it’s not the last anymore. Fletch as added a few little bonus sprints on, so now there are 4 × 30s at 8/10 effort. 30s feels a lot longer with 30km in your legs! Executed them without quite as much fade as last week, another brick in the wall.

I finished, rather tired. Allegra was standing in the porch - she was ready to be dropped to a birthday party. I knew I was cutting it a bit fine, but was hoping for more than 15s rest before the child based logistics kicked off!

I’ve officially started the fundraising this week - some very generous donations so far, hopefully lots more to come. https://www.theallegrfoundation.org/fundraiser-bens-campaign-for-badwater-135

Oh yeah, was my birthday on Thursday as well - so I’m officially older too.