I’ve been following Camille’s plan and it’s starting to make sense. 6 days a week running, loads of tedious “8 miles, easy” nothing much challenging. But as I’m getting into the plan (6 weeks) I’m noticing the “8 miles easy at 8.30” are changing to “easy at 8.15” and shortly “easy at 8.00”. If I do every 8 mile at the suggested pace for that week, I can see how that would work. It’s still not very challenging, but this week my long run, instead of being a tedious “18 miles, super easy” is 18 miles; 11 at 7.45, then 7.00, 6.55, 6.50, 6.45, 6.45, finishing with an 8.00 for a cool down. 18 miles with 3 of the last 4 at sub 3 pace. That’s more like it!
Next week will be the test. It’s my 7th week of this plan, and ends with me having to commit to one plan or the other for the final cycle of training. Instead of my long run next week I’m going to do a flat-out half marathon. See if this plan has made me faster.
I was getting very bored with this plan. Get up, run 8 miles easy, go to work, repeat. I broke the plan and fell back into all the bad habits from before reading that article “why women are kicking arse at ultra events/ what men do wrong.”
I did a 19 mile run up to Carr Mill dam. Someone on twitter was up there later that day so I said about it, he replied that he’d run from Carr Mill dam (the end of one of my run loops) to Wigan down the canal (the end of another of my loops). I fancied it. Instead of doing end to end I tried to do it as a loop. 31 miles. I’m only up to 19 miles in my training, and the plan said to do 18 that day. I was wearing my vest with bottles and bladder to support myself for the distance, it was well hot so my feet swelled with the heat and weight, and I was wearing my (tight) ASICS.
It was basically as dumb as it’s possible to be.
My nail got so bashed it blistered underneath and swelled up. I ran out of mojo at about 20 miles, was limping by 24, and quit at 29.6, had to shuffle home.
Toe was very poorly.
I tried another run but it was awful.
Someone on twitter told me it was a blister under my nail, and best to pop it.
That was a load better. I ended up clipping the nail back as far as I could and filing it smooth so it wouldn’t snag.
I’ve just been for a fast 7 mile with 5x 100m sprints and it’s not swelled up and was fine on the run, so I’m hoping that’s that. The ultra runner on twitter said I was going to lose the nail, but that’s no big.
The main thing is I can run again.
See how next week goes. Then commit to one plan or the other. It’s all getting a bit real now. That will be the final cycle. 16 weeks until my sub 3 attempt. Oh dear. 26.2 miles at 6.50, that still seems a *HUGE* ask.