15-16 September: Digging in

This is the hard bit, really. Last week was great, a real tonic, with no fast running and plenty of scenery, but niw it's time to knuckle down!

I did one of the runs I wasn't going to do on Monday, a four-miler. I couldn't see the point in doing short runs like this as part of my training, but I did go out, partly because it was a nice evening, and partly out of curiousity to see how I'd do after yesterday's relatively quick 18-miler. The answer was that I did fine, once I got over my expectation that I'd feel awful! The hills flew past, and I had to remind myself I had go a tough interval session lined up the next day.

Tuesday was a quality interval session with the club. I worked late, and went straight to Rudheath once I'd finished, met up, and went out to Carey Park for 36 minutes of effort, 6 sets of 3/2/1 with 1 minute between each interval. It really is getting dark MUCH earlier now! It was a bit difficult to stay on track, as quite a few only did part of the session, and others were running on vari-speed setting, but I did the whole set at 5K pace, if anything a little stronger towards the end, so I was well pleased. The club sessions, and club people, are great for getting you motivated and running hard, even when your mind is telling you to go and lie down!

On the jog back to work to pick up my stuff though, I felt incredibly tired and then quite unwell. I felt sick all night and most of the next day, then had trouble doing anything much on Wednesday! I hoped I wasn't going to go under with some sort of bug at just the wrong time from a training point of view.