Weekly summary - 4 weeks to go

I thought the key moment of this week was going to be whether I could survive doing a race on Saturday followed by a long run on Sunday. In fact the long run felt OK - something of a non-event (despite more snarling dogs stopping me in my tracks twice during the run).

The key moment turned out to be our club 7.65-mile handicap race on the Thursday. I think it was one of those breakthrough moments when I see a jump in performance. I say 'think', because unfortunately my heart rate monitor went on the blink early in the week. I aimed to run the race at my marathon heart rate of around 142bpm. Such is my devotion to technology, I borrowed a HRM to do this. I think I managed to stick to my target HR, but as it didn't record heart rate I have no way of checking back on this fact. My pace for the race was faster than 8min/mile: a new PB of 60:40. Not bad for supposedly marathon pace! (I did sprint the last 100m though)

After a lot of hot weather lately masking my true performance, it's been difficult to measure any performance gains. The handicap race may have been the indication that all the hard work is paying off. If only I had the data to prove it!

Monday	8.9 miles	VO2max session: 5x600m 7:10/mile 90sec recovery	Felt good!
Tuesday	12.5 miles	Slow run	Didn't feel too good. HRM packed in!
Wednesday	5.8 miles	Recovery run
Thursday	8.5 miles	Club handicap race. 7.65 miles in 60:40. PB!	Steady run, slightly quicker than marathon pace. Breakthrough run? (see above)
Friday	Rest
Saturday	6.7 miles	Race: Test Way Relay	Went faster than intended, but it was a race!
Sunday	18 miles	Slow run	Couple of twinges, but felt great considering Saturday!
Total	60.4 miles