Weekly summary - 12 weeks to go

I felt a bit tired this week. I've started a new work assignment which has an extra hour and a half driving each day, which is a lot to absorb into my day. After 75mins of packed motorway, I arrive at work a little shell shocked - I don't like motorway driving, I find it very stressful. The journey back is a little easier, but I still feel the effects when I set out on my run. I hope I can get used to this - I don't want to let my work impact my training.

Saturday in the park went well with my new Adidas Swoop - very comfortable. I have some new orthotics though, which I'm taking a long time to break in. My feet were OK for 5 miles, but I'm not sure about going further in them just yet. I may have to run the Meon Valley Plod with the old orthotics in the Swoops - I hope they fit: I haven't tried them in the shoes yet.

I ran round the park watching all the kids having their football coaching. It was refreshing to see kids taking exercise. Then, as I was doing some drills, some kids who were purposefully not exercising but 'hanging out' decided to poke fun at me and mimic my drills. I took this as a positive thing, that they should actually be exercising, so I invited them to sprint the length of the football pitch with me. That stopped them! I'm not sure if they were chronically unfit, or felt it would be uncool to run with a middle-aged woman. I hope it was the latter!

Sunday went well. A mere 14 miles, so I decided to turn it into a little game and run a closely paced 9:00/mile on my GPS virtual training partner, to see what sort of heart rate I achieved. The average was a mere 119bpm or 69% of maximum. Another sign my fitness is improving. I think I should start running my long runs a little quicker. I've been running hilly routes for long runs lately, so that's tended to disguise my true pace. 9:00/119bpm is my best slow-pace/HR relationship so far. I hope this continues!

Monday	Rest
Tuesday	7 miles	steady club run 80%MHRish	Over Portsdown Hill
Wednesday	12 miles	slow run 9:22/mile 116bpm 67%MHR
Thursday	5.0 miles	Easy recovery	Jogged the club session - round and round a half mile circuit - boring!
Friday	11 miles	Slow run 9:23/mile 114bpm	Added some strides at the end. A bit tired
Saturday	5 miles	Easy recovery + drills	Laps of the park in the new XC shoes
Sunday	14 miles	Slow run 9:00/mile 119bpm 69%MHR	Kept to the flat. Ran at steady 9:00. Very pleased with the HR - should I now be running my long runs faster?
Total	54 miles