Week 6: Wednesday - Block long run
Broken
Got home at about 2:20pm on Tuesday. That was a lightning trip to the west coast of the USA, just 3 nights on foreign soil and one overnight on the plane back. Drank a fair bit while out there, plus of course kept to the Runna plan with Parkrun Saturday and the horrendous drop set on Monday in crazy weather. So it’s fair to say I put my body through quite a torrid time, so of course I had to get out and do this week’s long run this morning.
Block long run
What’s a “block long run”? Apparently, one that’s split into two “blocks” of paces. Today Runna demanded:
- 6.5km conversational pace
- 6.5km @ 5:30/km
Coach Steph had this to say:
Hopefully by this point within the plan a 13km run doesn’t seem quite as daunting as it did at the start!
Well, no. The distance didn’t put me off in isolation, but doing it jetlagged and just generally run down did. Not that Runna could possibly take that into account. I mean I could’ve taken it into account and just punted the run ’til tomorrow or done the 6km easy or whatever today… but I didn’t. Anyway, back to Steph:
Use this time to practice race day. From your outfit, pre-race breakfast to fuelling during your run, don’t leave anything last minute!
Oh. Might have been sensible to read that before the run, not after. I didn’t fuel at all, didn’t run in any of my favourite kit, chose a stupid route, this was NOT race prep for me. Ah well.
Anyway, I hit the performance pretty much spot on. First half averaged 6:06/km, second half 5:32/km. The watch reacts really badly to going anywhere under trees, dropping the reported pace drastically even though I’m keeping a consistent effort. It does the same thing whenever I U-turn, but that’s more understandable.
Second half was actually progressive, kms 7-13 being 5:46, 5:39, 5:37, 5:31, 5:33, 5:28, and 5:20. Not sure I can call that deliberate.
Achivement unlocked!
Turns out I got a badge from Smashrun!
Well, that’s good. I didn’t run much in July due to illness and injury. 10.2km is a bit odd and I had to go back and figure out what that was: the Vitality London 10k came in long! And since then it’s been Runna telling me to go further. But anyway, I love me a badge. There’s a 6-month version of the badge that I am unlikely to get, but you never know. Also TIL: I only need one more country for the “run in 10 countries” badge (progress to this only counts using runs that are after the date I registered with Smashrun which, it turns out, was 3 months after I ran in Russia. D’oh)
Aftermath
Stopped at a garage to get a flapjack and some Lucozade Sport and then walked home, slowly. Have felt rough ever since finishing the run to be honest, not hurt or injured and not like a cold or something coming on, just a bit, like, maybe that was a bit too much effort given the previous 5 days. But it’s done now. If I can survive the day at work and have a nice long sleep tonight hopefully Friday’s session will be fine.