10 weeks, 75 miles and my first three-peat of 20 milers

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with training plans. I mapped out around a month ago how I wanted the rest of my training until the Autumn 100 to pan out. I’ve always thought as long as the weekly mileage holds true, how this is split between midweek and weekend stuff can fall how I want it to land.

I had adapted my plan so I could run 20 miles from Morley to Harrogate to my sleep over shift at work on Friday, then run 20 miles home yesterday. While I usually back my weekend ability to make up miles, there was a certain ‘staring down the bottom of the barrel’ element to being at work on Thursday afternoon only having done one 7.5 mile run so far this week!

I did another 7.5 mile loop that evening and found the outward 20 into work quite comfortably within my current thresholds for hills and I was able to cope with the heat by seeing off the entirety of my 3L water bladder.

My return 20 yesterday was a lot easier. The weather was more overcast and the rain was never torrential enough to necessitate taking my waterproof jacket out of my pack (I always overheat in waterproofs otherwise!)

I had a glorious can of lager 2 miles from home purely to be able to enjoy it more than when I’d actually finished. My wife and cousin weren’t overly impressed with my choice of location for this. I maintain that running teaches you some classy habits!

I finished the week with 2 laps of 7.5 miles and one 5.4 mile lap. This was a lot slower than my previous 2 days of 20 miles but I was able to settle into the pace well. I was pleased with ASDA sports tabs and how well 2.5L of the mixed sports drink lasted me for the duration of this run. I listened to the Billy Yang podcast with some enthusiasm and really enjoyed his guest this episode. It featured the husband of Gabe Grunwald. There was mention of the Mary Oliver poem I liked so much which was also referred to in the book Wild. I’d highly recommend the podcast in general to anyone.