6 weeks, 98 miles and a harsh reintroduction to Autumnal weather

This week was initially going to be my lower mileage one as I had going to the first day of the 4th Ashes test taking up most of Wednesday pencilled into my calendar from November last year.

Unfortunately I used the low mileage ‘out’ a few weeks ago. I did 7.5 miles every morning from Tuesday to Friday including an evening 7. 5 on Thursday and was reasonably comfortable throughout all of that. It was noticeable how much darker it was at 4:30am setting off but I wasn’t uncomfortably cold at any point. This was solely reserved for my day out at the cricket with my dad. I really enjoyed the sport when it wasn’t rained out but I’d completely forgotten about how quickly you get cold being stationary! We managed to tough out the day and left just before 6pm knowing no further play would take place.

This left back to back 30 milers for yesterday and today to get my mileage in for this week. I covered 15 laps of Wythenshawe Park yesterday and had to fend for myself in the wilderness that is my downloaded Spotify playlists! This was due to using up my phone’s data allowance largely on podcasts and using it as a glorified Sat-Nav. After 5.5 hours of occasional gems surrounded by mediocrity, I returned to my in-laws house and loaded up my phone with around 8hrs of pods to cover a family meal last night and today’s run.

The highlight of these was the Rich Roll podcast from earlier this year where Kevin Smith was the guest. It was about his heart attack recently and how the changes he made afterwards ultimately saved his life. I found the interview captivating and despite my legs feeling a bit heavy on laps 3 and 4 of my 7.5 mile loop, I was always pretty confident about getting round.

I have decided to have a lower mileage week next week before another 3 figure week to lead into my taper. It’s starting to feel like I’m most of the way there in terms of my training now. I just need to keep the will and focus for the last few weeks.