Wow what a week, seven days of running done 43.17km distance covered and over 4 hours of running completed, quite a week!
Today's run was always planned to be an afternoon run the constant rain throughout the morning meant I kept pushing my run back hoping the rain would subside. Not that I am adverse to running in the rain its just that I would prefer to go out and enjoy my run when its not raining and as I have already ran in the rain a few times this week I was hoping bright and dry weather conditions.
It was not to be though, it was rainy, it was wet and pretty horrible!
I headed out along the footpath through the Ingrebourne Valley country park. The river Ingrebourne was swollen and flowing high up its banks to a point I have never seen before, not only that but the path was sodden in places and got to the point where it was so flooded I had to detour.
The detour took me through a less scenic housing estate but it did provide me a decent incline to run up for several hundred metres.
I was so wet by the time I got home and was glad to jump into a warm shower and pop on a nice big hoody before settling down for a relaxing Sunday evening.
After seven days it seemed like a logical time to reflect on my runstreak so far:
The reasoning behind my challenge can be found here, the basic aim of my challenge is to try and raise awareness and funds for Pancreatic Cancer during Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month.
The week started off with a longer run of 8.52km as I started my challenge off with a bang. In all honesty I wasn't sure how I was going to fare with all the running. I didn't feel in the greatest shape, my diet has been pour and the weekend had seen me eat and drink more than my fair share of goodies and alcohol celebrating my wife's birthday. I was also concerned with my calves, which have always been my problem area where running has been concerned. They were experiencing a lot of tightness and pain in the front of my legs before running and mostly during my runs as well making runs painful and not very enjoyable.
Day 2 saw me hit the gym in the morning and then head out for a evening hill session where I covered my minimum target for the challenge of 5K. I felt OK in myself considering I had trained twice and was running on the back of a longish distance form the day before.
Day 3 was my real challenge as I was determined to combine my usual Wednesday evening boot camp I attend with a friend with my running. This meant I had to head out for a run before work so I was out pounding the pavements before 6 am. An experience I really enjoyed and I look forward to repeating soon. Boot camp in the evening was really a struggle though as I to find any strength or energy in my legs.
On Day 4 I gave myself practically 24 hours since my last training session on the previous evening before running. I headed out in the evening for what I presumed would be a slow and steady 'plod' around. Actually I found it to be a great run where I felt stronger and fitter than I could ever have imagined after training so hard in the previous few days, this was the run where I really started to feel the positive affects of consecutive days running.
It was Day 5 where the week changed and took on a whole different meaning. I receive the exciting news that I had been shortlisted to the final 50 runners of all the thousands that had applied for Runnersworld magazines Asics target 26.2 challenge. If its not something you are aware of it is a competition to find 5 runners to run towards their targeted finish time in the Paris Marathon in 2015. The prize is not only VIP entry into the Paris Marathon but loads of assistance with training plans and advice from specialist coaches. What an absolute dream to be part of! The days run then felt like the most important run of my life as I felt such a sense of pride and excitement as I went out running. I felt like Mo Farah or some other successful Olympian feeling 12 feet tall bursting with pride but I know I didn't appear any different to anyone I passed despite how I felt inside.
Yesterday and Day 6 was a classic Saturday run, heading out running before relaxing in front of an afternoons sporting entertainment on TV. This is the run I have found hardest as I struggled to get going and felt pretty tired and lacking in energy.
Thank you for reading, any tips on how to train effectively during a runstreak would be greatly received, happy running everyone!
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