Reflecting on the Week - 22nd Feb

Distance: 72.1 km
Time: 6:35
Elevation: 515 m
Fastest pace: 3:51/km
Max HR: 182 bpm

Half term always makes the week feel like a jigsaw. Good fun (I think?), but every run has to slot in around kids and general chaos. The upside is it forces a bit of discipline. If I do not get out when the window appears, that is it. Seeing my osteo Laura midweek was a minor miracle. My right hip had been grumbling and, predictably, that was starting to show up in the data. It felt looser for the back half of the week which was reassuring.

The big session was Saturday’s 30 km negative split. I had the choice to finish with a downhill or into a headwind. I chose the headwind, because Badwater will never offer the easy option. That is exactly the sort of controlled discomfort I am trying to rehearse, especially while we are still waiting to hear on the Badwater entry.

The sharper work came in the 3 x 8 minutes session. The wind was doing its best to wreck the pacing and a horse barged into the last rep, which is very rural training! Still, the effort was there, and the heart rate response looked solid. Training right now is about layering weeks like this on top of each other, consistent effort over the weeks and months is what we are looking for.