Reflecting on the Week - 28th December

Distance: 48 km
Time: 4:18 hrs
Elevation: 353 m
Fastest pace: 4:54/km
Max HR: 180 bpm

This has been a proper recovery week, wrapped around Christmas and family time. The running has sat in the background for once, which usually frustrates me, but having Basil’s advent accumulator to focus on made it feel useful rather than lost. Most of the miles were easy loops from home, just turning the legs over, letting Daytona drift a little further into the rear‑view mirror.

The big highlight was Basil finishing his advent accumulator with a 12 km loop. He’s a determined little soul and closed it out strongly, even dragging me to a segment second on Moor Lane without either of us really chasing it. The day before that we ticked off his penultimate 11.5 km, fully aerobic, chatting and keeping things controlled. Those runs did as much for my head as my legs. They reminded me that easy miles with company can be exactly what a recovery block needs.

I still let myself play a bit. One run was a short post‑Christmas shakeout before a long drive, and I dropped in a few sub‑5:00/km efforts just to remind the body how to move quicker. After Christmas I had “Bit of fun with BasBoy”, about 9 km and a couple of local climbs where I accidentally ran a PR on Dark Lane. These weren’t sessions in the formal sense, more like little nudges to keep some sharpness while the overall load stayed sensible.

For now, recovery is the main job. Probably one more easy week, then a call with Fletch to map out the build. I am trying to lean into this quieter patch rather than fight it, knowing that once the plan starts, the calm weeks will be much rarer.