Navigating the week

Fitness guru Joanna Hall uses an expression in her books; 'navigating your day', which basically refers to ways of fitting exercise into a busy day, making good use of any spare few minutes to do what you can, no matter how small. This week I've been negotiating a few obstacles threatening to get in the way of running.

I planned to get back into my pre-marathon routine of Tues, Fri and Sun mornings plus Weds evenings, but this Tuesday Pete had to go in to work early, which would have meant losing too much sleep and getting up really early to run. So I waited until he got home and went in the evening instead. This made me realise that I definitely prefer running in the morning. It's a nicer time of day, I don't feel as tired, and it gets it out the way so I can relax for the rest of the day. I felt very unmotivated as I left at 7.15pm, but it turned out to be a fairly fast 5k.

On Weds it's usually Jog Scotland night, but Pete was away on business. We usually do intervals or hills on Wednesday, so when Pete got back on Thursday night, I took myself off for a similar session. There is a long straight (but slightly hilly) road where we often do intervals, which I really like running on, so I ran the 1.4 miles there in an easy 13 mins. Then I ran as hard as I could for 1 mile. I turned round and ran back 0.5 miles slow recovery, then 0.5 m fast; then 0.25 recovery, and 0.25 fast, then just under 2 miles home at a steady pace.

I was dripping with sweat and totally knackered when I got home. That was a tough session. I ran the fast mile in 8mins03, and the fast 0.5 in 3mins47. Phew. Just when I was feeling all healthy and virtuous, Pete handed me a huge tub of rich, fattening chocolate he'd brought back from the airport. Yum.

As for this morning, I didn't want to run less than 12 hours after I ran last night, but this afternoon I managed to grab a spare half an hour between finishing work and picking the kids up, so I squeezed in a 2.2 miles recovery run. My legs felt tired after yesterday's pounding.

I'm hoping to get a long run in on Sunday before we go away for a week's holiday on Monday. We're staying with Pete's family in a holiday house in Shropshire - no doubt next week will need to be navigated carefully to get the runs in too...















Recovery nutrition