A little bit AWOL

I can't believe I haven't posted since my last long run!
It has been another tiring week- travelling and big deadlines for work, slow and exhausting runs and heaps of time spent getting ready for our good friends' wedding today!

Today was a different story- sort of. I felt like rubbish when I started my 12mi run. Not a good sign for holding 9:29 pace, given my sloow long run last week and my abysmal "tempo" run on Monday (awful! my pace for the 8mi was over 9:00s- I can't even remember by how much!). But it was a great day, and somehow my legs and my music got me through. I thought I was going well, so I freaked a little when I got to what I thought was the 6 mile mark in 58:34. WTF? But I've just got home and looked at the map again, and the landmark was for 7, not 6! That's 8:20s! I was meeting P at 9 miles (over a big hill), and was stoked to get there in 1:19 (8:46 pace). I lost some pace running with P- it was getting hotter, and we chatted. But we still got home (the last 15 minutes is uphill, yuck) in 1:50, which is about 9:15. I'm not quite sure why we lost so much pace, but I know I could have held the pace I had been doing despite the heat, and would have expected to still come in under 9:00, even with the hill. Oh well. I think I am getting sick, which is not surprising, given the last couple of weeks. Quite congested and my ears were all blocked and horrible when I got home.

So, I think I've kinda made up for the bad tempo run on Monday- I did 8mi at the suggested tempo pace (slower than usual "tempo") today.

My other run for the week was 400s. I felt pretty tired, and was really p*ssed that I couldn't get under 1:45. The distance was definitely not short though, and when I tried a different approximately 200m there and back interval I was coming in under 1:40. I think maybe the first was sliiightly long and I'm positive the second one was a bit short! (I was using map my run and running on a slightly undulating and kinda windy stretch by the beach) So once I looked at my pace charts and re-checked the map I felt a bit better.

I have been trying to just focus on my key runs this week, so other workouts have just been a swim and a trainer ride. Both were pretty good, especially the ride. We did an hour of spinervals base building, and for once my cadence was at the right level without me having to cheat!