HM Week 2 - Forgetting the tempo

It should come as no surprise that within two weeks of my half marathon training plan starting I've slipped behind. I would make an awful juggler. It doesn't help that I've not printed the plan yet, so a copy resides on my work laptop. I then get into the office to see what I've missed doing for the day.
Even today, the Tuesday of week 3 I opted for a day off, only to realise I have a squash game tomorrow so wouldn't be running. No bother, I'll run Thursday & Friday, except that I have a meeting to drive to on Friday! I'm currently considering hill sprints at Notley after my Run Director shift on Saturday.
Last week (5/1) already included one deferred run, so the plan was to run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Sunday. Or something similar, 4 runs essentially.
I started the week well, though stretching 60 minutes of running around Stansted in the dark made for some laps of Forest Hall Park. It was a tough slog, my pace was woeful as I embarked on my longest run since November. 2015 will be about endurance rather than speed though, I wasn't going to push myself here.

Staying safe in the dark hours

Tuesday is decided to go with a restart of DDP Yoga instead, straight back to the beginning with the Diamond Dozen. The resultant clicks in my shoulder and back suggested this was a good idea and I need to keep it up with further sessions and trying to move on from the most basic of move sets.
Wednesday was Tuesday's run if that makes any sense, 30 Easy. I had a new toy to play with, my heart rate monitor had arrived. A January sales bargain, it was time to gather even more data. Combined with the Strava premium subscription, this would provide me with even more feedback on my activity.

More stats than you can shake a stick at

Of course a half hour saunter around Stansted won't tell you much. I averaged 154 beats per minute, no idea if that is good or not at this stage. My suffer score, a Strava thing to indicate how hard the exercise was showed a low 48 (Fergie's Berlin Marathon was up in the 500s).
Thursday was meant to be a tempo day. Unfortunately no one had told the weatherman, it was raining cats, dogs and a whole damn zoo outside. Though I'm less of a fair weather runner these days, I wasn't getting out of bed for a soaking (still got absolutely soaked on my way to work later in the day).
Friday was a non starter, a squash game earlier morning meant I got my tempos in a different format. Shame I didn't have the HRM to hand, would have provided a far higher suffer score!!!
Two days of the weekend and two runs to get in. Luckily I'd planned both. Though not a tempo, I was going to take Sean & Emily for a tour of the Forest as they were visiting to assist with the Run for the Run. I'd then do seventy easy before we headed down to the south coast on Sunday.

Six go mad in a forest

I'll blog further on Saturday, it deserves more of a write up. Six of us made it around the proposed summer course and also managed to avoid the worst of the weather (mainly due to my faffing). We were joined by fellow Core Team member Karl, Paul & Emily were also in attendance after also volunteering.
The mudclaws purchase was vindicated straight away. Though the course would never be run in conditions experienced in Saturday, I was able to put a lot of faith in my stride, even in places where my NB trails were struggling. Sadly they weren't the same shade of bright yellow they began the run in, but pristine trail shoes aren't something you should aspire to.
The heavy underfoot conditions were tough on the legs though. My calves were burning up by the end of the 5km having been given a thorough work out.
I went to bed with weary legs & mind, plus the knowledge that I had Monday off of work. With that in mind I opted for a lie in.

They used to be so pretty....

So at the end of week two I'd completed three runs, though one was a carry over from the week previously. In truth I'd run four times in week one after the NYD parkrun double, but it isn't a training plan unless I'm in deficit. With a marathon approaching in 2015 I'll need to be more flexible, look at running at either end of the day, lunchtime etc to ensure I'm not skipping vital runs.
I doubt it going to be close to PB time in Cambridge. An ongoing argument with my scales suggests I need to drop a fair whack of weight to get close to where I was in the summer. Combine that with the time off I've taken and I don't see a quick half on the cards. 

The Eat

The food this week has touched both the sublime & the ridiculous. I had a day of meetings on Thursday & found myself near Piccadilly. This led to a first time visit to the Japan Centre. The first of many I think, this place was all kinds of awesome. It was nearly 4pm & I still had lunch so I opted for a massive bowl of salmon sashimi and boiled rice. The portions were huge & though the rice wasn't really of much interest, the fish was of excellent quality. I picked up some Pocky sweets & some wasabi paste to take home & was pretty happy with my visit.

Mega sashimi

The weekend saw a return of Burger Saturday. This week I combined a six ounce beef patty with Leerdammer cheese, then wrapped parma ham around a mozzarella melt & an onion ring. Add in some good quality Stokes ketchup and a gherkin and you have all kinds of awesome. I need to keep the food cheats to just the weekend though, my ongoing disagreement with the scales is starting to get repetitive!

Burger Saturday!