7th-13th April Run notes
Monday
The loop on a lunchtime. It’s a treat with the sun high in the sky and birds in the trees. Easter holidays means there are some boys are playing in the wood but we don’t disturb each other. The trees on the slope still look a little desolate, the fallen leaf litter and skeletal branches. Amongst it all green tips are appearing and in a few months they’ll be full of leaves and the lower path will be obscured.
Tuesday
Spring lane sidings in reverse with added strides up to 1 minute. With the sun out this was a blast and was just cruising through some sections.
Thursday
I'm on the usual slope in Middleton park and it's dead quiet. School holidays have truly descended as this track usually gets busy with kids walking down to school at this time. There's no wind either and if it wasn't for the raucous birdsong it would be slightly eerie. I manage to acquit myself well today (I think), keeping the first two reps slower to find the right pace for the final 3. I use my watch to try and focus on keeping the pace consistent which helps but also try to be aware of how it all feels at this pace so I've got something else to go on. The final rep is a challenge but I can keep the intensity so I'm happier than on previous efforts.
Friday
More Leeds country way for my easy run, this time up to Carlton and back. Didn't set a route so found myself jogging through a small housing estate trying to cut through onto Rothwell Greenway. Eventually found the cut through that brought me back onto the right track and down from the Greenway across the fields to Carlton. I turned around halfway through a super pleasant climb up to Swithens lane and got a beautiful view back across to Robin Hood. As I rejoin the Rothwell Greenway I stumble across a big thrush just sitting on the path, I make my apologies and slip past him hoping he's OK and just resting in the morning sunshine. I immediately encounter some dog walkers with dogs dashing hither and thither and hope they don't also find him. I spend the rest of the route back wondering if I should just have moved him but I'll never know.
Sunday
Time for my regular Sunday service and a pilgrimage to my favourite haunt, Sissons woods and south Leeds golf course, for two hours and fifty minutes of as much ascending and descending as possible. The scribble of a route on Strava may look like the rambling of a madman but by taking every incline and turning it into a climb and a descent I manage to rack up over 1,000m of ascent over the whole run. This is an unintentional but pleasant milestone and just shy of 1,085m the full height of Yr Wyddfa where I'm heading in May. Something about this session also felt like serious progress, maybe it was racking up all that ascent or being faster than previous efforts. Altogether though it felt like all the work is making a difference and that's refreshing after having negative feelings last week.
The woods were lovely in the sunshine although there were signs that there had been fires in the shrub in various places this week. It wasn't clear if these had been started intentionally or were just due to the exceedingly dry whether we've been having (and the large amount of rubbish about) but it was concerning nonetheless, particularly as there's a large housing estate nearby.
For this session I also aimed for a more disciplined approach to nutrition. Previously, I've eaten at about 45 minutes in and then around every 30 minutes after. I've varied this in different ways, not eating all at once, introducing liquid calories, starting to eat earlier but never really approached it was some numbers and discipline. Thinking about what I usually consume I aimed to try and get in 300kcals/65g carbohydrates each hour using a combination of veloforte chews, bars and liquid calories. I'd eat a 3rd of a chew every 20 minutes and half a bar every 30 minutes with sips every kilometre or so. This mostly went to plan, although I ate slightly more in the first hour after forgetting my exact schedule. I also found I drank more than I expected which was fine and didn't bump my totals up significantly. This all felt good and practical on a training run but I appreciate during a race I may need to pick my moments more critically for when to eat.