Good run, The direction from Peter was to do the tempo at 7 min/mile. I set the watch to do between 6:55 and 7:00, Looking at the splits below I hit what I programmed.

This run was nothing special – 30 min recovery

Mile 1: 9 min/mile
Mile 2: 8:38 min/mile
Mile 3: 8:32 min/mil

Average Heart Rate: 116
Max Heart Rate: 130
Average Run Cadence: 180 spm
Max Run Cadence: 198 spm
Average Vertical Oscillation: 9.0 cm
Average Ground Contact Time: 240 ms
Average Stride Length: 1.03 m
Average Temperature: 16.9 C

Remarks: It’s been a while since I ran 14 miles, I had spent a while last night trying to find a route in my training runs last year and the year before and I didn’t find any. I decided to run into town and back out, deciding on the way if I needed to take any additional loops.

The run was great, the usual niggles at different times during the run, and at 11.90 miles I thought my hamstring (pain behind my left knee) was in trouble, but other than slowing down for a short while I’m in great shape.

After the run I went for a 1/2 mile run with Aidan – he is nearly 5 and had been asking for a while. we averaged 14 min miles and he did really well. he didn’t stop until we got to the half way point!

Conditions: Good day, I got up with Fionn and Aidan at 7:30 so I also had breakfast and a pint of water – I felt I needed fuel before 14 miles. I was a bit nervous of the distance.

Recovery: Good! In addition to the 1/2 mile run with Aidan, I did 3 miles of a very very easy cycle with the kids and I wore compression socks.

I did a good bit of stretching after the 14 miles, and I drank a protein shake – Sinead had a great dinner for us and over all I think the day was good.

I got hit with tiredness a few times during the day and I’m very tired writing this now.

Average Heart Rate: 125 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 187 bpm
Avg Run Cadence: 180 spm
Max Run Cadence: 206 spm
Avg Vertical Oscillation: 9.6 cm
Avg Ground Contact Time: 236 ms
Avg Stride Length: 1.05 m
Time: 1:59:31
Avg Pace: 8:32 min/mi
Best Pace: 5:19 min/mi

Splits
Mile 1: 8:29
Mile 2: 8:42
Mile 3: 8:35
Mile 4: 8:28
Mile 5: 8:34
Mile 6: 10:05 – Slowest (not sure why the pace is so slow, but I did drop into the Mardyke to us the toilet)
Mile 7: 8:31
Mile 8: 8:24
Mile 9: 8:23
Mile 10: 8:35
Mile 11: 8:48
Mile 12: 8:33
Mile 13: 8:35
Mile 14: 8:07 – Fastest

Conditions: Good clear day

Remarks: I was tired today, I woke at 8:30 and my first thought was lets go for a run! However I got the kids breakfast first before heading out the door. I found getting going very hard and even after the first mile when I got into my stride I felt my legs were tired.

Recovery: I got a lot done today. Brought the kids shopping for new runners. Cut the grass. Got my hair cut and bought myself new runners. By the end of the day my legs are tired and I’m wearing my compression socks to bed so that in the morning I’ll be ready for a 14 mile run.

Conditions: Warm, with a bit of wind (in particular for about 1/4 of each 1 mile lap in my face)

Remarks: What a great run. It is always a concern when you start something new. today I was doing 15 min warmup, 5 x 1 mile intervals (recovery between each interval was until my Heart Rate recovered to 120 bpm) and 10 min cooldown.

The Intervals went great, and I needed to walk to get my heart rate to 120, so if I jogged instead of walking (like I did for the 3rd Interval) the recovery time was longer.

I love looking at graphs for this type of workout 🙂

Conditions: raining – this is my first time wearing my running jacket this year.

Remarks: I decided to use my foot pod, and calibrating it messed up the start of the run.

Distance: 7.37 miles
Time: 1h 3m 42s
Average Pace: 8:42 min/mile
Average Heart Rate: 120 bpm
Max Heart Rate: 141 bpm

Splits:
Mile 1: 8:42
Mile 2: 8:14
Mile 3: 8:40
Mile 4: 8:54
Mile 5: 8:49
Mile 6: 8:50
Mile 7: 9:13