January 2012

[marathondan]

Week 3 of 18
Lunar phase: waxing gibbous, full moon Sunday

A step-back week, with the long run only 6 miles.

Tuesday night: 3 miles intervals round the green (of which about 1K was warmup). I’ve split up my circuit into intervals of around 450-600m, with about 400m recovery, using features such as path junctions and the dead tree as markers. This gives me 5 sprints if, as tonight, I include the pavement section home as a sprint as well.

Very greasy underfoot, increasing the effort level no doubt. Despite a generously gibbous moon sailing through the patchy cloud, for a speedwork session I found it necessary to use the head torch, to help me stick to (or rather keep to the side of) the muddy dog-walker tracks. I seem to prefer running without the artificial light: with the torch, the eyes don’t adjust to the dark and you end up with eerie tunnel vision, reminiscent of a chase scene from a cheap slasher flick (my own rasping breath doesn’t help with that image, either). Running by natural light, no matter how poor, seems more peaceful and balanced.

Thursday night: two and a half laps at tempo pace, which for me means putting in some effort, but at a level that’s sustainable for some time. Hard work, but good miles in the bag.

Sunday night: three and a half laps at easy pace. Pretty comfortable, and I got the familiar and reassuring sensation that by the time it was over I was only just warming up. A beautiful, clear, mild night under the full moon, no need for the torch, the lightest of mists hovering a few feet above the turf, hedgrerows and trees picked out in silver. Conditions underfoot had dried out somewhat and were much more comfortable that earlier in the week, except for a lot of deep hoof prints. On the audio, the second half of the Steve Jones interview.

This coming week the tempo run increases to 6 miles, which adds a whole extra lap. That’s going to be a hard session, which will hopefully do me some good. I need to pick some high octane sounds to keep me moving. The long ‘un will be 11 miles, which will start to try my boredom threshold, and my new watch will be arriving, so prepare for a splitfest statfest.