The week gone by

Feel like this weeks been a good week for running. Also stuck to not having any alcohol in the week which has made my runs feel better. Did have a couple on Friday which I don't think I'll bother doing again if I'm doing a long run the following day, as it made the early stages of the run feel a bit sluggish. So, I've done two 4 mile runs and a 6 miler with Colin in the week followed by my longest run ever yesterday.

The long run was tiring but fun. Original plan was to run from where I live to Birmingham which is roughly 11 miles, give or take half a mile, depending on which route you run. However, after some discussion I decided to do a different run, as, if I had run to Birmingham I'd have to have caught public transport back and thought I may seize up if I didn't stretch properly. I then decided to run to West Bromwich and back. Set off on the run and felt good, though still probably a bit too fast (must remember to slow down), and got to Wednesbury (about 3 miles in). You then have to go through a part of Wednesbury called Hill Top, and there is an obvious reason why it's called Hill Top. Its so bloody steep its unbelievable, I could feel the back of my calfs tugging and straining like mad. Anyway, I got about half way up Hill Top and thought sod this, turned round, ran down and went a different route to half way to Walsall instead. 

So in the end the run ended up being 10 miles. Not quite the 11.5 I hoped for but hey ho it's still a massive achievement for me as it's the first time Ive ever run double figures. I now have a couple of goals that I want to achieve. One is to run either to or back from Birmingham, running back is probably more sensible so I can get showered after the run. The other one is to able to tackle the horrendous area that is Hill Top and run all the way up it. One day, in the next couple of months I will do this.

Also did a 2.5 mile recovery run today to stretch my tired muscles. Also just realised that the 10k race I entered is only 8 weeks away. 

Stats from my last two runs:

Date: 01/14/2012 
Type: Run
Distance: 10.01 miles
Time: 1 hr 42 min 41 secs
Average pace: 10:16 min/miles
Route: 2012-01-13 at 9 PM
Route link: http://www.logyourrun.com/showroute/26iy9GvN5V7bbl
Shoes: Puma Axis
Calories: 1214

Date: 01/15/2012 
Type: Run
Distance: 2.53 miles
Time: 0 hr 24 min 13 secs
Average pace: 9:34 min/miles
Route: 2012-01-14 at 1 PM
Route link: http://www.logyourrun.com/showroute/pNMPVtHc7pnXKJ
Shoes: Puma Axis
Calories: 286

The week ahead is going to be more of the same.