The plan for today was a nice, gentle ten miles with a friend (who put me on to Longest Day Run in the first place!) around Dovestones and Chew Reservoirs near Greenfield. She had told me though, that she had been unwell yesterday so it was a sad but not entirely unexpected text over breakfast this morning that let me know I'd be running alone again. This was confirmed by a failed attempt to rally a few troops. So what, am I the only person who leaps out of bed eager to run at 7am on a Sunday!? I decided to take on a bit more fuel and have a rethink - I didn't have to go out to Greenfield and in fact, saving that run for when we could do it together another day seemed a nice idea and saved me the hassle of getting the train there and the indignity of the sweaty train back!

I plotted a vague route along the Irwell out past Broughton and back down through Salford. Possibly not ten miles but easy enough to add a couple of loops round Manchester on if needed. Anyway, I told myself, I only really needed to do 4 miles to get myself to my target of 30 for this 24 hour period so perhaps it was wise to not plan too much and just go by feel, especially given yesterday's mileage! Unfortunately (or maybe not!) I had spent so long trying to memorise some complicated bits later in the run I hadn't properly worked out how to drop down onto the footpath by the river from the city centre so this plan never germinated. Taking this as an intervention by Atalanta, I decided it might not be a bad idea to stick to an easier route for today; I hadn't yet determined how well I'd warm up and avoiding unexpected navigational errors was probably wise.

I made it back home at about half past 11; 45 minutes to spare before the end of my 24 hour period and having clocked 11.3 miles! Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me until I was in the shower that if I'd have pushed just a little further I could easily have done 2 more miles; a half marathon, which would have taken me to close to 40 miles instead of the 37.8 I've managed. Still, I have decided recently that miles are like pints (once you've done one it's hard to stop; the more you have the worse you feel afterwards but by next weekend you've forgotten the pain and dive straight back into the joy again!) and that last mile may well have ended up being the one I shouldn't have had! Feet up and tea with home made Lavender Scones and Strawberry Jam on the balcony was not a bad idea!

So that's that for the Longest Day Run 2014. I've run a second, albeit unofficial marathon, had fun pushing myself to see what I could achieve physically and massively enjoyed being outdoors in the English summer. I'm so lucky to live close to such lovely running routes and it always seems to be such a good way of connecting with a landscape, which seems quite appropriate for the summer solstice, even if there were no stone circles involved! I've also clocked more miles in 24 hours than I ever have before as well as peaking at over 65 miles in one week; my longest distance ever. Many thanks to all at Longest Day Run for the organisation! So glad I participated and hope the event was the success you hoped for! See you (virtually at least!) next year!

Seven days already since my first encounter with the Salford Harriers at the track but I didn't make the mistake of turning it into a second helping of speed work like last week! After a gentle jog as a warm up down the canal to the stadium I felt a bit more confident this week, though we had a different session (still speed intervals) so it took a friend to explain it a bit more before I cold dive in. We did five reps of a fast half lap (200 meters) followed by a 200m jog and then a fast 400m, while the more advanced group did the same but faster and with a lap and a half (600m) instead of our shorter version. If felt comfortably challenging if that makes sense; I had to push myself but I felt strong enough and though running in to the wind round half the track was tiring, as was trying to go as fast as I could whilst maintaining the pace wasn't exactly easy, it wasn't exactly supposed to be and I didn't feel like I was dying either! I was pleased that whilst I was still aware of Sunday's bruises it didn't appear to have a huge impact on my performance and my legs certainly felt a whole lot fresher than last week! I was able to jog home without too much trouble, though I felt a little stiffer for having stopped at the end for a chat. So far so good though and I seem to have got away with out aggravating the old IT band. I even risked a bit of a foam roll when I got in; I'd been a bit reluctant to use it on a bruised area but it seemed OK.

Of course I put this speedy recovery down in part to fuelling right and I've turned into a bit of a salad addict since the weather has been warmer. Ah no, I'm not talking 'salad' involving half a dozen limp, yellow leaves being chased round the plate by a wrinkly cherry tomato, I'm talking 'SALAD!', the kind that puts hairs on your chest and is basically just a cooked meal gone cold. I'm pretty sure this evening's energy burst was thanks to a healthy serving of this little carbo-protein power packet for lunch! 

Enough of that though... Dinners gone down in to my apparently hollow legs now  and I think I may just have time for pudding number two before bed!

This evening I joined my new friends at Salford Harriers for a very sunny run from their club house behind the Blue Bell hotel in Moston.

Upon arriving, I was surprised by just how busy it was, it certainly seems to be a popular club. I suspect the good weather aided the good turnout too! It was also nice, if a little worrying, to be recognised by one chap who was at the Littleborough 5k last week, though I suppose it's not that odd really, it was a fairly small, local race!

As it was my first visit, I took a conservative approach and didn't leap to join the group doing ten miles in an hour (!) and instead set off with a more gentle gaggle, though even this split into different paced chunks. Thankfully, I was able to keep pace with one of the people who actually knew where they were going, which is just as well as I had no idea whatsoever where I was and had left, amongst other things, my mobile and house keys in my friend's car! Getting split from the group would have been... eventful. It was interesting to get back and check out where I'd actually been, though I have to say with no real knowledge of the area I'm not much the wiser!

All in all, a good if gentle run and great to meet a few new faces and start to get to know people. Looking forward to the track again next Tuesday!

Hill reps tomorrow!

Ah, and in case you were at all curious as to what I did eventually end up doing with my unusually free evening last night, it will probably not come as too much of a shock to hear it involved FOOOOD!! I invented a new recipe! Shepless Pie; kind of like a Shepherds Pie, but a vegan version and with a Mediterranean flavour! Check it out here for the details!

Whilst I’m certainly not one to shy away from pushing my luck (in my experience progress rarely hounds non-risk takers), this doesn’t mean I’m willing to give it a drop kick off a cliff either and so when I woke up this morning feeling surprisingly supple, bright and breezy I did not take it as a green light to try and pull another 7 mile speed session before work.

A little ten minute tread-mile seemed to be the minimum I could get away with in order not to break my Juneathon Runstreak but I then hopped on the stationery bike and gently trundled away for a bit whilst listening to the final chapter of an audio book I received as a free download as part of the Run2Work promotion. I selected Rich Roll’s book Finding Ultra: Rejecting Middle Age, Becoming One of the World's Fittest Men, and Discovering Myself. Thankfully the book’s not as long as the title. OK that’s not quite true. I picked it because whilst it wasn’t something I’d have bought as it focuses on triathlons more than just running, of course I knew I’d find the running element interesting and as he is proud and loud in following a vegan diet I thought I might pick up a few tips (though I am primarily an unashamed fan-girl of Scott Jurek in this area!) Whilst I wouldn’t necessarily recommend everyone rush out and buy it immediately, it has been an interesting listen. He spends a lot of the book discussing how he sank into and then overcame various personal difficulties before his athletic, plant-based renaissance so if you like biographies in general then you may well enjoy it. There are moments when it pushes his own range of products a little too much for my liking and I’m not sure the appendices of nutritional values really make for the most enjoyable audio book experience but I did pick up some interesting tips and pointers for ensuring my own plant based diet is adequately fuelling the demands of my training.

So, with an easy day well earned and even my blog post out of the way in a quick lunchtime update, do you know what I am going to do this evening of Juneathon the 11th? No, me neither, and for a bit of a change, that’s A-OK with me for once!

Just an easy 40 minutes today, indoors as I didn't trust the weather. I also completed some strength/conditioning exercises (I'll refrain from boring you with the details as much as I bored myself doing them) and even subjected myself to 20 minutes on the rowing machine because I know it's good for core work. Not so good for the head though. YAAAWN!

It's been great that I can use the new Garmin on the treadmill as it saves me having to try and remember distances and speeds and means I can compare indoor and outdoor workouts. It's no surprise I guess that there's a discrepancy between the data recorded by the watch and the treadmill readout though... The treadmill thought I ran further, faster, which would be great but I'm trusting the Garmin; it's measuring so much more and using a lot more data to make those judgements. I've also been told that some of the kit in the gym is over twenty years old so I'm not sure it's terribly reliable!

Today was the first speed interval session of my new training plan that aims to get me to a sub 40 10k at the We <3 MCR race on July 13th. It was a tough one. Not sure why, just wasn’t feeling it today. Got through it though, 15 intervals of 10mph with a recovery speed of 8mph. Well. Sort of recovery.

It was also was a great opportunity to test out using my new Garmin FR620 on the treadmill. Don’t even ask how much it’s supposed to cost, I am lucky to have benefitted from a very favourable staff rate at Up & Running as well as cashing in the combined birthday and Christmas presents from both my parents for 2014 and chucking in my Sandgrounder prize money! Thanks to the accelerometer and getting used to using the heart rate monitor I can now use the Garmin to track my treadmill sessions too and don’t need to bend my brain trying to remember distances and speeds to record my progress. Yay! \o/

After that session I was happy to award myself a portion of this bizarre avocado based dessert! Nom nom nom. *burp*