Sunday 20th November to Saturday 26th November 2010.
Until now the most I have ever run in a week is about 75 miles and only on a couple of accessions at the peak of marathon training. I have found it hard to do because it is tiring and most of all, hard finding the time to fit it in round work, home life and sleeping!
During the 10 in 10 challenge I will be running 262 miles in 10 days so I need to get used to running much higher mileage than I have ever done.
I plan to break the 100 miles in 1 week barrier which I have previously not got near to doing. I have to bear in mind that during the 10 in 10 I will actually run 183.4 miles in 7 days so I will still have a long way to go. I picked the above week because it fitted in nicely between a 4 week gap between marathons. After thinking about this week long challenge and comparing it with the 10 in 10 I realized that 4 marathons was 104.8 miles so I revised my challenge to run over 4 marathons in 7 days. This would be 15 miles per day on average. Things are put into perspective when you think I plan to run 7 in 7 days.
Day 1, Sunday 20th November
I usually do a long run on a Sunday so my plan was to kick start the week with a long 20 mile run and get ahead of schedule. Almost immediately thing went wrong. My son Lucas had a bad night Saturday and into Sunday morning, I could see a trip with him to the walk in centre coming on for Sunday morning which meant my morning run was put on hold. Sure enough after breakfast me & Lucas were down at the local walk in centre. I was relieved that the wait wasn’t too long and Lucas was diagnosed with a virus and we were given a few instructions to get his temperature down.
I got home mid morning and was offered a 1 hour 50 min running window before my wife was out with daughter Abbey at a ballet lesson and again I would be required to look after Lucas. This meant I had to get my skates on and see what I could do in the restricted time allowed. I know I said earlier that I was planning on running slower but needs must and I legged it through the mud on the local trails and canal tow paths to notch up 14.1 miles at 7min 15 secs miles and get back in time. Slightly behind schedule for the day but the best I could do.
Day 2, Monday 21st November
Again today the pressure was on, I needed to fit in my run between finishing work and being home for 5:45pm to look after Lucas while Abbey went to Gymnastics. I planned to nip out of work as early as possible and get in as long a run as possible. Work was annoyingly busy and I didn’t leave as early as I hoped cutting my run down to 10.4 miles. I’m now slipping further behind schedule.
Day 3, Tuesday 22nd November
This was a day where I now planned to catch up with my mileage schedule. I planned to run 18 miles to work and then have a second run in the evening. I managed 18.3 miles on the way to work, very pleased. After work I ran from work to my running club, ran with my club and then ran home. I notched up a total in 33.3 miles for the day. A personal record for miles in one day and at last put me a head of schedule.
Day 4, Wednesday 23rd November
I was very pleased to wake up to a set of legs that seemed unaffected by yesterday’s running. It has filled me with confidence that I do recover within 24 hours after running long miles. Tonight I ran home from work clocking up 11.1 miles and still keeping myself ahead of schedule.
Day5, Thursday 24th November
I ran straight to work in the morning and back home again in the evening, adding two 6.8 mile runs.
Day 6, Friday 25th November
I ran to work taking in a long route 14.3 miles and adding in several hills. It was a very cold, frosty morning, got my fleecy running tights on. You know what they say “There is no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothing.”
Day 7, Saturday 26th November
I was feeling great coming into the last day, I was well ahead of schedule and any average run would mean I had completed the challenge. The weather forecasters had been correct for once, the weather had got significantly colder we had had a penetrating frost for the last couple of days and the east of the country was suffering with heavy snow falls. I enjoyed a fairly easy run round Leigh and Pennington Flash, clocking up 10.7 miles more than enough to complete this week’s challenge. I could have easily gone further but I wanted to stay fairly close to the plan.
I am very pleased with the way this week has gone. I have run at a fairly conservative pace averaging around 8 minute miles. My legs haven’t ached even as the week has progressed. I have felt slightly more tired as the week has gone on. My appetite has been incredible I eat a meal and 20 minutes later I’m hungry again!
Below are the statistics from this weeks running:-
9 runs in 7 days.
Longest run 18.3 miles.
Shortest run 6.8 miles.
On Tuesday 22nd November 2010 I completed 33.3 miles in 2 runs the most I have ever run in 1 day.
I ended up completing 107.5 miles in 7 days.
Job Done.
