Zombie

I ran on the treadmill again on Saturday... this time wearing 4KG XL and although at the same speed as last week, I did 4 minutes run and 3 walk. It was the most boring 21 miles of my entire life and I spent the whole time wishing I had a decent enough excuse to stop and give up. You can't just stop because you're bored though, so I carried on. I felt very tired when I was finished and the only fuel I had was salted peanuts.

Sunday saw me doing a loop of the beach banks in my new Salomon soft muds. They were so comfortable I could easily have carried on, however after getting a blister on my big toe the day before, I thought wearing new shoes for the whole time on Sunday would have just been asking for trouble. So, the first 5.5 miles were extremely muddy and very wet but the shoes held up well and I didn't feel like I would fall over once. Getting back home, my feet were bone dry which amazed me as I was slashing about in brown claggy puddles which would have seen my feet soaked in Hokas.
I changed to the Hokas and decided that the beach banks were out of the question in my trusty older trainers, so, instead of going for an easy option, I picked the hilly 20 miler that always wears me out. I've never attempted this route when I've been too tired (as it's quite hard) so I wasn't looking forward to how it would make me feel.

The first 4 or 5 miles is probably the hilliest, so I struggled at the top of a couple of hills although surprised myself that I managed to get as far as I did before having to walk. Some inclines I barely noticed which gave me confidence all of this training is already making a big difference. I have to admit though... there were times when I was running when I felt like a zombie shuffling along and the pace was slower than a snail (averaging from 12-13mm). I got to 12 miles (or should I say about 6.5 of the hilly run, 12 for the day) and my left shin started to really ache. I ignored it as best as I could and carried on. Still feeling like a zombie (but a comfortable one, if that makes sense) I ran/walked the next few miles, only having a negative walk break once to eat a couple of handfuls of peanuts. At 17 miles my shin was becoming unbearable so I rang my mam and asked her to pick me up at a point that would be 18 miles for me. So, 39 miles for the weekend is my biggest training weekend I've ever done and I'm already on 119 miles for the month so far.

I've iced/ibuprofened and rollered my left shin and calf and it's feeling OK, so hopefully my tempo run tomorrow will be fine. I did some awful overhead squats today which I was absolutley useless at, but followed those up with 6 sets of 6 reps of squat partials at 105KG which was a PB and a 1RM lockout of 130KG, which is also a PB. In fact, 130KG is 2.2 times my own bodyweight. I was flipping knackered when I'd finished though!!! I'm going to have to get used to feeling like a zombie!