Doing well on MY training ...

... Leon, that is. In case you've missed it, on three consecutive weekends he's trounced his PBs at three significant race distances - the marathon, then 5 miles, then the half-marathon. And I think he has his eye on taking a pop at his 5k PB this coming weekend.

And that's all on 70-90mpw at 9mm-10mm pace with me. I'm delighted to see Leon being rewarded with PBs for valiantly plodding out those slow miles. He deserves them. It will be very interesting to see what he can do after recovering from the Ten Marathons in Ten Days Challenge and adding some pace-based sessions to his training.

In context, this is the first time Leon has managed to train consistently at such high mileage without breaking down, and, with a shorter running history than I have, he only now has the running-specific adaptations to allow him to do so much.

I had all the easy gains that are to be had from consistent high mileage in 2006-2007, so I'm not expecting great things during my build-up to 8th May. While Leon ran a new PB and came in 5th at the Friends of Mick'n'Phil Half-Marathon, I had to be content with 94th place (and 10th woman) and a time of 1:46:08, well adrift of my PB. I am, however, happy with my performance. I threw myself at my target pace of just under 8mm and sustained it for almost 7 miles. Conditions were difficult, with a brutal wind. When I realised that I was going to have to drop my pace, I resisted the temptation to drop right back to 9mm or slower and kept working hard (though not hard enough - Leon and I went out and did another run in the evening). More importantly, the children were excellent water-station and finish-line marshalls, and every scrap of my banana cake and bread pudding got eaten :o)

Last week's numbers:

Total distance: 90.32 miles. Yes, we did deliberaely run just far enough on Sunday evening to bring both Leon and me over 90 miles.
Profile: 82.04% general running, average pace 9.21mm.
3.4% running with my daughter at 10.43mm.
14.56% racing at 8.04mm.
Longest run: 15.35 miles at 9.26mm.
Cross-training: None.
Niggles: Slightly sore flexor tendon on my left foot persists, but isn't really a problem.
Sofa-spud days: Saturday.

AND ... at last I have some new Inov-8 F-lite 230s, and I have both the classy black ones and the screaming electric blue ones. I am well pleased!