
Week 3 Review: Time trial and Cross Country!
This has been a good week, both in terms of sustained weight loss and a step-up in training volume without breaking anything! This included taking part in a club Time Trial and a local cross-country race.
Scores on the doors:
Weight change: LOST 0.6 kg (Remaining: 6.1 kg)
Training: Tempo 8.5k, Tempo 10k, Time Trial 1.5k, Walking parkrun 5k
Events: MABAC Holmwood XC 7.6k
Total Training Distance: 39.2 km
Weight loss
It has definitely been an ‘on the wagon’ week, and as expected, the rate of weight loss has slowed as the initial shock to my body is now over. There was also plateauing during the week where everything was just standing still a bit. It’s really just a case of keeping on with it!
Tempo Runs
These were pretty straightforward. The 8.5k run featured some of my ‘favourite’ hills in the area which highlighted my distinct lack of hill training over recent months. It will get easier! The other was a very flat London based 10k. The weather for both of these was excellent so it was easy to get myself out there.
Time Trial

My running club (Waverley Harriers) are running a monthly handicap time trial at the moment, which is great for assessing progress. Your starting time is based on your previous time (so the fastest people start last). The intention is that you should all end up finishing at the same time!
It was my first entry this year, so I declared my best recent 5k time. I was happy to therefore overtake several people during the race as that indicates improvement. It was also good practice for running at the pace I would need to to hit my 20 minute parkrun target…. although this was only over 1.5 km so more work needed…
Cross country

Another benefit of my running club membership is the option of doing various local cross-country leagues, of which MABAC is one. They are also FREE and run in a ‘turn up on the day’ basis.
I popped along to the Holmwood Common event, and it was a fairly straightforward two lap course without any particularly evil hills. As mentioned earlier, I still have a lot of work to do regarding hills, but I enjoyed the experience complete with a burst of speed at the end!
Summary
I’m really happy with how the week has gone. Strava is reporting my training effort to be ‘Well above weekly range’. Although that means I am stepping up, I also have to be cautious to avoid anything breaking. Hence today is a well-earned rest day before getting back to training tomorrow…
Roll on week 4!