Week 7 Review: Onwards and Downwards

Week 7 Review: Onwards and Downwards

Another good week! The weight continues to come off, and the fitness is notably improving. I am feeling generally stronger when out running now. Another way I would put it is ‘less wobbly’ !

Weight change: LOST 0.8 kg (Remaining: 4.3 kg)
Training: Tempo 11k, Recovery 5.45k, Race 5.6k, Recovery 5.6k, Speed Training, Walking parkrun 5k
Total Training Distance: 39.7 km

Weight loss

In a phrase: Steady as she goes…

Training

I got a decent amount of training in the bag this week, alternating ‘hard’ sessions with Recovery runs between them. It has been pretty warm out there as well which has added its own challenging dimension to some of the training.

With the recovery runs, I’m now ensuring hills feature wherever possible. Not in a major way, of course, as they are meant to be easy runs. Instead, it’s a way to keep my body ‘hill aware’ as it is way too easy for me to slip into the habit of going out for a flat runs.

Team StepStone UK at the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge

I have covered the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge in an earlier post. I was happy to hit both sub-22 minute 5k pace and a ‘pass’ pace for my upcoming football refereeing fitness test ‘in situ’. I could really feel the benefit of the recent speed training and hills in recent weeks — the flat course of Battersea Park, complete with lots of shade from the trees, made it very fast!

I moved my speed training session to later in the week to accommodate the race. This week it was:

  • 4 x 400m
  • 4 x 200m
  • 4 x 400m
  • Rest periods: 1 minute between reps. 2 minutes between sets.

Unlike some previous sessions, I was able to maintain my pace (‘Fast 5k’) throughout.

What’s next?

This week the main focus is my refereeing fitness test, which will be on Sunday. The key element is the Cooper Test, run on the track. For my level, the requirement is 2700m in 12 minutes. I’m confident of hitting this. My PB is 3000m, set last year. I’m less sure whether I will hit that this year, and will make a decision on the day whether to go for it based on the temperature.

Cooper Test statistics

I will still mix in the usual runs where possible. However, Saturday’s parkrun will definitely be gentle!

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