Winter running

I have had a really solid 2 weeks' training, albeit all of it running. #Jantastic is helping to get me out the door but actually my motivation has been very high anyway, desperate to get run fit again. Aiming at five runs per week, one of the reasons that cycling's taken a bit of a hit is that I am having a full rest on the other two days. Normally, there would be a relaxed bike or swim but for the time being I want to give my legs the chance to be as fresh as possible while loading on the training intensity and volume. I have started to discover again the sensation of running relatively fast while not feeling unduly fatigued. Turns out the training works.

I'm still getting used to my garmin, although I am enjoying using it as a training tool. On Thursday I went out for what was meant to be a marathon pace run for 8 miles. I am looking at 3hrs 10 at the moment which is 7.10 minute miling. The garmin 410 has a virtual training partner which can be set to a certain pace and you effectively race the partner. So, off I went with it set to 7.10. After a minute or so I checked the watch to see that I was too slow so I sped up. Another 30 seconds and still down; what the....? Before I knew it I was barrelling along thinking 'This seems a bit fast.' It was. All of a sudden I was 20 seconds up on the watch, running along at 6.50 pace. :-/  I was enjoying myself and it felt good, so I kept with it, slowing up slightly in the last 2 miles. 9.5 miles done feeling better than I have had in a long time. That contrasted somewhat with today's run. I had to be up at stupid o' clock to get my run in before the forecast snow materialised but with it being so cold, so early and so slippy, it was just about ticking off some miles safely. With 5 miles of the 14 to go I thought about upping my pace, but couldn't. My legs and in particular my hamstrings were still in bed.