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I didn’t go to yoga on Wednesday evening after my journey to Ireland as I was tired and wanted a relaxing evening at home. 

On Thursday morning I got up and did 4 rounds of sun salutations before heading out for a run. On my training schedule I was aiming for a 45 minute easy run and so I decided to make a real point of pacing myself properly. I planned an out and back route that would take me in a straight line out from my house to the Thames, over Wandsworth bridge and then back again. 

The first 2-3 Km were really comfortable. I was running at about 6 minutes 20 secs per kilometre. I thought how great it would have been if I had bought water with me because the running felt so easy I would have just kept going to make it my long run, but without any supplies I thought it might be a bad idea and so I stuck to the plan. 

Well, I almost did…. as somehow I managed to forget I was aiming for 45 minutes and stopped running after 40. I ran a total of 6.41Km which was an overall pace of 6.24 minutes per Km. I regret not running the full 45 minutes as I could definitely have run more; I’m not really sure how I messed that up!

Later that day I went to yoga for a 90 minute class which I was frankly too tired for and really struggled through. 

On Friday I did my 5 rounds of sun salutations and later in the day went to a 75 minute Bikram yoga class. The format seems to have changed and it was all postures done twice within the 75 minutes, where previously there are a few postures done just once. It was an alright class but I didn’t love it. I like the shorter versions of the class when they aren’t trying to cram so many postures in. This new way of doing it is very cardio-intensive but you don’t get long enough in the postures so if, like me, you are going to the class to improve your flexibility rather than using it for cardio,   it doesn’t really achieve that.

My plan for sun salutations had been to build up to 5 on Friday and then decide at the weekend how to proceed. As it goes I totally forgot to do any on Saturday morning, which is probably a strong indicator that I must have a plan to work towards otherwise I just forget or don’t do anything! I did remember to go out for my long run though and I just wish it had felt as good as the 40 minute run on Thursday, but it didn’t. I had to walk a lot of it and covered 13Km in 1 hour 31 minutes and 45 seconds. 

When I trained for the London marathon I distinctly remember running 10 miles in about an hour and a half, and this was just 8 miles in that same time so I am a way off the pace I was then. This year I have raced 2 x 10 mile runs finishing in 1:54:33 and 1:49:28. My pace on Saturdays long run was 7 minutes 3 seconds per kilometre which would have meant 10 miles in an hour and 53 minute if I had kept up that pace. This is on a par with what I have been achieving this year although I really couldn’t have managed another 2 miles!! 

Thinking about it though my long runs have been somewhat neglected of late. I ran a half marathon in May but since then my longest runs have been 10Kms, so it’s not surprising I found it so hard. 

Today I have taken a rest day. No salutations, no yoga, no runs. Just spending time with friends and Giles and enjoying the break, but I’ll get back to it tomorrow. Thankfully it’s a bank holiday so I can have a lie in and spend some time planning my weeks exercise. I’m really finding that organisation is key as I work well when I have a specific schedule to work towards.