Week review

It's slightly hard to review my running week. I only got out for one run but it was for 20 miles but I ended up pretty ill afterwards. The run itself was great, it was a social run with a good friend and I really enjoyed it, exploring places I haven't seen much of (and seem completely different from my first time there in the middle of winter) and other places I ran for the first time. I won't lie, I did struggle. It was probably a bit hot for me and I went a bit faster than I would normally on my own but mostly I'm just not in great shape yet.

The good news is all of the physical bits (certain tight muscles, aching back from leaning forward from the waist and a weak core) are all fixable and will just take a bit of focus and some time. The not so good news is I ended up feeling pretty ill afterwards with what felt like a migraine (but eased off after about 5-6 hours so I don't think was actually one), feeling quite sicky and having trouble regulating heat (at times it felt like I was glowing).

I've obviously thought about the causes a fair bit and this type of thing isn't new to me, recovery is something I have struggled with after harder/longer sessions and events for a long time, but I don't think there was one single cause. I felt like my nutrition and hydration was good during the run but looking back a little more I think I did end up at least a little dehydrated and didn't manage that well enough after my run. I took on a decent amount of calories during my run and had a pretty settled stomach but think my next mistake was not eating much after I was home. Feeling pretty knackered I just had a banana and some drinks before having a bath and eating a normal lunch about an hour later. I've found in the past if I don't get enough calories in after long runs I usually suffer and this proved to be the case today. Lastly I don't think my body was prepared for this run and ended up suffering for it.

Today I feel a little tired but pretty good. My muscles are feeling a lot better than I expected and I don't feel ill at all so I'm not too worried about yesterday but hope to learn a bit from it for future runs. One thing I have decided is I don't want to push myself too far too soon so I'm not going to be entering any really long 60+ mile races in September like I had hoped. I'm just going to get back to running more consistently and enjoying that process more while not worrying about regular big long runs to work towards the larger races.

That being said if things go well I'm not ruling out finding myself a 40-50 mile route to do later in the year!

Other bits

• I put together a shed on Wednesday that my daughter has named 'The hangout hut'.
• I've started to read a bit more again, looking at doing a bit of self improvement.
• Even before yesterday's bad run recovery I was already thinking about having more general fitness/health rather than purely run related so will investigate that a bit more
• I have been adding little bits of movement/stretching in to my day and will continue adding to that

Next week

I don't have a strict running plan for this week but hope to get 25-30 miles in. Mostly easy effort/pace but with a tempo session if I'm feeling good.

I'll also be continuing my strength and conditioning training and gradually increasing my mobility work.

Lastly I'll do some more reading (I also have some audio books so can listen while running) and may even do a bit of writing about it too.