End of the week running review: 11 May 2014

It's been a pretty good week, and I'm pleased with my progress. 

Not relevant to this blog post, but these ducks have been

courting round our way. I think she prefers the guy on the

left.

Monday: Ran 30 minutes trying to keep my heart rate at around 141 BPM. This was pretty hard, and I had to walk around 4 times to let my heart rate come down. Ran 2.54 miles at a pace of 11:47 minutes per mile. I'm not fast, but this is slow for me. Still, have decided to commit to this for 4 weeks to see what happens. 

Wednesday: Another 30 minutes at 141 BPM, this time around St James's Park and Green Park. This was harder because the plane trees are chucking pollen and fuzz about and I had to stop to cough several times, which also brings the old heart rate up. On my way out from work, I saw that our security guys are wearing clear goggles to keep this stuff out of their eyes. Smart people. Ran 2.47 miles at a pace of 12:13 minutes per mile. 

Thursday: Swam 30 minutes, ~30 lengths. I'm trying to do a few legs only, which is meant to be good for hips and ankle flexibility. I'm even slower at swimming than running, so this is very tedious. However, I do enjoy the feeling of whole body tiredness afterwards. Last week I had the best night's sleep I can remember after swimming, and my fitbit flex confirms it. 

Friday: Another 30 minutes in St James's Park and Green Park. The pollen was, if anything, worse, and at one point I thought I was actually going to have an asthma attack. However, I plugged on. Ran 2.32 miles at a pace of 12:55 minutes per mile. 

Saturday: Did some body weights and stretching. After swimming and Friday's run, my knees are feeling a little sore. Nothing to worry about too much, I think, but I'm glad today is a rest day. Need to work on my IT band and glutes, I think. 

Sunday: Another 30 minute run close to home. The first ten minutes were a little difficult in terms of pace and I had to walk a few times. However, the middle 15 minutes or so were my best yet. Ran 2.58 miles at a pace of 11:38 minutes per mile. It may be early to tell, but I think that might be the start of an improvement. Stretching afterwards. 

So, finding this hard - in terms of actually doing what I'm trying to do - but feeling positive about how this week has gone.