Weekly Re-Cap 11

Monday- Track running session (Yasso 800s and core work)- 8km

Tuesday- Rest

Wednesday- Treadmill interval session and core work- 5.1km

Thursday- 75 minute Ashtanga Yoga class

Friday- Rest

Saturday- 4 mile run

Sunday- 18km (11.2 mile) run


At track on Monday, we did Yasso 800s, this is supposed to be an accurate way of predicting your marathon (or half-marathon) time based on running 800m repeats (with a 200m recovery jog). I am aiming for a 2.10 half-marathon, so I was working on completing my 800m repeats in 4 minutes 20 seconds. I did manage to come in under 4 minutes 20 seconds for all 6 of my repeats, so according to the coach this means I could be closer to a 2 hour half-marathon! I’m not sure if that is a bit ambitious, but I would be happy with any time between 2 hour and 2 hours 15 mins!

I fancied working on my speed again on Wednesday, so did a treadmill session with intervals based on a plan from Fit Sugar. I’ve not run on a treadmill in a while as I usually find it very boring, but I really enjoyed this session. I followed it up with some planks, russian twists and ab exercises.

One of my goals for 2014 was to try out more styles of yoga, so on Thursday I went along to an Ashtanga class at Yoga Place. The class was more dynamic than the Bikram Yoga I am used to, with vinyasa flows between each posture. There were some tricky moves- I’ve not really done inversions before, so I felt a bit wobbly in shoulder stand pose! I enjoyed the class though, and would like to try out some other classes at Yoga Place.

For today’s long-run, we headed out to Shoeburyness in Essex and ran along the coast to Leigh-on-Sea. It was a beautiful bright morning, and the promenade is flat so it made for a good running route. It was fun running past the amusement arcades and pier I used to visit when I was younger, and there was lots of cute dogs on the beaches. I did 18km in 1.47.43, so I guess I’m aiming for a 2.05 half-marathon?

This week I’ve been taking part in Fiona’s January Health & Fitness Challenge, the challenges she set us for this week were:

To work out at least 3 times– I did 5 workouts this week, so that one was no problem. 

To eat at least 3 healthy vegetarian meals- I’d already done my meal planning for the week before the challenge went up, so I’d only planned 1 veggie meal (which I later realised was not veggie at all!) I do usually eat a few vegetarian meals each week, but this week seemed to be all about the oily fish- mackerel, salmon and anchovies!

It’s not too late to join in this week’s challenge and check out the other bloggers involved: Devyn, Gemma, Sophie, Emsy, Nicola and Kirsty.