Catch up on a busy week

Bit of a funny week this.  Let's back up a little first though.

I've been struggling and feeling a little under the weather for the last few weeks.  This started a few days after setting my new mile PB of 5:52.  Just a few days later i ended up detonating on a club run, proper detonating mind you, full on hanging out of my ass, dead last type detonating.  The next day i felt a little under the weather so took a few days easy before having a shot at a parkrun 5k time trial that i'd been targeting for a little while.  The parkrun was a disaster, i really, REALLY wanted sub 20.  I ran a 20:23 in May off a 6:08 mile pb and in general feel in significantly better shape now.  It wasn't to be though and again i detonated and ended up with a 21:19, i wasn't happy and there's a chance some toys ended up outside of the pram.  This was a mystery to me and i'd already scheduled a rest week from training to clear up some niggles and figured that it was best to go through with that and see where it left me.  

The rest week was great, felt a little flat in work and the evenings but was so strong on the bike which was a pleasant surprise.  After the week was up however, running training was a disaster.  I felt slow as can be and was having to maintain excessive work levels just to run 8:30 miles.  This continued for a week with only very gradual improvements, i was putting a low 7 minute mile in on each run but it was feeling much harder than it should and evenings were regularly spent completely wiped out.  I figured i was probably slightly ill but nowhere near enough to merit a trip to the doctors.

That brings me to last week.  I've had a long standing target of a fast mile inspired by Marathon Talk podcasts Magic Mile promotion.  So i spent last Sunday evening killing myself around a track in the hope of finding out where i'm at speed wise.  Probably, needless to say it didn't go well.  Major pacing errors made me cut short my first attempt at 800 metres much to Sean's amusement.  In my defence it was a little windy but the extent of my timing foolishness was staggering, i think i did the first lap around 5:25 pace.  Second time around wasn't much better and i ended up downbeat again with a 6:25  

So, bad start to the week followed the next day by a long slow run, again with Sean.  The plan was for a slow, easy, reconnaissance run around the upcoming Where Ravens Dare trail marathon.  Well, it was slow.  Again, i ended up hanging out my ass.  Sean was patient but it must be fair to say he got a little bored waiting for me for the last three hours.  At least the course was good and i did enjoy myself in a sick way, i've been conscious that in my opinion i've been a little under-miled through the summer so the chance to inflict a good few hours suffering was something that won't do me any harm.  

Completely wiped out the next day, so had a rest day before getting a slow 8 and a slower 4 in over the next couple.  The general wiped out feeling returned though so yesterdays run turned into a bike ride instead.  Was beautiful though and i got to play with the Panorama feature from Ios6.

Followed up with a fantastic Coffee#1 Machiatto and a lovely walk by the river with Lis' and the kids.

I'll leave it there for now, i'm going to mull over strategies to deal with this tiredness and will post some thoughts soon.