100-mile challenge: Week 5

This week the training volume started to build again, bringing my target mileage back up to 60 miles. Monday and Tuesday set the week off to a good start, but not everything went to plan.

On Wednesday I had every intention of finishing work around 5ish and having at least a 10-mile run round Oxford before I set off for London (thereby avoiding the worst of the traffic). However – as so often seems to be the case at the moment – I wound up not leaving the office until gone 6:30, too late to go for a run and make it home in reasonable time.

Not seen on my runs. Image by Getty Images via @daylife

After work on Thursday I went to a meet-up organised by Puma to show off their new range of running shoes. It was good to talk to a few other people who write about running, and I met @Julia_B, a guy from The Running Bug (who was sporting a mighty black eye having swapped sports and tried a bit of boxing) and Fit Artist.

I talked to Fit Artist about my 100-mile challenge and how it’s sometimes tricky to fit the volume alongside a full-time job. As well as writing a running blog, she is an artist, and sometimes her two worlds come together. She told me about a project where she had run the 91 miles between Nottingham and Skegness over four days, taking photos every five minutes to form a video montage. It’s always interesting to see people doing creative things with running, and you can read more about the project here.

Anyway, after Thursday, the running picked back up. This week I have mostly run:

• 10.5 miles along the Thames after work on Monday.
• 13.3 miles along the Thames after work on Tuesday, taking it a bit further, but largely following the same route.
• Working at home on Friday meant I could set my own agenda and fit in a nice 17.6-mile run along the River Lea in daylight hours in exchange for logging off a bit later. This is rapidly becoming my favourite run.
  

  One of the points I pass every time I run down the River Lee. Image via Wikipedia

• 10.1 miles along the River Lee and looping round Hackney Marshes on Saturday before heading off for a Thanksgiving dinner.
• Sunday saw 9.5 sluggish miles as I was feeling somewhat the worse for the previous night’s festivities. (Pun alert…) My very own turkey trot.

And so, with more of a fizzle than a bang, I clocked 61 miles this week. Next week, 70 miles, fewer hangovers and I can almost guarantee you some more grumbles about time.