2012 Week 13

Week 13 (w/e 1 April 2012)
Miles: 132.1

I'm writing this on a thoroughly miserable, wet Easter Monday afternoon. It seems hard to believe that two weeks ago we were enjoying some amazingly warm and sunny weather. We could have done with some of that this Easter weekend, which has been consistently grey and chilly. Oh well, here's what happened in week 13.

The glorious conditions that arrived for the previous weekend continued well into this week. On Monday afternoon I started off the campaign with an 18 miler, topping that up to 25 miles in the evening. I repeated the same routes on Tuesday, closing the day a fraction short of 51 miles. Excellent work so far.

On Wednesday another form of exercise rudely interrupted my majestic progression towards another ton. Every May my local pub organises a fun run. I've done it most years since 1998. The clocks going forward is my traditional marker to begin my training, as this usually gives me four complete weeks to get into some sort of shape for the event. It's the only running I do every year. Several times in the past I've also entered the Blackpool 10 km run, which is normally held the weekend after the local fun run. I've never considered myself a runner and the greater distance is a bigger personal challenge to the 4 or so miles of the pub run. It was 2003 when I last ran the 10 km. Maybe this year, eh? I went for my first run late on Wednesday afternoon in the sunshine, managing a touch under 2 miles at a comfortable pace, just to let my leg muscles know that we were back in business again. I decided to rest them for the remainder of the day, so no cycling was done.

On Thursday I was walking as if I had tin legs, as always happens when I go running again for the first time after a lengthy lay off. Despite the aches, I got out on the bike in the afternoon and put on another 10 miles, thus rolling home with 61. The weather was also on the turn, much more breezy and cooler with it. I decided to rest again in the evening so resumed the chase on Friday. Much cooler and hazier conditions greeted me on my afternoon ride. A shorter than usual trip moved me on to 73 miles but I dashed back out in the mid-evening and closed out the day with 80.

That left 20 miles to get over the weekend and it was very comfortable in the end. Both Saturday and Sunday were cloudy and cool. On Saturday I made my usual trip into town, then did two further short rides that saw me end the day with 106 miles. An hour's trip on Sunday afternoon pushed me on to 122 miles and my final ride of the week that evening resulted in a total of 132 miles completed.

The stats:
Time taken to get 100: 6 hrs 23 m.
Total for 2012: 1549.6
2012 average weekly mileage: 119.2
Consecutive 100s: 12
Miles needed for 6000: 4450.4
Percentage of target reached: 25.8%
With 39 weeks to go, average weekly miles needed for 6000: 114.11

I posted my fastest time to get 100 miles this week, thanks to the clement, gale-free weather.

Had it not been for the running this week, I would have certainly emulated last week's performance and more than likely finished with about 170 miles. Never mind, as of this week I've completed 25% of the target. Excellent work so far.

In the equivalent week in 1998 I only managed 77.2 miles so I have a healthy lead over that year of 199.5 miles. Great stuff, but I'm going to need it in the weeks ahead when 1998 really cranks into gear.