To say that I haven't been as committed to this round of training would be an understatement. A couple of months back, when I was training for Great North Run - I very rarely missed a run during my training as I knew it would probably have some sort of negative effect.

This time round, the race I'm training for is a distance that I'm all too familiar with running and for some reason, that's equated to a half-arsed attempt at training - I don't actually think I've had a full week of proper training since I started(either a run has been skipped or shortened or swapped for something easier), so when it comes to race day, I really can't be disappointed if I don't get a good time.

When If I am disappointed with not getting the time I hoped, I'm hoping it will give me the kick up the rear I need to take my training a bit more seriously next time and do the runs that I have scheduled each week.
Week 5 Training Schedule

Day Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Scheduled Swim Intervals/Hills 5 Miles CT/Rest CT/Rest Park Run/Tempo Run 3 Miles

What I Did Swim Rest 5 Miles and 30 Min Swim Rest 1.5 Miles 3 miles Hill Training

I still did 4 runs this week, but as per usual, I ended up skimping on one of my runs and things got shuffled about slightly.

Swimming has been completely knackering me out lately which means I've been feeling very sluggish and unmotivated for a run on a Tuesday morning so I've not been running until Weds.

This Weds was the same as it has been the last few weeks. I met Phillips mum in the city and we went running and swimming. It was actually really foggy in the morning - I had all my lights ready to go as it was pretty dark. The run this week went better than last week - this time, I stayed ahead of Phillip's mum, but I'm not sure if that really helps me all that much.

If someone is ahead of me, I'm always trying to run that bit faster to make sure that I stay with them. If someone is running behind me and I'm leading, the pace ends up actually being a pace that I'm comfortable with rather than something that pushes me.

On Friday, I did a 1.5 mile run rather than a 3 mile run I had scheduled. I took the dog out with me and she pretty much decided she didn't want to run a majority of the time and kept stopping to pee or sniff.. or sometimes nothing at all. So rather than get pissed off that she kept stopping, I just went home. It was less hassle.

She was so fed up, she didn't even want to look at me for a photo! -_-

Saturday was miserable, it was raining and disgusting and we figured it would be too dangerous at the park run with all the trail paths(turns out it was actually OK in that area -_-'). I ended up just going out for a slowish jog/run.

On Sunday - me and Phillip ventured back to the park hill to do some more hill training. It's so HARD! I managed to do 8 times up and down the hill this time round instead of the 6 that I did last week - I caught my breath after running up the hill with a brief walk and then jogged the rest of the way down.

I think hill training is just going to take some time to get used to and settle into - I'm hoping eventually I will be fit enough to just jog down after running up the hill rather than taking any walking breaks. It shouldn't be long off, I hope!

Week 6 Training Schedule

It's Taper Week! and I know my body enough to know that a good amount of rest usually does me well.

I'll be doing a 2-3 mile run tomorrow(most likely 2 since I swam this evening and will definitely be knackered in the morning).

I was reading an article the other day though that said that the intensity of your training runs should not change, they should just be shorter - Since my interval/Hill runs are usually quite short runs anyway, I figured I would do that on Weds followed by a swim and that will be my last training run before rest day.

Then, just to make sure that I'm still staying active, I'm gonna go for a swim on Friday morning/evening and that will be it before Sunday.

I'm excited for WestRun London - regardless of what happens and whether or not I get a time I wanted - I just want to make sure that I enjoy it and take everything in since it's the first WestRun London Race.

I will just have to pull my finger out with regards to training for my next race :)
Question: Do you have specific rules that you tend to stick to for taper week?