Naomi moves up to a big bed and Dad does the Chelmsford 10K

There is good evidence to follow a training schedule consisting of a gradual, weekly percentage increases in order to develop muscle strength.

For example...
Week 1, lift 90 - 95% maximum.
Week 2 - 95 - 100%
Week 3 - 100 - 105%
Week 4 - 80 - 85%

However, for double-busy dads, my advice is to ditch the 'recovery' element in week 4 and go for complete rest. I am sure there is some benefit in lifting 80%, but is it worthy of 60+ valuable minutes at the gym? Not in my opinion and so this week, I did no S&C.

However, it was not my intention to do so little running again this week. Below is not so much a training diary as an excuses diary...

Monday: AM: 40' indoor cycle   PM: 4 x '1 mile' on road, (just a bit short of a mile to be honest) - 5'03''; 5'02''; 5'03''; 5'03''. Pleased with the consistency but still a bit of pace to find!

Tuesday: Work event in Cambridge followed by Naomi evening and bedtime duties meant a mandatory rest day. There is only one way to travel in Cambridge though, so I did clock a few miles on the bike

Wednesday: Managed just 20 minutes of jogging between Natalie, my wife, returning late from work and my fortnightly sport massage clinic at Bishops Stortford Running Club.

Thursday: AM: Nothing. (Early start required for a busy day at work). PM: 16 x 50 second intervals on grass with 70 second recoveries.

Friday: AM: 35' indoor cycle. PM: Put up Naomi's new bed. Fun and games getting her to sleep in it put paid to any ambitions for an easy recovery run before meal time.


Saturday:
AM: The best chance of a run was early AM but I passed this opportunity in favour of getting Naomi into town and to a local toddler session (free bacon sarnies for dads)! 'I have all day, I'll go later' I thought.
Midday: Horizontal rain anyone?
Evening: More horizontal rain followed by more fun and games getting little Naomi off to sleep again. No running today then.

Sunday: 2pm: Chelmsford 10K.

There is no official result as I write this but I did just duck under my target time of 35 minutes. I am happy with that, despite seeing some old nemeses about a minute or so ahead. Even so, the most important factor was that for the first road race since I can remember, my Achilles felt strong and I was pain free. In order to keep it that way, the next 7 days running will be low intensity. 3 sessions of hard running since Monday has caused extreme tightness in both calves, probably a cause of the Achilles problem in the first place.