Wednesday is hills day.  The plan: to run for an hour going hard up hill for 2mins, then recovering down hill for 4mins. (4th pace) This will increase the body's efficiency to deal with lactate acid and convert this acid into energy for the next hill rep.  Most people believe that lactate acid present in the muscles is a bad thing.  This is true if you do not train to deal with such conditions (hence why I apply a reverse periodized annual plan for some of my athletes). Lactate is valuable source of energy and we need to train this system.

After my alarm clock went off at 4am Saturday morning, on went my head torch after grabbing my map and compass and I headed off into the centre of Cannock Chase for a 4hr run at ONER pace.  This pace is very close to what I will race at during the Deca Iron this August (58 miles per day for 5 days), so I was killing 2 birds with one stone.

Running in the pitch dark gave me an ideal opportunity to brush up on my map reading skills (off-road), which have lay dormant since I left the army.  If I saw a hill, I would force march up it, continue to walk for 2mins afterwards to allow the lactate to settle and off I would go again at around 11min / mile pace.

I averaged around 13min / mile for the 4hrs.  Parts of the course I had to scramble up, but the highlight of the run came when at about 5am, when around 30 wild deer just walked out in front of Codi and I. 

6hr run planned for next weekend.  Bring it on...... just like the ol' days