Yorkshire Marathon - Week 8: 22/9-28/9

M 12.5 miles (6:08mm), 6 miles (6:56mm)
T 11 miles (6:37mm), 5 miles (6:59mm)
W 20 miles including Marathon Session (30 mins, 4X5mins, 30 mins)(5:41mm), 6 miles (6:52mm)
T 11.5 miles (6:34mm), 6 miles (6:56mm)
F 7 miles (6:23mm)
S 22 miles Long Run (6:10mm)
S 12 miles (6:09mm)

Total - 120 miles (6:19mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 938 beats per mile average
Average Weight 140.2 Lbs


After last weekends 30 miler I thought Monday would get off to a slow start but I had one of those runs that just feels effortless despite going at a very decent clip. I just felt really strong aerobically and the legs felt like they were bouncing nicely along. It was to be Tuesday that I would have a decent chunk of DOMS and so the morning's run was a bit more of a plod than the previous day's running. My mind may also have had one eye on the Wednesday session,which was to be the biggest one of the campaign so perhaps I was holding something back to make sure I hit that in reasonable freshness.

Wednesday's session looked particularly daunting. It was to be 30 mins at marathon pace, 4X5mins at cThreshold, and then another 30 mins at marathon pace. I have basically followed a very similar structure to that of Steve Way in his marathon build ups(in fact all of the sessions I've done are exactly the same as his, but slower ;-) ) and what can I say it seems to be working rather nicely as Wednesday seemed to confirm again that I am getting into the shape of my life. Now the race is getting near I cant wait to get out there and try and deliver what I have believed for a while that I am capable of. Anyway the first 30 mins came in at 5:27 pace and then the 5 minute intervals were done at pleasing paces of 5:13, 5:09, 5:08 and 5:03. I decided that I would really push these to try and get the legs nicely tired before running the last 30 minute effort at marathon pace again. Although the last 30 minutes was hard work it was manageable and averaged 5:26 per mile. The whole 20 mile session averaged roughly my current marathon PB pace which is a really positive sign indeed, especially considering about five and a bit miles of it was warm-up, recovery or warm down! I do think I have a crack of going under 2:25 if all goes well on the day.

The rest of the week was OK if not spectacular. The long run was tough after a very long day on Friday. I was up at 4:45 for a run having had a poor night's sleep, then to London for the day and then a late night c2:00am on Saturday morning as my Brother in Law and his wife came to stay and arrived late Friday evening. This was then compounded with rubbish sleep with the baby not too settled. Anyway that's enough excuses, it was 22 miles in 6:10 pace which is pretty good but I just wanted to get it done and didn't enjoy it too much if I'm honest. No more long ones to do now though but I definitely have the endurance to run a good race.

Much to my surprise the aerobic efficiency took another big step forward this week with a drop of 18 beats per mile. I'm really not sure why this was but thinking about it it may be that my heart rate is now just becoming slightly supressed during runs because of the volume of the past couple of weeks. I expect as my legs get fresher over the next couple of weeks and the training reduces my aerobic efficiency may well get slightly less but this should be made up for by the extra freshness the legs have as I approach race day.

Weight has dropped again and I may be in 'danger' of dropping below 10 st for the first time in my adult life (I've had a couple of readings below 10st but am averaging my weight over the week). That said as the training reduces I have to be even more careful about what I'm consuming to make sure it's not too much. The last thing I want to be doing is carrying too much weight around 26.2 miles. The carb load of course will also result in a 3-4lb gain anyway but this will largely be water and glycogen stored in the muscles and liver which will help me run a strong race.

Yorkshire Marathon - Week 7: 15/9-21/9

M 12 miles (6:19mm)
T 11 miles (6:37mm), 6 miles (7:07mm)
W 18 miles including Marathon Session (4X18mins) (5:47mm), 5 miles (7:00mm)
T 10 miles (6:29mm)
F 11 miles (6:26mm), 6 miles (6:53mm)
S 30 miles (6:21mm)
S 12 miles (6:17mm)

Total - 122.3 miles (6:23mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 956 beats per mile average
Average Weight 140.9 Lbs
Average RHR 32 bpm

This week was again play it by ear given our little arrival last weekend but as it turned out I have pretty much stuck to plan thankfully which has resulted in me running more miles in a week than ever before! Antonia (we eventually settled on a name!) is pretty chilled out and she's been taking everything in her stride. Having a couple of weeks paternity leave means I can do all the stuff that my wife would normally do around the house, hopefully giving her enough time to rest up after the birth. She seems to be doing very well. Naturally sleep at night is a little intermittent given the little ones feeding requirements but so far it's all OK. Plus I cant really help too much with that bit!

I managed to get out for my first run after the birth on Monday evening and although I seemed to have a spring in my step pace wise, it still all felt a little lethargic, probably due to the emotional energy consumed over the previous 48 hours!

Wednesday was my first full session since last week's race and I felt a little trepidation after having to cut last week's short due to just being too tired. Would I be too tired this time for different reasons? No, not really. I think it went as well as it could as each of the 18 minute reps gradually got quicker and my heart rate was well behaved. The reps came in at 5:28, 5:27, 5:25, 5:25 pace so really really happy with that. I don't anticipate that to be marathon pace come the day but it shouldn't be too far away. I need under 5:40 per mile to be on for  PB and providing nothing drastic happens then I feel I will have a good chance of obliterating that in a few weeks time.

Rest of the the week was just easy and steady running towards the Saturday Long run, the longest of the campaign and in fact my longest ever at 30 miles. I picked a route that essentially went down, flat, up, down, flat, up (you can probably see the elevation profile on the link above)! All was great until probably about 24 miles in when the last section of up was just about to start when it became very hard work. I kept plugging away and didn't have a doubt that I would get home OK but it's funny how your brain can try to stop you from doing such stupid things. The feeling in my legs on stopping was one of sheer bliss!

I was expecting my run on Sunday to be a bit of a sombre affair after the long run on Saturday but all went well and I even added a couple of miles on top of what I thought would be sensible as the legs felt so good considering!

Aerobic efficiency has improved again slightly this week but I think this is starting to plateau now meaning I am not likely to get any fitter ahead of race day now, which is three weeks away. Surprisingly, to me at least, my weight has still continued to drop with  a roughly two and half pound drop from last week. I am being careful to not run at too much of a calorie deficit and ensuring I have sufficient carbs to fuel my training. Perhaps the extra x-training with the new baby has meant I'm burning yet more calories!

I would still like to get in another chunky week volume wise this week before starting to cut back fairly rapidly.

Yorkshire Marathon - Week 6: 8/9-14/9 inlcuding a little surprise on Sunday morning

M 7 miles (7:03mm)
T 11 miles (6:26mm), 5 miles (7:00mm)
W 14 miles including aborted Marathon Session (6:14mm), 6 miles (7:06mm)
T 10 miles (6:25mm), 6miles (6:58)
F 10 miles (6:29mm)
S 27.7 miles Long Run (6:20mm)
S Rest (well, not really)

Total - 98 miles (6:32mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 963 beats per mile average
Average Weight 143.5 Lbs
Average RHR 33 bpm

Slightly later than planned blog this week as my wife Hania decided to go into labour with our second baby late on Saturday evening (just as I was about to shut my eyes to go to sleep - how selfish) meaning yesterday was a little busy with other things. In honesty it was a very quick labour with the baby being born around 4:40 on Sunday morning but running and blogging were far from my mind. Baby and Mum all doing great but it was a bit of a shock as the baby wasn't due for another three weeks. Here's the little Beaut.

Anyway to the running, after last week's half marathon I was really going to take the week as it came and still try to get in a decent marathon session on the Wednesday. As it turned out it was too soon after the race to be running hard. My legs felt tired from the off. The session was planned to be 25 mins, 4 X 4mins,25 mins but even during the first 25 minute effort I knew it was all feeling a bit too hard. I gave one of the 4 minutes a go but after just over two and a half minutes the legs were going to jelly so I just decided to can the session and run a few more miles easy. By Friday morning I was starting to feel like a cold might be coming on but by Sunday all signs of this had shifted.

The rest of the days went OK and despite picking up a really nasty blister last Sunday my legs had recovered by the time of the long run on Saturday morning. Saturday was supposed to be a 28 miler but due to me being a bit of a numpty I forgot to charge my Garmin so when it died 20.5 miles into the run I was guessing how far I'd have to run. As it turned out I was a little more optimistic than I should have been as when I mapped the remainder of the route it came out to be 27.7 miles. Oh well. It felt really good though and legs didn't feel particularly tired after. That said, I had quite a tight right calf muscle but other than that it was another solid over distance run in the bank at a pretty decent pace. One usually tries to take it easy after a long run to make sure you recover properly but Saturday and Sunday was destined to be pretty busy for me! Not only did we go on to having no sleep until Sunday evening but we had also spent a couple of hours marching round Ikea looking for extra baby furniture on Saturday little did we know just how imminent the arrival was!

Aerobic efficiency dropped again to another all time low to 963. Fingers crossed that keeps dropping as I do think it could be a key indicator. Also pleasing that the weight has now dropped to 143.5 Lbs which is really low for me. I saw that on the scales once a couple of years ago but doubt it would have averaged that over a week so know I am in good necessary skinny shape.

With the baby here now it remains to be seen whether I will have the time to get in the training I need to keep this level of fitness. But with a very supportive wife and me taking a flexible approach I am still optimistic I will get there!

Yorkshire Marathon - Week 5: 1/9-7/9 inlcuding Vale of York Half Marathon

M 6 miles (6:18mm), 5 miles (7:06mm)
T 6 miles (6:31mm), 5 miles (6:57mm)
W 17 miles including 24, 18, 12, 6, 3 mins (all off 3mins rec)  (5:45mm), 4 miles (7:12mm)
T 8 miles (6:33mm)
F 7 miles (6:32mm)
S 5 miles (6:57mm)
S 17 miles (5:43mm) including Vale of York 1/2 Marathon

Total - 82 miles (6:19mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 972 beats per mile average
Average Weight 144.7 Lbs
Average RHR 33 bpm

As I mentioned last week the aim of this week was to cut back on the miles in a big way to let all the decent training of late soak in. I still wanted to get a big marathon session in on the Wednesday as well as the race today but other than that it was all shorter than normal runs to try and freshen up a bit.

The weight has stayed static this week which is pleasing as it's been hard having to cut my calorie intake a bit given the much lower mileage. I've still been trying to run at a slight calorie deficit so I feel like my body composition is probably very marginally better than last week even though the weight is the same. The reason why I think this is because as the runs have been a touch shorter this week pre-weigh-in I am likely to be very slightly more glycogen and water loaded which can make a bit of  difference in weight terms. I guess we'll find out shortly when I return to the similar structure I was running the previous three weeks.

HR has continued to drop with all runs up until the race averaging below 1000 beats per mile(except warm up and cool down of the race - adrenaline?!?!). And the week coming in at 972 (drop of 15 beats per mile) which for a week with a still pretty decent volume is my best ever. One of the things I've been reading a bit about this week is running economy and how it can be the biggest determinant in how much quicker one can get. For me it appears that just running lots of miles with high consistency is the way that I get more economical.

So to Wednesday's session which I was really excited about as it looked on paper another challenging run. I planned to do the first 24 mins at 5:35 pace and get quicker by 10 seconds per mile for each interval, meaning I should theoretically finish at roughly 4:55 pace. As it turned out it ended up being quite a bit better than that with average aces of 5:30, 5:15, 5:09, 4:59, 4:50. This was an incredibly satisfying session as it didn't break me and I finished feeling tired but strong and not like I was absolutely hanging on. On reflection I think it is the best session I have ever done, pointing towards me being in the best shape of my life! This obviously left me very excited about Sunday as I thought I must be in with a very decent chance of a PB and decided that I would try to avereage about 5:16 per mile given that had been the average pace for the effort of the Wednesday session it wouldnt be too far away.

The two days leading up to the Vale of York Half I knew I was in fantastic shape given the Wednesday session but what this did was make me anxious and a bit stressed (it was probably excitement more than anything) about the run meaning I only slept a total of nine hours across Friday and Saturday night.  I felt tired and nowhere near completely rested on the start line. Sod it, I still felt I was going to crack 70 and that I could beat my PB with a fair wind! As it turned out, I couldn't really have gone any better on the day and I am pleased to say that I lead from gun to tape with a guy from Otley AC sticking with me for the first three miles before dropping off. I kept the pace really even and felt in control for the vast majority of the race. In fact I probably felt too easy for the first six miles. My concentration lapsed a bit in the 10th, 12th and 13th miles which meant I drifted away from a sub 69 clocking. That said I am delighted with the 20 second PB of 69:26 from what was a pretty solo run feeling I hadn't completely gone to the well. I am sure my mind was telling me that I had a marathon in 5 weeks so I wasn't to completely empty the barrel. Of course it could just have been my inner chimp getting control of me as I still manage to muster a pretty decent sprint finish (for me anyway!).

It was lovely to see a few familiar faces at the start and at the finish and hear about others who had great runs. This was the inaugural running of the race and it was pretty much perfect. A brilliant course, great execution from the organisers and one of those where you go home thinking life is good! Also great to see was my mate Rich Horner run a PB of 96 minutes, which for a guy who only runs once or twice a week is not bad if you ask me! It was then back to ours with Rich, his wife Anna and little boy Benjamin for a lot of BBQ'ed Polish sausage and quite a bit of beer.

I'll take it easy for the next couple of days to make sure I'm OK to crack on but now need to get in three decent weeks before freshening up for Yorkshire Marathon. It is all looking good at this stage and I am pleased to say my injuries have turned into slight niggles. Onwards!