Sunday 22 March 2015

2015 London Marathon - Week 3: 16/3 - 22/3

M  10.5 miles (6:28mm), 6 miles (6:59mm)
T  8.5 miles (6:42mm), 6 miles (6:57mm)
W 17.5 miles including  24, 18, 12, 6, 3 mins (all off 3mins rec) (5:43mm), 5 miles (7:01mm)
T 8.5 miles (6:21mm), 6 miles (6:56mm)
F  6 miles (6:56mm)
S 5 miles (6:49mm)
S 17.5 miles including Wilmslow Half Marathon 10th place & 69:05 PB (5:16mm)

Total - 91.2 miles (6:21mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 939 beats per mile average
Average Weight 142.5 Lbs

The aim for this week was to cut back a bit on the miles, try and freshen up a bit for my half marathon this weekend but still get in a big marathon specific workout on Wednesday. All in all it went to plan thankfully.

The session on Wednesday was a big one again with 24 mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins off 3 mins recoveries with the aim of starting at Marathon Pace and gradually getting quicker. I near enough managed it although I feel I probably did the first couple of efforts a touch too quick which meant I struggled with the final three efforts and it wasn't quite perfect. However I covered just over 12 miles in total during the 63 minutes worth of effort so around 5:14 per mile within the 17.5 mile run. The faster bits weren't quite as quick as last time out but the marathon bit felt more comfortable for about 8 secs per mile quicker.

After this big session I wanted to taper rather quickly to try and get some freshness in the legs for a PB attempt at Wilmslow Half Marathon. I had heard that it is a decent course for a PB and it usually gets some top quality athletes so I was hoping I wouldn't be too lonely! In honesty I felt like I had a decent chance of getting somewhere around 68:30 and if my legs were completely fresh maybe dipping under 68. In hindsight those were both pretty lofty goals given the miles of recent weeks but I cant really complain  with the result (I ended up with 69:05 - a 21 second PB) because I will have got a great training stimulus from it and although feeling aerobically very comfortable, the legs really just weren't up for the challenge the second half of the race. The second half is quite a bit more testing than the first (in fact I went through 10k in a PB of 31:55!) but I just seemed to lack any sharpness at all and found it very difficult to push myself as hard as I know I can in a half. My HR averaged 180 beats per minute for the race which is a good 3 beats per minute off what it averaged at my last half marathon PB pre-Yorkshire Marathon and this really supports the thought that the engine is in good shape, I just needed a fresher set of wheels! I managed to finished 10th in a decent field so that was pleasing not one person went passed me, with me moving up from 14th to 10th during the second half of the race.

Bearing in mind my half today and the big session on Wednesday that's around 25 miles run this week at an average of 5:15mm so a decent chunk of quality.

Weight has pretty much remained static this week but I have eaten like a horse today, celebrating my Mother in Laws birthday at Gusto in Didsbury. I need to ensure I don't lose my focus with my diet over the next few days to make sure I don't over eat too much at this stage. I still have about 3 possibly 4 Lbs to lose before marathon day. Its certainly achievable but not if I let my rampant appetite win!

Aerobic efficiency has dropped again to the same level as it was the week before Yorkshire Marathon, so I'm pretty much where I need to be from an aerobic perspective, maybe if I can improve it yet further a decent PB will be on the cards.

The aim for this coming week is mainly to run easy as  I look to recover from this hard effort but with one eye on the Northern Road Relays next Saturday where I will probably have a short leg. It'll then be two big weeks to really get that last bit of hard work in before the big day!

Sunday 15 March 2015

2015 London Marathon - Week 2: 9/3 - 15/3

M  12 miles (6:33mm)
T  12 miles (6:39mm), 5.5 miles (7:03mm)
W  16 miles including 4X15mins (5:51m), 6 miles (7:18mm)
T 10 miles (6:52mm), 6 miles (7:12mm)
F  10.5 miles (6:34mm), 6 miles (6:56mm)
S 27.5 miles including Middleton Marathon - 2:37:39 (6:00mm)
S 11 miles (6:45mm)

Total - 124.2 miles (6:31mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 956 beats per mile average
Average Weight 142.4 Lbs

Another big week of training in the bag this week and it's been one with a few ups and downs! I started off the week quite nicely with the usual decent length aerobic runs on Monday and Tuesday. Then it was time for the big marathon session on Wednesday which was to be 4X15minutes at marathon pace with 3:00 jog recoveries.

The session went really well and pleasingly from an aerobic perspective I was very comfortable. The issue was that my legs didn't really like the pace too much. Perhaps this was because I had done the previous couple of days a bit too hard leaving me a touch tired. On completion of this I looked back to the corresponding workout pre-Yorkshire Marathon last autumn and I can see that I averaged c5:31 for the MP sections and 5:25 this time for a marginally lower HR this time out. That has to be encouraging and as the legs freshen up during the taper I can hope that it will all come together for a strong run on the day. I would take a 6 secs per mile improvement now! 

This session however did leave my legs, especially my calves in complete bits. They were very stiff. Possibly due to doing the session in a fairly low profile pair of running shoes. I then also had a sports massage on Wednesday evening meaning my run on Thursday morning was quite hilarious. I just couldn't really move! Friday the legs started to improve and I was aerobically asleep for my 10 miler in the morning but there was still some residual tiredness in the legs. Luckily the two very easy days had been helpful in getting ready for the weekend's exploits.

Saturday was mega run day with only one longer in the campaign planned. The plan was to do somewhere around 27 and I thought it would be quite fun to run a marathon split on a flat loop which I do all my tempo work in the hope that I could keep a fairly consistent pace. It meant an early start though as I had to be back to take my eldest daughter to ballet. So I started out at 5:30 on my training marathon. As you can see from the link above I managed to cover the distance in around 2:37 excluding a couple of stops to relieve my bladder! I felt really strong the whole way and in fact lifted the pace quite a bit for the last nine miles. It also gave me the opportunity to try out my proposed marathon shoes, the Adidas Boston Boost. A beautiful shoe with slightly more cushioning and a bit less flat than the Adios make it perfect for me. Its a funny old thing this running lark as my legs felt far better throughout and indeed after this effort than my much slower 24 miler last week. I put it down to the fact that my legs were pretty shot last week due to the step up in mileage.

Aerobic efficiency has improved a bit again and also managed to drop another pound in weight which is good. Now a slightly easier week in terms of miles to try and freshen up for the Wilmslow Half Marathon next week. I'm confident of a PB if I get good conditions.

Sunday 8 March 2015

2015 London Marathon - Week 1: 2/3 - 8/3

M  12 miles (6:37mm), 4 miles (7:10mm)
T  12.5 miles (6:30mm), 5.5 miles (7:13mm)
W  15 miles including 20 mins, 4X3mins, 20 mins (5:55mm), 5 miles (7:08mm)
T 11 miles (6:27mm), 6 miles (7:03mm)
F  8.5 miles (6:41mm), 5.5 miles (7:04mm)
S 24 miles steady long run (6:28mm)
S  12 miles (6:21mm), 5 miles (7:06mm)

Total - 127.3 miles (6:36mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 973 beats per mile average
Average Weight 143.5 Lbs


So my winter didn't quite go as planned! I basically got a bit lazy and was suffering quite severe blues after the Yorkshire Marathon. I managed to put on over a stone in weight and arrived in January in a bit of a mess from a fitness perspective. Luckily, I had relocated my mojo big time and was really ready to crack on. Which I did. Not right away but on the 6th January as I had a old friend's stag do to attend the first week of January and that was always going to be a touch boozy with limited exercise on the agenda! The big target for spring is London marathon so the past few weeks I have been trying to get some consistency together with some decent mileage. I frequented the club a few times through February to get a bit of intensity back and thankfully the fitness started coming back quick quickly, especially as the weight started to drop off. I did have a cold for a couple of weeks a short while ago which did interrupt training for a few days but nothing major and soon got back to things.

So I found myself 8 weeks out in actually pretty good shape. Not marathon fit and not as lean as I need to be but probably in a better place than I was at the same point out from Yorkshire Marathon.

This week was the second of three high mileage weeks before I cut back for the Wilmslow half marathon and I think, I haven't checked but I think it was my highest mileage week ever at 127.7. Generally I have just tried to add a mile on here or there to try and boost the mileage from last campaign whilst still following Steve Way's magic marathon sessions.

This weeks was 20 mins, 4X3mins, 20 mins with the goal of the 20 minute efforts to be somewhere around MP. Although MP is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment and the effort almost certainly felt above that the pace came in quicker than the corresponding workout last build-up. Only marginally but I'll take it and for pretty much exactly the same HR. the 3 minute efforts were a bit slower on average than last time. This could have been down to a couple of reasons; it was pretty blustery and also maybe just the shock of running at that sort of pace was quite a lot at this stage of things! Even so they were pretty nippy for me and running them hard means the second 20 minute effort is run on tireder legs which is great for the specificity factor of the marathon.

Other than that I had a 24 mile long run which was a bit of a grind really. I (or at least my legs) didn't enjoy it too much at all but aerobically I was very strong.

On the aerobic efficiency aspect that I tracked last time I am in a good position with well under 1000 beats per mile average across the week which considering that first week was over 1200 is quite good indeed.