Week 3 of 20 Weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 6 miles (7:12mm)

T 4 miles (7:05mm), 8 miles including 12X400m (75s/200 jog) - (average 69s)

W 6 miles (7:12mm), 4.5 miles (6:57mm)

T 10 miles - 2X4mins (c2mins), 10X15s Hills, (5mins), 8X100m hard (6:28mm), 5 miles (7:11mm)

F 7 miles (7:09mm)

S 8.5 miles including Fountains Abbey parkrun (16:14, 1st place) – (6:27mm)

S 16 miles (6:28mm)

Total 76 miles (6:50mm)

Another week's training is in the bag and I think I have learnt something about myself; I'm not sure I can cope with three hard sessions plus a long run in any single week! Either that or I'm getting slower. Hopefully it's the former as it's easier to fix than the latter!

I made a rare trip down to South Leeds Stadium on Tuesday to do a classic 5k session with the club which was 12X400m with 200m/time jog recoveries. Mike Baxter had suggested to take the first few fairly steady and just work into them and so I did in the hope that I would finish really strongly. They went 70, 71, 70, 70, 70, 70, 68, 68, 69, 69, 68, 68 so I had clearly judged the session quite well and wasn't 'dead' after it. In fact I felt quite good and could probably have done a couple more had I needed to. 

It was then only 36 hours until my next session on Thursday morning and truth be told my legs just hadn't fully recovered. I knew it was going to be hard going as soon as I stepped out of bed, but off I went for a bit of fartlek fun of 2X4mins (2mins), 10X15s hills, (5mins),8X100m hard. This was a really fun session to do but I was really hanging on at the end of the second four minute effort. The first was at 4:44 pace and the second at 4:52 pace and I had been hoping for something around 4:40-4:45 given the 2:30 reps last Saturday. Then a little jog into Middleton Park for a few hill sprints which were ace with the last one leaving me a little nauseous. :-) It was then a five minute jog before 8x100m had on the flat to get the legs turning over quickly again. So all in all a really enjoyable session, hard but perhaps not quite as quick as I wanted but something really different to what I've done in the past.

On Saturday I planned to do Fountains Abbey parkrun as my Dad & Step-Mum live very close by and I thought I would get a cheeky run in there as we were staying over on Friday evening. This was to be my third hard run in a little over 84 hours and although I felt OK, when it came to it I just didn't have anything there and struggled to a very sub-par 16:14. I had been hoping to break the course record (15:51) which I set over a year ago but I will make sure I go back at some point in the not too distant future and give it another go. I believe I should be running at least a minute quicker than that for 5k and even on the Fountains course which is a tad undulating I think I should be under 15:30.

In conclusion another top week of training and I'm sure I have got a lot of benefit out of it and I am learning a lot about myself and my limitations which is really fun and interesting. Never have I been this engaged and happy with what I'm doing my so soon after a marathon. I truly believe that I must be recovered otherwise I don't think I'd feel this way, every run would feel like a chore whereas I'm loving my running even when I'm a bit crap! I'm obviously having the occasional stinker but there are strong rays of hope like last Saturday's session and the 400s on Tuesday. Mike and I have discussed and we've decided that for now we are going to focus on trying to do no more than two hard sessions, plus a long run in a week as it looks like the speed focus really is taking it out of me and making it hard for me to recover to feasibly get three in. In a way this is very much supported by the slow jogs I've only been able to muster after the Tuesday and Thursday sessions.

Week 2 of 20 Weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 9 miles (6:44mm), 4 miles (7:13mm)

T 6 miles (6:58mm)

W 11 miles including Askern 10k (33:05, 2^nd place)

T 7 miles (7:05mm), 5 miles (7:08mm)

F 7.5 miles (6:22mm)

S 10 miles including 5X[2:30(90s), 30s(90s)] – (6:14mm)

S 15 miles (6:27mm)

Total 75.9 miles (6:38mm)

This week I had a race on Wednesday evening and I was feeling confident that I should be able to get close to or beat my PB of 32:05 which is pretty soft in comparison to my Half marathon and especially my Marathon best. It was to be the Askern 10k and having studied the entry list I noticed a chap called Andy Challenger would likely be a good target for me to race.

It was very windy during the mid-part of last week but I felt as it was a quick course I would be ok and should give a good account of myself. I felt great on my warm up and was really ready and up for it, although the warm up ended up being longer than I would have hoped (c3.5miles) given the start was delayed slightly due to a large number of late entries on the night. Despite that I thought I would be easily into the 31:xx territory! How wrong was I!?!? Anyway, we were finally off and I settle into a nice rhythm with Andy and a chap from Rotherham and the first couple of k’s tick along quite nicely and I feel ok. It wasn’t long after this that I started to struggle to hold onto Andy though and by 3k he had a gap that was to only grow until the finish. My legs just completely gave up! I just couldn’t go any quicker. It was then a real slog all the way to the finish. I know I was trying really hard but I just couldn’t move. There were some horror splits in the race (see link above) which couldn’t only have been down to the weather! My immediate reaction after the race was that I just found it bizarre that I felt really good in the build-up and just before the race but then there was nothing there once I got going. I questioned whether I had put in enough effort and looking back at the Heart Rate data it is consistent with a hard effort. Average HR was 188bpm vs 176-179bpm  for a marathon so I was definitely trying! It made me wonder whether I hadn’t fully recovered from London which may still be lingering in the legs, the fact that I hadn’t done any sustained tempo running since before London but generally I just found it interesting that it had all been a bit rubbish! My other thought was the fact that it was an evening race. I very rarely run in the evening, never mind run hard so perhaps I got my fueling/prep wrong throughout the day or my body was winding down for the evening rather than getting ready for a bit of a beasting! Whatever it was, maybe a combination of all of the above and the wind it has been shelved and can hopefully just go down as a blip which will end up having been a roughly target marathon pace run for Berlin!

The rest of the week was pretty good including a brilliant session on Saturday where I was, for me, absolutely flying. 5X[2:30 (90s), 30s(90s)]and the paces for the 2:30 reps were all  4:36-4:42 per mile and the 30s efforts in 4:06-4:20 per mile. I appreciate the Garmin may be a tad optimistic but I suspect they were all comfortably sub 5 minute mile pace. It gave me a bit of reassurance that Wednesday’s race really was just one of those crap runs. Hopefully there won’t be too many more of them but more like the Saturday one where I felt strong, controlled throughout.

Week 1 of 20 weeks to sub 2:20?

M 9miles (6:37mm), 5 miles (7:08mm)
T Rest
W 10 miles Fartlek 2x1M (3:00), 3X0.5M(2:00), 8X100m. 5:02, 5:00, 2:29, 2:32 2:29 - 6:13mm
T 7.5 miles (6:38mm)
F 8 miles (6:41mm)
S 10 miles including 12X1min hills (2 min jog down) (7:01mm)
S 15 miles (6:33mm)

Total 69.5miles (6:41mm)

So this was the first week of training back and would include my first couple of sessions geared towards getting the legs prepared for some faster running. Mike Baxter's guidance was to ease into the sessions and start to familiarise myself with them rather than going all out.

Tuesday and only my second day of full training back happened to be a rest day as I was travelling to London with work for a conference which then resulted in me being on my feet all day. I then proceeded to have a terrible night sleep having stayed at the Travelodge in Vauxhall with ambient light and noise seeping in through the cracks in the curtains. I also stupidly had not turned off the air-con fan which meant every 20 mins it started up again but it wasn't until morning that I realised that that probably hadn't helped with the sleep either! Anyway that's enough excuses so I awoke and really was not in the best shape to be running hard but having missed a day on Tuesday wanted to give it a go. I was also only a mile or so down the road from Battersea Park which is a beautiful park to run in so thought I'd give it a pop anyway! The session was a structured fartlek session of 2X1mile (3:00 jogs), 3X0.5 mile (2:00 jogs) and then 8X100m sprints. On paper it looked like a fun session to try and if I'd been a bit fresher I would probably have relished it. As it was it turned into a bind pretty early on and I could only muster c5 dead pace for each of the miles and the half miles, when I had been hoping for about 10 secs per mile quicker. This was probably about as quick as I could go without really pushing too hard so suspect they are probably a fairly 'optimistic' current 5k pace indicator. The 'sprints' were good fun but I am probably being kind calling them sprints as they were in the 15-17 second range!

I had then intended to do a hill session on Friday but the legs were still tired and my calves were also pretty tight probably from having done Wednesday's session in flatter shoes and not being quite used to this fast pace. I did also wonder whether there may be some of the marathon still left in the legs so I made the executive decision to move the session to Saturday. This is quite positive as previously I may well have just ploughed through regardless. And again this is down to the sage advice of Mike who has reassured me there is nothing wrong with just pushing the session back a day if you don't feel ready to do it justice. The session on Saturday went pretty well but my word hills were a shock to the system. I was generating a decent level of lactic towards the end of the reps, but then I guess that's what they're for. They were really quite uncomfortable if I'm honest so look forward to doing them again in the future as I teach myself to get in the 'hurt box' a bit more frequently! The pace is irrelevant really as I haven't done them before but it'll be interesting to see how well I run them again in the future.

Then an easy 15 miler this morning which felt OK but I was definitely more conscious of my glutes than I usually am given the hill session yesterday! In the past I've had niggly glutes but today thankfully they were just tired. This hill work should see them get stronger so may help with the 'nigglyness' in time too! This next week will see me lace up the racing shoes at a midweek 10k race and I'm hoping that I should break my 32:05 PB all being well. I would struggle to go into a race scenario without giving it my all so will give it the beans on the day and see what happens!

20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

At a similar time post-Yorkshire Marathon I wrote a blog entitled Reflections and Plans which had my thoughts on where I was going and what I intended to do over the coming months before building up to London. Unfortunately none of those plans really came off because of one thing or another. The main one being post-race blues and just a big lack of direction. I had all these good intentions on what I needed to do to get myself into a better position to start the 2015 marathon build up but quickly I'd lost a lot of motivation and focus and just plodded along aimlessly without any real purpose. That resulted in me ending up in January fat and unfit, the polar opposite to where I wanted to be! Of course it all ended up OK and I still managed to put together a decent campaign and knocked a bit more time off the PB and all things considered I was really happy. But what could that PB have been had I got to the start of my training ready to train?

I now have to start seeing sub 2:20 as a feasible goal within the next couple of campaigns. Of course I wont be silly enough to set it as a target as I haven't yet done the training and I'm a big believer in racing the conditions as you find them on the day rather than chasing an arbitrary target. That said sub 2:20 should be achievable sometime soon as it amounts to about 5 seconds per mile off my average pace. I also have much bigger ambitions but those are for another day....

The next target race is Berlin at the end of September and this Sunday just passed was 20 weeks to the day until the race. It was while out on a 15 mile run that I decided that '20 weeks to sub 2:20?' would make a good title for a blog and so for the next 20 weeks I shall be blogging my progress towards that event.

The big question however is how do I improve? The honest answer is I don't know until I try something different. Sure I could do what I have always done and I might continue to knock a bit off but what 'different' do I need to do to get in a position where knocking 2-3 minutes of my PB is a realistic goal? That 'different' for me is to arrive at the Marathon Specific phase in great shape from a speed perspective so that is what I will be focusing on for the next 10 weeks before starting the Marathon specific phase. Recently, I have been lucky enough to have a lot of guidance from Mike Baxter who has shared some really interesting things with me about how they did things back in his day. Although I am a little daunted by some of the things he has suggested I cannot wait to get started.

In a nutshell it means much reduced mileage and much more interval, structured fartlek and hill type sessions while maintain the strong aerobic base I have from my marathon training. All this is with the intention to smash my 10k PB (32:05 from 2013) and 5k PB (15:51 from 2012 official - I've done a parkrun in 15:18 but I think it was c60 metres short). Those times do look really sloppy now in comparison to my marathon time so I am looking forward to getting some new marks on the board.

Recovery from London has been fantastic. I had a whole eight days off following the race and really indulged which I think was needed just to recharge the batteries. It was somewhat of a shock when I stood on the scales to see myself at 13lbs over marathon race weight last Tuesday morning. Luckily most of that was water/beer/wine/cake/chocolate/pizza/pie retention as it quickly dropped off over the following days although I am now 4lbs over the weight I ran in London. I am a bit more comfortable at this weight and it will be pleasant not having to lose any weight but just maintaining until the next marathon cycle begins. I did a few runs last week to edge myself back in and am now raring to go, mentally fresh and really up for it which as I have said to some is something I haven't experienced at this stage post-marathon before. I have a new zest and focus on what I need to try to get quicker. Whatever happens it's going to be fun!

London Marathon Race Report

Taper Week

In the final taper week I really did very little as I tried to get every bit of freshness back into the legs. I carb-depleted Monday to Thursday morning but despite this my runs were starting to feel quite easy so I took this to be a really positive sign as normally I feel pretty dreadful with no carbs in the system.

Then Thursday to Sat I was getting about 80% of my calories from carbs. It's actually quite hard to get a much higher percentage than that but needless to say I arrived on the start-line feeling very well fueled.

Before the Race

I had traveled down on Saturday and traipsed across London to pick up my number and did feel pretty tired having not slept a great deal in the days leading up to the race but then that has become par for the course before a big race so I didn't let it concern me too much. Luckily on the Saturday I managed to get six hours uninterrupted sleep but awoke at 4:10am knowing there was no way I would be going back to sleep as the race day adrenaline kicked in. I stayed at the Oxford & Cambridge Club on Pall Mall and had a south facing room so I could actually see the finish line through the trees to the side of Marlborough House from my room as well as Buckingham Palace away to my right. In a little over 6 hours I hoped to be finishing strongly down that very stretch of red asphalt.

I got to the Champs start nice and early and had a nice catch up with a few folk I know who were all sandbagging about how terrible their build ups had gone. I was also being fairly cautious given the wobbles in the build up and when asked by someone what my target was my answer was that I didn't really have one! I though that I was in sub 2:25 shape and with a bit of luck and if I raced well I may squeeze a PB but it was far from a foregone conclusion given the doubts I'd had in previous weeks and the fact that my PB had been achieved in perfect conditions when my confidence was super sky high. I genuinely set off with the approach of just seeing how I felt and to race as well as I could on the day. What that meant was just constantly appraising how I felt; did it feel too easy? did it feel too tough? Can I Push on? Should I hold back? I would know within three or so miles whether I was in the mix for PB.

Marathon morning is so so exciting. London really is special and despite the UK runners not really getting nay coverage from the BBC (this year was a slight exception given Paula's inclusion in the Champs race) it just feels like such a big and special event. It is a shame that club athletes don't get the exposure that the charity and fun running element does but that's probably a blog for somewhere else! I went for a little warm up and to be jogging alongside Paula, Kipsang, Kipchoge, Mutai, et al is really quite surreal. But for me seeing top club runners like John Gilbert, Ian Kimpton preparing for their races is a bit more 'real'  as they are the guys that inspire me to push on and to try and improve.

The Race

0-5k (16:32)

The hooter went and I was quickly being swallowed up by guys that were keen to get up to race speed as quickly as possible. I have learned over the previous marathons that I've done that there is no rush and especially given the downhill start one will quickly be on pace.  It wasn't long before I started going passed folks that had started rather exuberantly. I nearly took a tumble in the very first mile when I got clipped from behind and then from the front. Luckily I just about managed to keep upright. After a couple of miles I found myself in a nice little group including Peter Tucker, Alun Vaughan and Will Mackay. It is with these guys that I spent the next 11 miles. The first 5k was passed in 16:32 so fairly quick but not unexpected given it is all downhill, especially that third mile.

5k-10k (16:45, 33:17)
The next section working toward Greenwich was about gauging effort and making sure I was running comfortably. I certainly felt OK so it was a case of just sitting in the group. Not that this was particularly conscious decision but it took the mind off trying to keep my own pace. Will asked me what I was looking for. I said I didn't know but probably somewhere around 71 to half way. He seemed cool with that so on we go.

10k-15k (16:49, 50:06)
Getting to 10k in and feeling really easy was nice as it meant I was ahead of PB pace. It was then up to 15k that the rhythm was really established. I was loving it, I could feel that I was on for a strong run so I kept plugging way.

15k - 20k (16:55, 67:01)
Then it was onto Bermondsey where I would see my support crew for the first time. Of course I took this opportunity to go to the front of the group to show the how strongly I was running and really felt like I could push on from here but decided to be patient. The group seemed to be coping well with everything as we worked towards Tower Bridge and half way. As I reached the Bridge I was keen to make sure I didn't push really hard as there is a slight incline and I am convinced a lot of races have been messed up by pushing too hard over there where the support is immense.

20k - 25k (16:47, 1:23:48)
As I turned off the bridge I noticed that the group had dropped off a bit and I didn't know whether this was because I had sped up or they were starting to feel the pace. Gauging my effort level I assumed it was the latter so waited to see what would happen over the next quarter of a mile. I was going away from them slowly but surely so from here on in I knew my race would be to see how many folks I could pick off in front of me. I went through half way in 70:43 a mere 88 seconds slower than my half PB (I really ought to do something about my shorter distance times!). I could see my club-mate Simon Deakin about 250 metres up the road and he did appear to be slowing a bit but I was in no rush to catch him as there was still tonnes of the race to go, I still had to maintain my effort for as long as I could.

25k-30k (16:48, 1:40:36)
It was in this section of the race that I was becoming aware that things were starting to get a bit harder. My legs were tiring quite a bit and it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain pace, that said the legs were far from 'done'. It is also in this section of the race that I started to have the doubts synonymous with marathon running of 'can I do this?', 'this feels a bit too hard', 'have I blown it?' But those doubts are more often than not short lived and before I now it I feel strong again, lifted by the crowd and flying along as I pick off another couple of runners. I kept telling myself to keep relaxed, keep it controlled and I tried to reflect on the two previous Londons I've done and how I felt at a similar point in the race. I knew I felt much better and how I was feeling was about right for the distance into the race. I gradually started reeling more people in and caught Simon around 28k. It was Simon's first marathon and I tried to give him some words of encouragement as I passed but I couldn't help but feel he was in for a tough last 14k. He ended up finishing just under 2:28 which is more than respectable but an athlete of his calibre will surely be back to have another go to get his effort more in line with his times for other distances. Next up I could see Dean Lacy, another runner who I hugely respect and I went passed him as we passed the 30k timing mats.

30k-35k (16:48, 1:57:24)
Looking back at these splits now I cant quite believe how consistent they are, it's as if I was a metronome! With the next 5k came some more overtaking and I was running really strongly still. Brian, an old club-mate took the clip below at about 21 miles and whilst I look to be running really well I think I was really starting to concentrate quite hard as I didn't really have the ability to acknowledge him!

This part of the course was quite interesting as its the first time I can honestly say that I remember it! The last two times it's been a complete haze! I had to take that as a positive no matter how hard I was  finding things.

35k-40k (17:10, 2:14:34)
From here I cracked on towards the Tower and the City. It doesn't matter how many marathons you've done if you're not hurting by now you haven't tried hard enough! Luckily I was hurting quite a lot so it meant I was running hard as I started to empty the tank. I got on level terms with Neil Renault from Edinburgh but it is here that I really started to struggle as we went through Blackfriars Underpass. Neil said to me as he came back along side looking up towards other runners in the distance up the Embankment 'we can catch them'. I thought to myself 'er no, no I cant!' but I wished him well as he really picked up the pace and got his skates on. I couldn't quite believe the pace a which he'd taken off. I didn't think I was slowing that much but with the 5k split to 40k at 17:10 I had a little but not a huge amount he really must have saved something for that last stretch.

40k-42.195k (7:38, 2:22:12)
It is nice being able to run the last few k being pretty certain that a PB is in the bag barring disaster. Having said that it doesn't make the final bit any easier and there is still a lot of digging deep to do. I knew I would have had to blow up spectacularly not to get a PB and so onto Birdcage Walk where I see my parents lungs bursting and with tears of pride in their eyes as they cheer me to put in one final big effort towards the Palace. I know a chance of a sub 2:22 clocking has gone but I finish spent with a new PB by 36 seconds of 2:22:12 and in 29th place overall and 11th Brit.

My initial reaction is one of pure elation. I ran the race really smartly and the best I could on the day. I would have snapped someones hands off if they'd offered me that result three weeks ago. As the day's go by though, you ask yourself could you have squeezed a bit more off? Possibly but you also quickly forget how much it was hurting at the time too! My splits suggest that I ran pretty well and the engine really was never in any doubt.

As I turn round to quickly take in the view of Buckingham Palace I see my club-mate Joe Townsend crossing the line in a fantastic 2:23. Considering it was his debut and he has recently been diagnosed with epilepsy and he had a far from ideal build up I cant help but feel that this may be the only time I beat him at the marathon! But it's a scalp I'll be proud of, as he's not bad at this running thing... Joe is raising money for Epilepsy Action and you can sponsor him here if you're feeling at all charitable.

On reflection of the whole campaign a bit of pride is starting to come through. I worked and trained really hard, had quite a few ups and downs but still managed to PB. In fact it's my 5th marathon PB on the trot and as I get ever closer to my 'potential' at this distance that gets harder and harder to achieve. But I still have things I want to achieve and will continue to strive to get better.

London Marathon Official Splits
Garmin Connect - 2015 London Marathon

It wouldn't be right to not mention my wonderful wife Hania who's support is incredible. It cant be easy being the spouse of an endurance athlete especially given she doesn't really like running that much at all! Hania puts up with me being a proper grumpy sod a lot of the time due to tiredness from all the training, she also washes most of my dirty running kit and tries to pick me up when things aren't going to plan. Basically she's pretty ace.

What next?

I've said it before but I really do want to have a decent block where I just focus on getting quicker over shorter distances. The theory being so when I start my next marathon build up which will probably be Berlin in September I can hit my marathon pace in training much easier without it feeling like it's flat out!