M 6 miles (7:12mm)
T 4 miles (7:05mm), 8 miles including 12X400m (75s/200 jog) - (average 69s)
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.
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.
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.
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