Tuesday 30 June 2015

Weeks 6 and 7 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

W/C 15th June
M 10.5 miles (6:34mm), 6 miles (7:14mm)
T 7 miles (6:50mm)
W 10.5 miles including 2X1M, 3X0.5M, 8X100m – (4:56, 4:57, 2:24, 2:25, 2:29)
T 10 miles (7:04mm), 6 miles (7:23mm)
F 8 miles (7:10mm)
S 6 miles (7:02mm)
S Rest

Total 65.1 miles (6:56mm)

W/C 22nd June
M Rest
T Rest
W 6 miles (7:03mm)
T 7.5 miles (6:30mm)
F 8 miles (6:30mm)
S 10 miles (6:15mm) including 2X10mins (4mins) – 5:24, 5:19 pace
S 15 miles (6:29mm)

Total 47.4 miles (6:31mm)

Another double blog this week! In the main because there hasn’t been much running going on and without wanting to sound too dramatic I’ve not had the motivation to put down in print how annoying my training has been of late.

It seems to have been one step forward, two back with many of the last few weeks. That said, I’m trying to remain positive and to be fair proper marathon training hasn’t even started yet and I should  arrive at the specific phase in better shape than I have ever done previously. It was the aim however to hit it in prime 5k/10k shape and I suspect that will not happen given it’s now less than 3 weeks to the Podium 10k. So what has been the problem? The simple answer is that I don’t know. I can hypothesise around various things including a long term underlying virus that may or may not be in my system, struggling with the intensity of the quicker workouts, not fully recovered from London, other possible health issues. All I can do is keep going and try to keep the consistency going and take it easy when my body is telling me to do so. I did also wonder whether I was perhaps showing some of the symptoms of Stage 1 of Overtraining syndrome. This seems strange though given the much reduced mileage and not much else changing in my life that would put further stresses on the body! This prompted me to book an appointment with the Doctor and given his preliminary examination he has booked me in for a blood test, and ECG and ultrasound on my heart. He said he thought he could hear a murmur which is not uncommon especially in athletes so although it’s a little concerning I’m trying not to be too worried at this stage.

I came back from holiday a couple of weeks ago really revved up in every aspect of my life and keen to hit this next block of training but by the weekend I was shattered! I was at a conference on Tuesday and Wednesday and got an OK if slightly tired session in on the Wednesday morning along the Embankment in London. This was the same session I did a few weeks ago of 2X1mile, 3X0.5mile, 8X100m hard and it was much better than last time but I was pretty smoked afterwards and the last 0.5 mile I was dying a little. Full details are above. Anyway as I say by the weekend I was truly exhausted; I could barely climb the stairs after an easy 6 mile run and literally everything hurt. Muscles so tight and sore and I was completely wiped out. Despite all this there was no other obvious signs of illness. This led me to the decision not to race the 10k I had planned and I think it was sensible as I wasn’t in a position to run on either Monday or Tuesday of last week either. I decided I would try a little run out on Wednesday and it did feel much better, by Friday I was itching for something a little quicker so chucked in 2X10minutes in a 10 miler on Saturday which was OK but far from super comfortable at what I hope to be target race pace for Berlin in 13 weeks’ time!

I feel a lot better and seem to have more energy and feel stronger than I did but will still proceed cautiously taking each day as it comes. I have a 5k on the track next Tuesday which will be an interesting marker. It should be a good field too so I’m hoping to get dragged to a quick time! Hopefully I should be able to do some damage to my official 5,000 PB of 15:51 but given how up and down things are I just don’t know what will happen. Things seem to be far more predictable when I’m running 100+miles a week in peak marathon training.  Whatever happens with the result and my training my priority is getting a clean bill of health from the Doctor sometime soon!

Thursday 18 June 2015

Weeks 4 and 5 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

W/C 1st June
M 8 miles (6:26mm), 5 miles (7:00mm)
W 7 miles(7:06mm), 5 miles (7:01mm)
T 6 miles (6:40mm)
S Rest
S 9 miles (6:24mm)

Total 64 miles (6:41mm)

W/C 8th June
T 9.5 miles (6:34mm)
T 7 miles (7:18mm)
F Rest
S 10 miles (6:22mm)

Total 65.5 miles (6:36mm)

A double blog this week, having been on holiday from Friday 5th June and never getting round to do one while I was away. Luckily I still managed to get some training in!

Starting with the w/c1st June before I went away and I had a good session on the grass with Mike Baxter’s group at Carnegie. It was incredibly windy but I was pleased with the hard efforts I managed to sustain on the 3 minute reps and was also running well on the 200s. Although not being used to the shorter stuff I could certainly feel the build-up of lactic in the legs which made the last 3 minute effort incredibly tough. Paces for the 3 minute reps were just under 5 minute miling although it’s hard to be sure given the Garmin accuracy around a shorter circuit. The rest of the week was easy running but with the intention to try an acceleration run on the Friday where I would go out and do 40 minutes at my usual steady pace and then gradually up the pace to running pretty much flat out towards the end of the run. Well! Unfortunately it was a bit of a failure again! I started off OK in the 7th mile and upped it into the 8th but by the 9th I was hanging on and going slower and slower with a mile of 5:20 so I decided to can it and run the rest in easy. I had been feeling a little under the weather since Tuesday’s session but no real outward signs of a cold but I am sure I must have had a low lying virus somewhere in the system as it just didn’t tally with how I should  be able to run that kind of session. I went on holiday that Friday afternoon so maybe my mind was elsewhere but even so it prompted me to take the opportunity to take a rest day on the Saturday and avoid a long run on the Sunday just to make sure things were out of my system.

So going into last week I didn’t have much of a plan really other than to try to run most days but recognising that it would probably be difficult to run more than once a day and plus I wanted to take the opportunity to spend some quality time with the family as well as have a bit of rest and relaxation myself! The week ended up OK mileage wise with around 65, a long run of 17 at a decent pace and a good session on the Wednesday.

We were staying just outside Estepona and from my hotel I could see a decent mountain that I quite fancied trying to run up on the Monday morning. Anyway to cut a long story short, I set off in the general direction of said hill but missed! I still managed to get pretty high up though and it made for a pacy second half of the run and some quality views like below. I also had the pleasure of being chased by a goat and a sheep dog on my run! 



The session on Wednesday was kindly provided by Mike and I had been intending to do it along the Prom which as you’d expect is perfectly flat but I had spotted in a tourist information booklet that there was a brand spanking new track that has been built as part of a new multi-function leisure complex. It wasn’t a traditional oval nor was it tartan but it was free which appealed to my Yorkshireness! And thankfully was exactly 400m from the outside lane and with a marker at 200m too so it made the planned session easy to do to distance rather than time. To be honest  I didn't feel fantastic and was working hard from the beginning (perhaps after a couple too many glasses of Rioja on Tuesday evening!) but the splits were strong and I was only starting to slow towards the end. Paces for the 600s & 400s were on average around 4:40 pace which is very quick for me! So all in all an encouraging workout indeed. 




The rest of the week was steady running and even after a getting back early Sunday morning (c1:30am) I managed to get out fo0r a decent long run of 17 miles to take the weekly mileage total up to a respectable level given the singles and one rest day.

This week will now be about trying to get the mileage back up a little, reintroduce a few doubles and also squeezing in a session before a 10k race next Sunday. I’m not sure how it’ll go but it’s in Lincolnshire so hopeful that it’ll be pretty flat!

I'm also going to ensure I improve the diet a bit going forward. As you can imagine it lapsed a little on holiday so need to try and get a bit leaner as the summer's main target race (Podium 10k) is only five weeks away! I'm currently around 143.5 lbs which is only 4-5lbs above marathon race weight but it's enough to make a difference so need to shed the timber sensibly over the coming weeks.