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

W/C 15^th 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 22^nd 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!