Week 19 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 9 miles (6:29mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:23mm), 5 miles (7:04mm)
W 8 miles (6:52mm)
T 11 miles including 15X1minute on/off (5:53mm)
F 7 miles (6:50mm)
S 9 miles including Northern 6-stage relays (5:04mm)
S 14 miles (6:03mm)

Total 74 miles (6:26mm)
Weight 138.7 lbs
Body fat 9.5%
Aerobic efficiency 941 beats per mile

So into the first week of taper which sees a big reduction in mile from last week down to just over 70 for the week with a couple of sharper sessions.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the legs seemed OK following last Sunday’s Great North Run efforts and was ticking along quite nicely in my early runs in the week. Thursdays session was one that Mike had encouraged me to do before London as it gets a bit of speed into the legs and the recoveries aren’t true recoveries but at a more steady effort. I had decided however that I would take it a little easier than pre-London with the Northern six-stage relays in mind, which would make up my second session of the week. The 1 minute 'on' efforts averaged between 4:37 and 5:01 pace and the recoveries were anywhere between 5:45 and 6:13 so all in all a very nice session.

It is in this week that you hope you will start to see a bit of freshness returning to the legs and I was pleased to see on Friday that my recovery run felt virtually effortless, ticking along at 6:50 pace almost asleep! It’s these encouraging runs in the taper that really help build the confidence that it’ll all be good on the day!

Then to Saturday and a trip over the Pennines to sunny Blackpool for the Northern Six-Stage relays. I managed to find myself in the A-Team such is the current list of injuries at the club and I was to run the fourth leg over a course of 6.6km. As any readers of my blog will know I don't tend to do too well at the shorter stuff so this would be a good test with the added pressure of trying to ensure I didn't mess things up for the team! I took over from Patrick Vis who came in in eighth position and although the guy in seventh was only about 5 seconds in front there was a big gap in front of him so I knew it was to be a tough leg to try and get back closer to the guy in sixth, if at all! I caught the guy in seventh after half a mile and got my head down and ran really strongly all the way to the finish. Again, I didn't clock watch which made the whole thing very enjoyable. I just raced. I finished in 7th position having closed the gap to 6th and passed over to Dominic Easter. My leg was timed at 20:47 which is about 5:04 per mile pace. We ultimately ended up in 5th position which wasn't a terrible outcome but certainly with a full strength team we would expect to have been up there. This was a really pleasing run for me personally and good to see some freshness returning. Although I don't think I could have run much quicker, I felt strong at the end almost as if I could have gone around again, albeit a touch slower with a couple of minutes recovery. Of course I didn't and just did a couple miles jog to warm down.

Whilst this week has gone well and I am incredibly relaxed about the race itself and can’t wait to get going, I do actually struggle with this bit of the taper for other reasons. I have suffered with pretty bad anxiety verging on depression this week and the strange thing is it’s not about the potential outcome of the race. That will take care of itself I know that but without wanting to be too melodramatic it almost feels a bit like grief. Grief that the process is almost over. What will I do after? How will I cope without this goal to focus on? I’ve felt miserable, been incredibly irritable and have struggled to see the point in lots of things. What was the point in training this hard and putting everything in to it for it all just to be over? This whole build up and race has completely consumed me for the past few months and in a few short days it’ll no longer be there. How will I move forward and what will I look to do after? I will be OK and my darling wife Hania tells me it will all clear. The fog will rise and there will be other running targets to look forward to. Sometimes I do just wish I wasn’t so obsessive about these things though! I mean it doesn’t matter does it? It only really matters to me. Whatever I run has no bearing on anything in the world and nobody really cares apart from me. Sure if I run well people will be pleased for me as I am for others when they achieve what they want to but no-one can be as attached to your own goal as you are. It just doesn’t work like that and rightly so. Something makes me want to get up at 5am and do the hard miles training twice a day, something drives me to do that, something in my brain tells me it’s what I need to do for my sanity. The reality is that marathon training is a selfish sport and despite me trying to make my training mostly invisible to my family, it isn’t completely and it can’t be. It consumes everything you do. You live and breathe it for weeks and months on end. So maybe this feeling is partly guilt of my own self-indulgence? Whatever it is, it is definitely the darker side of running. It'll probably get darker still as I have already started my carb-depletion before the reload starts in earnest on Thursday. I just have to hope that I can avoid all last-minute hiccoughs and do my hardest to ensure that it all comes together like a dream next Sunday.

Week 18 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 12 miles (6:23mm), 6 miles (6:49mm)
T 8 miles (6:54mm), 5 miles (6:57mm)

W 20 miles including 30 mins(3:00), 4X5mins(2:00), 30 mins (5:43mm), 6 miles (6:52mm)

T 11 miles (6:22mm), 6 miles (7:01mm)

F 7 miles (7:00mm)

S 6.5 miles (6:44mm), 4 miles (7:17mm)

S 20.5 miles including Great North Run in 70:52 (5:24mm)

Total 113.5 miles (6:26mm)

Weight 139.5 lbs
Body fat 9.7%
Aerobic efficiency 958 beats per mile

So here it was the final big week of training and I was absolutely determined for it to go well after last week's poor track race. It was to include the biggest session of the campaign as well as a hard but controlled effort at the Great North Run on Sunday as part of my final long run.

I took last Sunday as a complete rest day, simply to try and regain focus for what would be the hardest week with the combination of the volume and the intensity of the two sessions I had planned. I was pleased I did as although I hardly sprung out of bed at 5:00am on Monday morning, I was pretty pleased to be running quite nicely at a strong pace for a 12 miler to start the week. Tuesday was taken a little bit easier as ever to try and have reasonably fresh legs for the big monster marathon session on Wednesday.

When you first see the sessions on paper, you think oh yeah that seems OK but as the day approaches you realise just how hard they're going to be! Especially when you have built up a level of fatigue from the previous weeks' training. Although I was excited about the session the day before you do feel a bit like you do before a big race; unsure of how it's going to go, a little anxious of how tough it is going to feel and also wanting it to go well to give you a strong feeling that all is on track.

I did this session before the Yorkshire Marathon last year and also before London this year too and although it went well pre-Yorkshire, it was pretty much a disaster before London although I did manage to complete it. I did the session then whilst on holiday in Poland and my legs were just absolutely ruined. For the second stint at MP I could only muster 5:36 pace which considering I was hoping for a MP of quicker than 5:27 obviously left me a little unsure of where I was at the time. The outcome of that session though was that it just allowed me to focus on what everyone should focus on and that is to run the best with what the fitness they have on race day and don't force for arbitrary targets. That said I still managed to PB at London so it all ended up fine in the end. So with all that in mind, I was still keen to nail it this time around as if it went well I was still sure that things could yet improve a little further with the freshness the taper brings back to the legs.  

The first 30 minutes was quite good and I was ticking along really well at 5:26 pace around my tempo loop. The 5 minute efforts came in at 5:09, 5:05, 5:04, 5:04 so really strong fro me and what should be theoretical 10k-10M pace.These 5 minute efforts are really quite nasty as they do get the legs really nicely fatigued for that last MP effort. That said I started off the next 30 minutes really strongly. In fact, the pace felt easy because it was a lot slower than the previous efforts but as the interval progresses it really does become hard work and the concentration levels required are very similar to what you have in the closing stages of the marathon. The legs are jellifying and you have too really focus to keep form, etc I managed to hold it all together for a very pleasing average of 5:27 pace. After last week's disappointing track race I was so keen to get a good confidence booster and this sure gave me what I needed. The session was marginally better than pre-Yorkshire marathon as the shorter efforts were slightly quicker on average and as a whole it was miles better than pre-London. Mike encouraged me that there was no reason to have a confidence wobble anyway as he quite rightly reminded me that there is no such thing as a perfect build up. He recalled Charlie Spedding's build up to the Olympics in LA in 1984 and how he had a few shockers/ sub par performances along the way.

Then on Sunday I had my last long run scheduled which was to include the Great North Run as a bit of a tempo effort. Of course I was going into this really rather tired from the cumulative weeks’ training and a massive session on Wednesday. This was never going to be a PB attempt for a couple of reasons; 1) it is too close to Berlin to properly recover from and 2) I wanted to still get in big volume for the week so I wasn’t going to be fresh for it at all.  I stayed up in Newcastle the night before at the University Halls which was absolutely perfect for the start. I couldn’t have been any closer really. I had managed to wangle an ‘elite entry’ off the back of my 2:22 marathon and was luckily enough to have my name on my vest rather than a number, which always seems a little cool. I must admit it felt a bit strange lining up with guys that I consider genuine elites. Guys like Mo Farah (who was just in front of me at the start line), Ryan Hall, Stanley Biwott, Mark Kiprotich, the list goes on! It was also humbling to share the start line with Ian Hudspith, a genuine British Road Running legend, who just shy of his 45^th birthday ran 66:08. Which is around 5 minute miling. Truly astonishing and a time that I can only dream of.


 

So having done a 7 mile warm up and 100 miles in total before the B of the Bang, I knew it would take a while to get the legs going again! Despite the downhill start and a couple of quicker miles, the legs really were tired and I knew it was going to be a struggle. I found myself clock watching in the early miles as I had been thinking to run at a fairly steady 5:25 pace for the whole race to bring me in somewhere around 71-72 minutes. After about 4 miles I wasn’t really enjoying it too much as I had focused on the 5:25s a bit too much rather than just running how I felt so took the decision to just run and enjoy it. So thereafter I ran hard but controlled to the finish without glancing at the watch and it became much more fun! I started reeling in folks that had gone off too quickly and I finished really strongly. I was pleasantly surprised to finish in 70:52 (5:24.5 per mile) and feel that I could have done another three or four miles at that pace on so I absolutely wasn’t flat out. That said, I was tired, very tired and the legs were achy to say the least but then they should after a run (and a week) like that. I was somewhat surprised at the course as I had expected it to feel quicker but it definitely felt quit a challenge and was more undulating than it looks the times I’ve watched it on the telly!

With the last week of big training drawing to a close that is all the training in the bag and I have to say it’s a relief,to get to this point relatively intact. Of course I do have ongoing niggles and cant remember the last completely pain free run with my glute and hamstring issues but at least I can run! Looking back to pre-London at the same point I do feel I am in marginally better shape, but running just under 71 minutes for a half marathon feeling as it did makes me wonder how on earth it is at all feasible that I will run twice the distance at a slightly quicker pace in two weeks time! The jury is still out and thinking rationally I won’t go under 2:20 this time but as I said last week the race will take care of itself now and I can’t wait to see what happen. Thankfully the marathon isn’t always about rationality; it is also about dreams, how much you want it, your hunger, desire and heart. I believe I have those qualities in spades and trust it will all come good on the day. One thing is for sure I will give it absolutely everything to get the best possible result. The taper can do miraculous things to the legs and I just have to trust the training and trust the taper. As Mike pointed out for Berlin, I won’t have run 100 miles the week of the race, I won’t have done a 7 mile warm up, I won’t have done a humungous session just four days before and I will be racing flat out all the way.

Weight has drifted down another notch so now I am at ‘race weight’ and think I should lock the scales away in a cupboard to prevent any last minute worries about how much timber I’m carrying.

Week 17 of 20 weeks to Sub 2:20?

M 10 miles (6:31mm)

T 8.5 miles (6:34mm), 6 miles (6:59mm)

W 17miles (6:16mm)

T 8 miles (6:39mm), 6 miles (6:48mm)

F 7.5 miles (6:50mm)

S 10.5 miles including BMC 10,000m Track Festival 32:26 (5:13mm)

S Rest

Total 74 miles (6:32mm)

Weight 140.5 lbs
Body fat 9.7%
Aerobic efficiency 950 beats per mile

After last Sunday’s win at the Halifax Marathon, the main aim for this week was to make sure I recovered sensibly and then race hard on Saturday at the British Milers Club 10,000m I had planned. I had been put in the B-race which seemed right judging by the other names on the start list and I was confident of smashing out a quick time to beat my road PB of 32:05. I’ll discuss the race shortly but first the rest of the week….

I had always planned on reducing the mileage a little this week to try to be fresh(er) for the track 10k but still wanted to get some decent steady running in. On Monday I was pleasantly surprised to find my legs were in good shape and I was feeling comfy around the 6:30 per mile mark for a 10 miler. Similar happened on Tuesday which gave me confidence that Sunday’s marathon effort hadn’t taken too much out of the legs. I then wanted to get my long run done on the Wednesday with one eye on next week, which is scheduled to be the hardest of the whole campaign. I was really pleasantly surprised to knock off 17 miles in 6:16 pace just clipping along really nicely.

As well as the ongoing physio I have been receiving on my pelvis and sciatica I decided following a suggestion from Mike that it was probably sensible to have a general sports massage which I did on the Thursday. My legs have been ok when running and my injury is definitely improving but I was feeling really rather tight in some places, namely my left calf and right hamstring. Stewart Sanderson, the sports masseur is a semi-pro rugby league player so is quite useful at ironing out creases and he successfully found a few more achy bits that I didn’t even know existed.

And so to Saturday where I had set a target of 31:59 for the 10k but let me be honest with you, I thought I was being conservative. I am a two-time 2:22 marathoner and so theoretically I should be able to run 10k in something around 30:30. Even in heavy marathon training I thought I should be able to get reasonably close to 31 dead. So the strategy as discussed with Mike was to head off at roughly 76/77 second laps which should bring me in under 32 and if I felt strong I could pick it up in the second half but the main thing was to be patient and try to maintain concentration through the hard middle laps. Fail! Off we went and there was a good bunch from Highgate and a few others that were targeting sub 32 so stick with them I thought and for the first few k things were just going swimmingly. Aerobically I felt fine, and the legs were OK if a bit tired. At no point did I feel like I was starting to dig in too deep. I got to half way pretty much bang on 16 minutes and my first thought was that I would easily go under 32 as it still all felt comfortable. When I have done all out 10ks in the past I have been acutely aware of how spent I feel at halfway. Of course you’re not and you can nearly always muster pretty much the same again in the second half but for this time I felt  relatively fine. K splits were 3:12, 3:12, 3:11, 3:11, 3:13. It was perhaps this cockiness of obliterating my target that was my downfall as the 6^th k was a 3:13 so OK but starting to slip a little. And then all of a sudden the group gradually pushed past me. I think at this point I just lost my head and a total lapse in concentration meant my race was quickly over. I really should have been focusing to hold on to the group but before I knew it I was isolated and after that it was really hard to even get close. I am ashamed to say I think I gave up a little at this point. The 7^th and 8^th ks were both in 3:20 (my hoped for Marathon pace for goodness sake!) and then I managed to rally a little in the 9^th and 10^th ks with 3:18 and 3:15 to finish in 7^th place in 32:26.50. I was really annoyed with myself immediately following the race and it did worry me initially that I thought there would be no way of getting to PB shape for Berlin in time, but now things have sunk in a little I’m a little more pragmatic about it. What will be will be and whatever happens on the day, I just want to do the best I can. I am not one to make excuses for my performance when training sessions or races don’t go to plan as I know when I’ve run poorly but on further reflection there may be other factors which resulted in such a woeful effort; 1) I am tired as I’m at the business end of marathon training and did run a hilly marathon last Sunday, 2) I’m not used to racing on the track – different mind-set, not used to the bends, and different surface to tarmac and 3) The sports massage I had may have left me a little less fluid (clutching at straws ;-) ) and 4) I just had a rubbish day. If it was all four of those then I might still be OK for Berlin! If you are at all interested and/or really really bored you can watch the race here on Vincosport. The outcome of the race did really annoy me though and I took the decision to take a complete rest day on Sunday to try and refocus for this coming week, which is to include the biggest session of the campaign as well as a run out at the Great North Run as part of my final long run.

Weight has dropped another half pound to 140.5 lbs and my aerobic efficiency is back down to the sweet spot of 950 beats per mile average. As someone who has quite an obsessive personality (and I know lots of other runners suffer from this too!) I have also become quite obsessive about my weight recently which isn't that healthy and doesn't help with my mental fragility but I do know being as light as possible, within reason, will help with my pace on race day so I am trying to still lose a little bit of weight but reasonably sensibly whilst still having the occasional treat. I have decided however to stop weighing myself every day as it plays on my mind a little too much. I will still take measurements but less frequently and probably on days when I'm feeling most lean!

As a final note for this week I really do believe marathon training to be such a battle of will. Yes, you have to avoid injury as much as possible and be consistent but mostly you just have to keep on keeping. You have to believe that it will all come good on the day. It means taking the crap days with the good and I still believe that I can get into PB shape, whether it’ll be the arbitrary 2 minutes 13 seconds I ideally want I don’t know. One thing is for sure is that when race day comes I am pretty good at keeping the doubting thoughts at bay, in fact I would go as far to say that I don’t do self-doubt on marathon day. ‘10k on the track’ day is maybe a little bit different though. ;-)