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. ;-)