Ribble Valley 10k - Week 4 of 8

M 9.5 miles HA (6:49mm)
T 13.5 miles including 6X1mile (5:46mm), 5.5 miles (7:25mm)
W 6 miles (7:48mm), 9 miles HA (6:40mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:51mm), 7miles HA (7:00mm), 5.5 miles (7:25mm)
F 8.5 miles (6:02mm)
S 8.5 miles HA (7:00mm)
S 17 miles including 45 minutes acceleration run (6:02mm)

Total 100 miles
Aerobic efficiency 969 beats per mile Vs 986 beats per mile
Weight 143.1lbs Vs 142.8lbs
Body Fat 10.53% (15.06lbs) Vs 10.6% (15.14lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.97% (121.6lbs) Vs 84.45% (120.59lbs)
Water 64.78% (92.69lbs) Vs 63.8% (91.11lbs)

This was the third week of triple figures on the bounce and I was looking forward to getting to the end of it so I could have a cut back week as I freshen up for the Stockport 10 next week. All went to plan with  a very solid session on Tuesday. Tuesday's session was 6X1mile with a half mile float. Mike had wanted me to run the miles in around 5:10 pace but keep the pace quite high on the recoveries around 6:40 pace. It went very well with the miles averaging 5:05 pace and the recoveries just under 6:30 per mile. Although I did have to stop and use the facilities at a local day care centre just after the second effort! It wouldn't have been pretty had they not taken pity on me, it was a bit like the scene from American Pie where Paul Finch gets caught short!

So it was a really good session and shows I'm in good shape albeit it did leave me feeling a little sore and my calves were very tight so I had to ditch some planned hill sprints on the Thursday to make sure I was ready for the long run on Sunday which was to be a bit of a tester. I ran moderate to easy between Tuesday and Sunday as I knew it would be a tough one.

I decided that I would use this Long run to practice with a bit of fueling, so I ensured I had a decent breakfast a couple of hours before hand and had a sports drink in the half hour before I set off. I have always done my long runs and most sessions completely fasted so it was a strange feeling to be flying out of the blocks ready to push hard. I felt myself having to hold back and the moderate hour on the roads felt very easy at 6:34 pace. I then jumped on the Treadmill for an acceleration run. I was keen to do this on the treadmill as I could control the increase in pace and not have to worry about crossing roads at pace.  The plan was to gradually accelerate for 30 minutes to finish at c10k effort and then run 10 mins easy to cool down. It went really well and the last 5 minutes of effort average 4:42 pace so probably equivalent of just sub 5:00 pace on the road. I was certainly working as you can see in the video below but I was by no means about to drop off the back!

Weight has gone up a fraction this week but body composition has improved quite a bit and I feel much happier to have carbs back in my life. This has also been reflected in an improvement in Aerobic efficiency. I will go a little lower on the carbs with it being a down week this week before going back to a more normal diet on Friday and Saturday to ensure the glycogen stores are nice and full ready for a hard blast on Sunday. Mike asked me what I'm hoping for but it's been a long time since I raced well at anything shorter than a marathon so not sure what to expect. That said I am in good shape and if conditions are good, I will be prepared to put myself in the hurt box.

Ribble Valley 10k - Week 3 of 8

M Rest
T 9.5 miles HA (6:33mm), 5 miles (7:50mm)
W 11 miles including 30 minute Tempo (5:47mm), 9 miles (6:36mm), 4.5 miles (6:43mm)
T 8 miles HA (6:44mm), 5.5 miles (7:25mm)
F 12 miles Fartlek (5:46mm), 5 miles (7:15mm)
S 8 miles HA (6:46mm), 5.5 miles (7:24mm)
S 18 miles (5:50mm)

Total 103 miles (6:31mm)
Aerobic efficiency 986 beats per mile Vs 1024 beats per mile
Weight 142.8lbs Vs 143.9lbs
Body Fat 10.6% (15.14lbs) Vs 10.65% (15.32lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.45% (120.59lbs) Vs 84.75% (121.96lbs)
Water 63.8% (91.11lbs) Vs 64.35%(92.60lbs)


I mentioned last week that I had been utilising a low carb (c10%) diet for the previous couple of weeks and it had resulted in my running feeling a lot harder than it should. The plan was therefore to switch to a higher proportion of calories from carbs (c50%) this week. The difference was almost instantenous not just in how much easier the running felt but it was also clear that my body was much happier utilising glycogen as part of the energy supply rather than just relying on fat, which is much harder for the body to convert into energy. I was lucky that Christof Schwiening (Physiologist, Neuroscientist and Marathoner) commented on facebook after I posted last week's blog. He said the following.


'You know when the carbs are really low because the heart beats per mile go through the roof. Also, the loss of muscle glycogen and water causes a weight drop of about 1.5kg. I tried about 8 weeks of ~30km per day fuelled off just one meal a day - I was definitely in a calorific deficit. The last run of the day, before I ate, was always a struggle - usually with a heart rate about 10 beats per minute higher for the identical pace (if I could even get to it). I think this is a fairly traditional approach for some runners, and my 'gut' feeling is that it does adapt something. Although, it could just be weight loss and psychology. I am not sure that the 'speed one can maintain' is necessarily a good indication of the value of a session. Carb-depleted training does limit speed (which might inhibit some leg muscle hypertrophy), but, it also pushes adaptations elsewhere. From an evolutionary perspective I suspect that the critical selection points that good endurance running could counter were probably at times of food shortage. One might therefore expect that optimal endurance training might also require recapitulations of such stresses. I am not suggesting we should all be running for our lives, short on water and food across hot deserts whilst being chased or hunting down our food....but, that is probably the type of stress our physiology responds best to.'


From what I can gather Christof suggests that training low will produce some very positive adaptations over time in terms of weight loss and the fact that when you do finally get carbs in your system there will be a big boost to how quickly one can run at a given intensity. All that being said, I really don't know if it's for me! Running was starting to not be fun and as it's only a serious hobby (and I enjoy my carbs too much) I think a more sensible approach for me is to try and just balance my diet over the week. If I was an elite athlete looking for additional marginal gains then sure, the periodisation of carb restriction might be a good idea but without a full time nutritionist and chef that might be a little ambitious.


This week saw three main sessions, the first of which was a 30 minute tempo run. I chose to do this on the treadmill given it was so windy outside which would have made keeping a constant pace virtually impossible not to mention how much it would play with my mental fragility if the pace was no where near where I wanted! That said the treadmill has the opposite effect of being highly flattering, in that you don't have any wind resistance to combat.  I set the Treadmill to 18kph which is c5:20mm but I have a footpod which I understand is  more accurate at reading pace than the speed displayed on the Treadmill. The pace for the 30 minute effort came out at 5:09mm (strangely however the footpod data implied I increased pace throughout despite keeping the TM speed constant) which as I say is likely to be highly flattering, but it was a good hard effort that I could have sustained somewhat longer had I needed to. The heart rate was getting up to decent levels by the end of it all though.


The second session was Friday's Fartlek of 3, 6, 9, 9, 6, 3 mins off 2:00 jog recovery. Having woken up to a very thin layer of snow/slush and temperatures very close to zero I again chose to do this session on the Treadmill. For the 3 minute efforts I averaged 4:42 pace allegedly, the 6 minute efforts, 4:48 pace and the 9 minute efforts 5:00 pace. This really did get me wondering how accurate my footpod is so decided to use the next run of the day to calibrate it on a known route's distance. It turns out that the footpod is remarkably accurate so I only had to adjust the calibration factor on the Garmin itself a tiny amount. We shall see what happens next time I run a session on the 'mill. I also decided to do a little bit of reading regarding the impact of wind resistance when running on the TM and it turns out that if running on a 0% incline, which I was then you can pretty much add 15 seconds per mile (at a fast pace) to the pace you recorded for the splits which would make the efforts for this session 4:57, 5:03 and 5:15 for the 3, 6, 9 minute efforts respectively. This is much more in line with what I would expect had I run this session outdoors in good conditions and fit and is pretty much exactly what Mike had wanted me to get close to for the session, so I suspect it was just about a perfect workout! The link above also has some very pretty looking HR graphs for those so inclined! I found a handy chart online which converts paces on the TM to equivalent paces outside based on speed and incline you have the machine set at. Whilst for sessions of this nature it probably makes sense to keep it at 0% incline as getting the legs turning over faster than they otherwise would is probably a good thing for me I do think there's an argument for me to start running my moderate and easy TM runs on a slight incline (perhaps 0.8-1%) to ensure that my aerobic efficiency number is not too positively influenced.


The next session was Sunday's long run which again had  a marathon slant to it. It was to be 18 miles at just under sub 6mm which I achieved quite nicely averaging 5:50s for the run. It did feel hard but then I suppose it would at this stage of the game in the context of quite a big week and only just getting back to proper training.


It was nice to see aerobic efficiency took a big leap forward, more than likely due to an uptick in fitness but also the return of more carbohydrate into my diet!

Ribble Valley 10k - Week 2 of 8

M 9 miles (7:22mm)
T 11 miles HA (6:33mm), 6.5 miles (7:52mm)
W 8 miles HA (6:45mm), 5 miles (7:31mm)
T 9 miles including 12X1min hills, 7 miles (7:58mm)
F 10.5 miles (6:48m), 6 miles (7:30mm)
S 8 miles HA (6:52mm), 5 miles (7:50mm)
S 15.5miles including 4X15mins (5:59mm)

Total 100 miles (6:59mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1024 beats per mile
Weight 143.9lbs Vs 142.8lbs
Body Fat 10.65% (15.32lbs) Vs 11.18% (15.96lbs)
Lean Body Mass 84.75% (121.96lbs) Vs 84.38% (120.5lbs)
Water 64.35%(92.60lbs) Vs 63.55% (90.75lbs)


A brief update for last week as I have been a little short on time!


On the whole, a pleasing week which has seen me get back into triple figures mileage wise and a couple of decent sessions. I did a hill session of 12X1mins on the treadmill on Thursday. Having not done a hill session on the treadmill before I thought a 6% incline would be good and started off at 16kph (c6:00mm) with 90s recovery at 10kph at 0% incline. It became clear that these perhaps weren't hard enough so for 7-9 I upped the pace to 17kph and for 10-12 I upped it again to 18kph. this left me nicely tired at the end. I think it may be a struggle to run a full 12 at the moment at 18kph at 6% incline but that is the plan over the coming weeks. Alternatively next time I do it I may try and go at 18kph but reduce the incline to say 4 or 5%.


The second session was a marathon type session on Sunday of 4X15mins. I find these types of sessions do bring me on quite quickly and I enjoy long sustained effort running, which probably has something to do with me being a marathoner! The paces of the 15 minute efforts came out around 5:30s but they did feel hard and somewhat above current Marathon Pace.


I have been experimenting the past couple of weeks with a relatively low carb diet in the hope of shedding a bit of fat to get down towards the body composition I was pre-Toronto. The result has been that although my overall weight has gone up a touch my body composition has improved with body fat reducing, lean body mass and water increasing. That said I have to admit training in a low carb way has proven to be difficult. Even though I upped the quantity of carbs on the days before this week's sessions, my easy and moderate running has felt noticeably harder and this is reflected in a low aerobic efficiency which has dropped off significantly since my race a few weeks ago. While this may be down to a slight drop in fitness my feeling is that the majority of it is likely to be down to 'training low'. So this coming week I will move to a more typical diet with c50% of calories coming from carbs and see what happens!

Ribble Valley 10k 2017 - Week 1 of 8

M 5 miles (7:02mm), 9 miles including 8 progressive (5:56mm)
T 7 miles HA (7:27mm)
W 9 miles (6:28mm), 3 miles (7:36mm)
T 8 miles HA (7:19mm)
F 10.5 miles (7:17mm), 5 miles (7:44mm)
S 6 miles HA (7:24mm)
S 16 miles including Guy Fawkes 10

Total 80 miles (6:52mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1066 beats per mile
Weight 142.8lbs Vs 138lbs pre Toronto
Body Fat 11.18% (15.96lbs) Vs 8.7% (12.06lbs) pre Toronto
Lean Body Mass 84.38% (120.5lbs) Vs 86.78% (119.75lbs) pre Toronto
Water 63.55% (90.75lbs) Vs 67.8% (93.56 lbs) pre Toronto


After Toronto I took a couple of easy weeks one of which was spent away in Poland for Half-Term. Although I took my kit and hoped to get in a few runs, I only managed two. Unfortunately I didn't manage just two cakes! It was lovely to relax and not do any serious training though by last Monday I was itching to get back into things. I had planned to do the Guy Fawkes 10 at the end of this first week, really as it would be a good way of getting a harder run in without beasting myself in training.


Although my bigger target is London in April, that is too far away to be a focus right now as I want to do a couple of other road races and a XC season before then. With that in mind I have decided that I will have an eight week focus on building to Ribble Valley 10k with a hope that I will finally get something more respectable over the distance!


As one can see from the stats above, it looks like my marathon fitness has deserted me. Aerobic efficiency down by just over 100 beats per mile, body fat up by just under 4lbs! This was to be expected given the post-marathon relaxation and although it can be a little frustrating knowing how fit I was just a few short weeks ago, I know that the fitness (and leanness) will come back quickly too given it is all so recent.


I pretty much took each day as it came with the hope that I would get in around 80 miles with a few bits of faster work. Monday I did a progression run and then on Thursday I did 10X1min with 5 mins tempo which were Ok but I certainly felt rusty!


The plan with Sunday's race really was to just run to feel and not worry about the time or pace.

Photo Credit: Steve Bateson. The Start.

Off we went and I quickly dropped into a group with Jack Wood, Andy Grant, and Ed Hyland. Tristan Learoyd of New Marske had made a very early break and pushed on. I didn't fancy going with that pace as I wanted as pleasant a race experience as I could! I knew from experience that Andy and Jack are very reliable runners when it comes to judging effort so decided to stick with them. By four miles Andy had dropped off a bit and so it was left to me and Jack to try and chase Tristan down. There are some mammoth hills in this race and it was remarkable to see the ease at which Jack would pull away from me on the ascents (he is an accomplished fell runner) but I would then catch him on the descents. Tristan still kept his lead of about 30 seconds until the end of the seventh mile when Jack started to open up an unassailable gap from me. I kept asking myself 'how much do I want it?' I couldn't help it but the answer was always 'not that much!' I also suspected had I tried to go with Jack he would have had something in reserve to continue to pull away so I moved my focus to try and reel Tristan in as he seemed to be tiring. And so he did, I could see that Jack had caught him as we approached the nine mile Mark. So I had one mile to try and close a ten second gap. I worked hard up a couple of undulations and let my legs really go on the downhills. As we approached the dip of a hill with no more than 150 metres to go, I drew alongside Tristan. Now I'm not used to being in a sprint finish, and I certainly wouldn't have confidence in beating anyone ordinarily but I just decided to go for it at that stage and put in a big effort up the final testing hill towards the finish at Ripley Castle and just about managed to snatch second place in 56:16 (not quick but trust me it's a very slow course!). I couldn't help but feel a bit for Tristan as he had run a brave race from the start and had it been a 9 mile race, he almost certainly would have won.

Photo Credit: Steve Bateson. Sprint finish, maybe I did want it after all!

So that's the first week back and the first week done as I build to Ribble Valley 10k on 27th December. Hopefully this week will see an increase in miles and a bit more timber shifting!