Tuesday 31 January 2017

Running for Charlie - London Marathon Week 5 of 16

M 5 miles (8:12mm), 14 mils inc 10.4 miles 3/4 Effort (5:30mm)
T 6 miles (8:17mm)
W 3.5 miles (8:10mm), 10 miles 1/4 Effort (6:57mm) 
T Rest
F Rest
S Rest
S 6 miles (8:00mm)

Total 45 miles (7:13mm)
Core 22 mins
Total Training Time 5 hrs 43 mins
Aerobic efficiency 986 beats per mile


So this week didn't exactly go to plan! As I mentioned on last week's blog, I was due to have a cut back week and then a hard race at the Northern XC on Saturday. Early in the week I could feel the onset of a cold and while I thought I would be able to run through it, I had decided by midweek that the Northern's probably wasn't a sensible idea and would just run easy instead. By Thursday I decided that I actually needed to rest to try and get it out of my system. It wasn't until Sunday that I managed to venture out again and although it was clear that the virus had shifted, I was feeling rather ploddy.


All that said, I had done a decent 3/4 effort run on the Monday where I covered around 10.4 miles in 57 minutes at a fraction below marathon effort again implying that the fitness is coming along nicely, unfortunately that run was probably the nail in the coffin to allow the virus to take hold!


I enjoyed seeing the results coming in form the Northern's with Dave Archer having a standout performance (15th) and his good lady wife, Hatti with a strong run for 2nd place behind Leeds City's international superstar, Claire Duck. Fellow club mates Mike Burrett and Adam Osborne told me of the horrific clay like mud that they had to endure and I am reliably informed that all concerned buried themselves, metaphorically as well as literally.


So back to it this week, where I'll be trying to get the miles and consistency back. There's only 11 weeks to go, I will need to start pulling my finger out soon!


As readers will know who read my last blog, this year I am trying to help my colleague Jo raise funds for her son Charlie. Charlie suffers with Cerebral Palsy amongst other severe medical conditions. The long and short of it is that Charlie needs Spinal Chord surgery and this is not funded by the NHS. So Jo is raising money to pay for the surgery and post-op physio herself. This is a mammoth task as she is looking to raise £85,000 so I would be highly grateful if anyone that reads this blog could consider donating to the cause. I and many readers are incredibly lucky to have the quality of life that Charlie can only dream of and hopefully some of you will help Jo with her efforts. I for one will be running my heart out for Charlie on April 23rd.


Charlie's Footsteps

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jason, apologies for a question unrelated to this post. I've just started my phase of Canova style "marathon sessions" for an April marathon in Japan. I got onto this approach from reading your blog and then doing more research on it myself - hence I've come to you to ask the question (again, sorry about that!). My question is whether you care about what pace your float is at? I notice much of the Canova guidance suggests a reasonably fast float (85-95%), even for 5km+ reps, but looking at some of your previous workouts yours appear a bit slower than that (in terms of relative to MP). When doing such sessions I've tended to go around 70% of MP. Do you think it matters? Thanks in advance, I hope you're doing well despite the absence in recent posts. Scott

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  2. Hi Scott, thanks for your comment. Yes I do tend to jog my recoveries a bit more than Canova would suggest. But then I'm not a world class elite. That said there is the odd session that I will do where the float will be faster. For example I did an alternate km's session in the build up to Toronto where the on efforts were at 106.9%MP (5:02s) off at 93.4%MP (5:46s). I covered 16km doing this run. Also another good one is to do 15X1 minute on 1 minute off with the on efforts a bit quicker than above say, 5k pace and the off's at similar or a touch slower to the above.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the reply Jason, very helpful. I used the 'I'm not an elite' justification on my 3 x 7km today in terms of the recovery efforts - given my distance from elite I may have been justified in walking them! Keep up the great work and thanks for being transparent with your training, it's good to see this stuff and try it out myself.

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