T Easy 90 mins (7:15mm), Recovery 30 mins (8:12mm)
W 115mins inc. 24mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins (3:00) (6:24mm)
T 75 mins (7:14mm), Recovery 30 mins (8:05mm)
F Rest
S Easy 90 mins (7:19mm)
S 140 mins inc Spen 20 (5:54mm)
Total 105 miles (6:52mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 978 beats per mile Vs 1005 last week
Fitness 79.7 Vs 78.4
Fatigue 92.3 Vs 100.2
Form -4.4 Vs -27.2 (Neutral)
The ability to adapt in a marathon cycle is incredibly important. With the best will in the world, one can write a training plan of what they want to do but only one thing is guaranteed; you wont do everything that it says. And nor should you. This week has been a classic 'bump in the road' that is so common in a build up to a target race.
I felt great at the beginning of the week, like things were really starting to come together and was excited about Wednesday's session. I was in London Tuesday and Wednesday with work and planned to get up and do laps of Victoria Park. Although I managed to do this, the session was very hard and the resultant paces were nowhere near where I expected. I ran these to effort rather than a defined pace, and it's a good job. As I'd have been done after the first effort had I tried to hit my hoped for paces. The session which is usually one of my favourites was 24 mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins all off three mins jog recovery. The aim is to gradually get quicker throughout the session starting at just a bit below marathon effort. This came in at 5:46 pace, the 18 at 5:39 pace, 12 at 5:34, 6 at 5:25 and 3 at 5:13. Following the session I couldn't help wondering why it had been so tough. Had the cumulative fatigue started to catch up with me? Was I coming down with a virus? In truth even the warm up felt harder than it should. I then noted that Tuesday had been a particularly busy day and so I totted up how much food I had eaten and quickly realised that that was the problem. I simply went in completely underfuelled for the session. My aerobic efficiency on this run was 1011 beats per mile which was the worst of the week by far, when usually these sessions represent my most efficient! I made it the plan therefore to get back on top of my nutrition and have a really good feed. Thursday went much better and was back to 'normal'. I was still tired though so decided to have a complete rest day on Friday. Again this was unplanned, but sometimes one has to make an executive decision no matter how tough it is on the psyche!
The second hard run of the week was to be my long run incorporating the Spen 20. This race takes in much of the same route as the Liversedge Half I did a few weeks ago and so I knew it would be very hilly. I had never planned to race it all out as I am nervous about doing really hard 20 mile races in a marathon build up. So my aim was to run at a HR around 170 for the whole thing, around 5bpm below my marathon HR. This is therefore a very decent aerobic pace but not redlining by any stretch. Despite my car key dropping out of my shorts in the first mile and me having to go back for it and dodge all the oncoming runners, I was quickly back into the groove and got back on terms with the leading group which included mate Scott Harrington of Otley AC. All was going well in the early miles despite the horrible conditions. Little did I know that they were going to get much much worse! I hit 10 miles in around 57 miles and was gradually getting in a position to take the lead. I had perhaps foolishly discarded my gloves by this point as my hands felt like blocks of ice. They got worse however as all of a sudden we were greeted with a massive snow storm with flakes the size of tennis balls.
I pushed on still feeling OK, but now my hands were completely numb with stabbing pins and needles. I shook them vigorously trying to get the blood back into them. All of a sudden I noticed that I couldn't maintain my effort and my pace was slowing. I tried to run faster, but it seemed my body was preserving itself. My HR dropped and despite really trying I simply couldn't get it back up (ooo err misus). So what ensued was me running at what felt like a really really easy pace but unable to go any quicker. I genuinely think I was mildly hypothermic by this stage. At around the 15 mile mark the eventual winner Lewis Gamble-Thompson (New Marske and training for Manchester Marathon) came past me up a hill and continued to go away. From there, I made the decision not to give chase, not that I think my body would have let me anyway! I finished in 2nd place, but first Yorskhireman (Yorkshire 20mile Champ woo hoo!).
Photo courtesy of Mrs Harrington
So a somewhat bizarre week and not exactly how I thought things would go! Interesting that the day off really did lift my freshness quite substantially and I'm hoping that I can crack on fairly swiftly from here given the race essentially ended up being a 'moderate' 20!
Key things learned this week:
- Always make sure you're fuelled up the day before a hard long session!
- Don't be surprised when your body does something unexpected, in adverse conditions.
- Keep the faith, this is all coming together nicely.
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