Week 5: 16th - 22nd January

M  AM 6.03 miles recovery (7:21mm avge), PM 4.1 miles recovery (7:08mm avge)
T  10.06 miles including 4 miles @ 5:23mm (6:11mm avge)
W  15.16 miles progressive (6:33mm avge)
T  6.09 miles recovery (7:17mm avge)
F  13.20 miles progressive (6:28mm avge)
S  6.19 miles recovery (7:10mm avge)
S  18.05 miles, including 10 miles @5:41mm (6:11mm avge)

Total 78.88 miles (6:36mm avge)

This week has been the first week that I looked at the schedule and thought WOW that looks like it's going to be a bit of a stretch. Not only did it have a 4 miles at lactate threshold within a 10, but it also had the standard midweek 15 miler, a half marathon and then to round the week off the schedule asked for a long run of 18 miles which in itself is not too hard, but when you are supposed to run 10 of those miles at marathon pace/effort it does seem like a big week indeed. Luckily next week is a cut back and I will end up doing a touch under 70 miles. Most of which will be at a very easy pace.


Tuesday was a Lactate Threshold session. Lactate threshold is supposed to be the pace/effort at which you can race for one hour - it's great for building speed endurance which is very very important during the marathon, in fact it's nearly as important as the endurance you get from the long, easy miles. For me at this stage of fitness, on a good day is I think just over 11 miles per hour or lets say 5:25 per mile. It was an early start for this session and I was pleased to hit some decent mile splits (averaged 5:23mm) for a constant effort level. My Heart Rate gradually rose to 90% of max throughout the workout without increasing off the scale which shows that the effort was correct and my body was effectively getting rid of the lactic acid being generated in the muscles. It was nice to see that from an aerobic efficiency perspective this was my best run so far with my heart beating on average 966 beats per mile. I know if I start to see my heart rate going below 1000 beats per mile then I am running very efficiently and in good shape. So hopefully I'll see this a lot more over the coming weeks. I was lucky though that it was great conditions for the session, just above 0 degrees with no breeze to speak of.

The 15 miler the day after didn't feel fantastic but the pace and heart rate was where it should be so it didn't bother me too much but it just goes to show that you will always have a day when you just don't feel like you're having a good run. The trick here is to just get the run done, and move on. I may have still had some tiredness in the system from the previous days tempo run which may explain feeling a little lacklustre.

Friday by contrast was excellent, everything just clicked into place and I felt like I was running strongly, moving through the gears and despite it being a challenging route and it being really rather windy, the pace was very pleasing for the effort and heart rate level.

And so to Sunday, I set off to do 7 miles before I got to the 10 miles @ marathon pace/effort section. These runs are always funny because you know how tough it's going to be at the end of the effort section. So your early miles tend to be a bit slower than normal. Perhaps it's psychological but the body does seem to have a way of holding back when it knows what's coming. Anyway, I didn't feel too great in those early miles and I felt like I was working a little harder than the pace suggested I should be. It was a very windy day with 35mph gusts and it was again blowing in the 'wrong' direction from the south west like the the time I did 8 miles at MP at the end of a long run on New Year's Day.

The embedded link below shows that it was a strong run though and I was only really hitting true marathon effort levels for the last four miles or so. This resulted in an average pace of 5:41 per mile (56:52 for the 10 miles) which is very very encouraging given the weather conditions, where I am in the schedule, and that I also didn't feel like I was 'on fire' today. I would take that as an average pace on the 22nd April as it'll get me home in around 2:29. All going well.

I have again continued with the flexibility and core sessions - which I feel are really starting to play dividends in feeling fresher day after day. I've also bought some dumbbells so am now going to start doing a couple of strength sessions per week if time permits.