M AM 6.19 miles recovery (7:28mm avge), PM 4 miles recovery (7:15mm avge)
T 8.99 miles general aerobic (6:40mm avge)
W 15.14 miles progressive (6:12mm avge)
T 8.18 miles recovery (7:20mm avge)
F 13.20 miles progressive (6:22mm avge)
S 7.09 miles recovery, including 6X100m strides (7:03mm avge)
S 19.88 miles including 13.1 miles @ 5:36mm (6:03mm avge)
Total 82.67 miles (6:34mm avge)
So after last week's cross country 'tempo' that ended up being a bit more of a race than I'd planned and then a solid and not slow 22 miler on Sunday I wasn't surprised to get out of bet on Monday morning a little stiff. I decided I would set off on my run and if it was too much I would call it a day and shorten it. Being such a stubborn fellow I got the run done and by the end of it my legs seemed to be loosening up a bit but it was still markedly slower than other recovery runs for the same effort. I went out for a short run at lunch time too to see if I could further loosen the legs up and they were starting to come round but still a little 'groaney'.
Tuesday I had a 9 mile general run which was OK and my legs were definitely getting back to normal but it was still a little slower for the effort level than normal but I knew by Wednesday the residual tiredness would be cleared. Unfortunately on Wednesday I had a bit of a hangover to deal with - my company had been involved in a High Court legal battle in which I had given evidence last July and the judgement was handed down on Tuesday afternoon which we won hands down. A massive relief but needless to say, I'm a bit of a lightweight these days and 4 pints of strong German Bier was enough to ensure Wednesday's run to work was a bit fuzzy. I'm pretty sure the 3 McDonald's double cheeseburgers didn't help either! That said the run was good and pretty much the same pace and heart rate wise as the previous week which considering there was a definite headwind was certainly very positive.
Friday asked for another half marathon which was fine and completed on my usual route at a reasonable clip on an undulating course.
Then to Sunday which was the real only session of the week. I was really looking forward to this. The schedule called for 18 with 12 miles at Marathon Pace (embedded link below). Myself along with Chris Minns, Jim Addison, Steve Thackeray of Beckenham and Andy Rayner of Blackheath & Bromley had agreed to meet at Dulwich park to do the workout. Jim and Steve had planned to run together and will be shooting for sub 2:40 at London this year. Chris who is running his debut this year and myself are aiming for sub 2:30 and Andy who is also debuting is hopeful of something under 2:25 - he certainly has great pedigree and I wouldn't be surprised to see him run very close to 2:20 if not a touch under.
After a few miles warm up off we went and unfortunately Chris couldn't keep with Andy & I as he's been struggling with a bad cold and so cut his session short but made sure he still got some good miles in.
The miles kept flying by and it was pretty comfortable right until the last mile really. In a marathon pace run there are always 'dull spots' but these I think are more to do with momentary lapses in concentration rather that your body actually not wanting to carry on. We actually picked up the pace in the second half quite considerably too which is encouraging. As we went through 11 miles I had noticed that I could carry on to 13.1 miles and would actually have a good chance of going quicker than my half marathon PB, so that's what we did. I did find the last mile hard, perhaps my form was going a bit and I was starting to just go over marathon effort at this point but I was thrilled to run through 13.1 in 73:23 which is quicker than my PB by a massive 2 seconds - shame it doesn't count really! Then did another mile and a bit to cool down. A very satisfying session indeed.
So there's only nine weeks to go, I'm exactly half way through the schedule. I do feel fitter and stronger than I've ever been. Lets hope I continue to get stronger as the weeks go by.
I have been a little slack with my stretching and core this week so I hope to get that back on track. Running wise, this coming week looks quite an interesting one, there is a cut back in miles but there is going to be my first VO2 max workout which I expect will be pretty tough but fun. Can't wait. :-)
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