2015 London Marathon - Week 6: 6/4 - 12/4

M  12 miles (6:24mm), 6miles (7:11mm)
T 7.5 miles (7:10mm)
W 20.4 miles Marathon Session 30mins(3:00), 4X5mins(2:00), 30 mins
T 11 miles (6:18mm), 6 miles (7:09mm)
F 11 miles (6:09mm), 5 miles (6:30m)
S 8 miles (6:48mm)
S 22 miles including 2X10k (3:00), incorporating Ackworth Half Marathon

Total - 110.4 miles (6:24 mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 938 beats per mile average
Average Weight 140.4 Lbs

I mentioned on last weeks blog that this would be the week that would tell me whether I am in PB shape. To be honest things could have gone better and it hasn't left me super confident of how things may pan out on the 26th April. That said, it has at least relieved some of the pressure I put on myself as the goal has now largely changed much more to ensuring I race the best I can on the day (which is what one should always do anyway really!). So rather than setting off at PB pace regardless of how that feels I will be taking a much more sensible approach to the race.

The two key sessions for me this week were the big Wednesday marathon session and then Ackworth Half marathon which was to include a couple of 10k efforts at c. marathon effort. The Wednesday session was 30 minutes, 4X5minutes, 30 minutes with the goal of hitting MP for the 30 minute efforts and c. threshold for the 5 minute intervals. I spent last week in Sopot, Poland which is the most stunning place to run with a perfectly flat paved stretch that runs for a good few miles along the coast between Sopot and Gdansk. It is here that I did virtually all of my running. I went to Poland at a similar time last year too but I had forgotten that the block paving and complete flatness is anything but kind to the legs so it ended up making the Wednesday a pretty gruesome affair. The first 30 minutes effort went OK averaging 5:29 pace and then the 4x5minute efforts went, 5:10, 5:21, 5:05, 5:22 (guess which way the wind was blowing!) but the final 30 minutes didn't go very well despite starting very strongly. I ended up slowing to an average of 5:36 pace which was 10 secs per mile than the corresponding session last build up. And my legs were ruined. Thankfully completion was never in doubt this week though and I felt strong enough to complete it all but the legs really were very dull. This could be partly due to the reasons I mentioned but possibly also due to the previous week's training marathon still being in the legs. Also the fact that it was a mega session and my first 'speed' session of any note for some time given the aborted one the previous week.

Thursday and Friday's running went very well (Friday in particular I did a nice progression run) but looking back at the week now I think I may have run those days a bit too hard as my immediate thought following Sunday's session was that it still felt harder than I would hope at this stage and that could have been due to a couple of slightly-harder-than-called-for days! I wanted to get a decent length run in but wanted to incorporate a bit more speed work so did 7 miles warm up and then jumped on the start line for the Ackworth half marathon which is relatively local. I don't know the area too well but understood the course to be pretty undulating so it was to be a real test of gauging my effort accordingly. On reflection it went OK. I won the race by a few minutes and the efforts came in at 5:28(166HR avge) and 5:29 (171HR avge) pace which isn't too far off marathon PB pace and given the hills (there were some real testers in there), wind, solo run and the fact that I got back from Poland very late on Saturday night this was OK. In fact now I'm writing about it I actually think it was probably quite a promising session. My HR suggested that I was running below marathon effort (my HR averaged 177bpm at York last year and has typically been in the range 177 - 180 for 'good' marathons) but the legs felt about right and I suspect I could have done another decent chunk at a similar sort of pace but I couldn't have gone much quicker if that makes sense.

Photo Credit: Andrew Thrippleton

Now having put this together I'm all slightly confused! I may be in PB shape, but I don't think I quite am. But what will be, will be I guess. I certainly don't feel like I did pre-York where I was so certain that I would run somewhere around 2:22 (and did) but then a few things have been different this time round with bugs and the like. But for me to be confident of nailing a PB I do need to see quite a bit of freshness coming back into the legs and will try a couple of sharpeners this week to really ensure that marathon pace feels a bit more sustainable!

My big worry with going to Poland every time is that I will succumb to the temptation of their fantastic cuisine and naughty treats. Thankfully I have come back the same weight as when I went pretty much so despite 'going off the rails' and devouring an inordinate amount of goodies, I'm still just about race weight! As the mileage comes down this and next week though there will certainly have to be extra focus on ensuring I don't put on much chunkiness!