M 7.5 miles (7:15mm), 6 miles (7:14mm)
T 8 miles (6:30mm)
W 7.5 miles (6:58mm)
T 11.5 miles including Session 10 mins(3mins), 8X2mins(1min) (5:49mm)
F 8 miles (7:06mm)
S 11 miles including 15X1minute on/1 minute off (5:54mm)
S 14 miles (6:09mm)
Total - 73.6 miles (6:29mm)
Aerobic Efficiency 953 beats per mile average
Average Weight 139.8 Lbs
The first week of taper and this week was all about reducing the mileage significantly from previous weeks to try and freshen up as well as trying to finally nail a session that would give me a decent bit of confidence for next week's race.
After the previous week's exploits in Sopot and the session I did including the half last Sunday my legs were very tired on Monday and Tuesday, so much so that I decided to take one more easy day to be ready for the final hard session on Thursday. It was 10 mins (3:00), 8X2mins (1:00) with the goal of running c. tempo for the 10 minutes and the 2 minutes at a fast pace. The last time I did this pre-Yorkshire it was a good confidence building session as it said to me that I was in great aerobic shape and had decent speed too but for any readers of my previous few weeks' training I have been concerned about my current ability to run quickly! Thankfully the session was almost exactly the same as last time I did it. The tempo bit coming in a couple of seconds per mile quicker at 5:08 and the 2 minute intervals ranging from 4:44-4:53. Interestingly and unbeknownst at the time I also ran the recoveries a bit quicker this time so all in all a really morale boosting session.
Saturday was another speed session but this time a touch lighter than Thursday's. This one was recommended by Mike Baxter to try and sharpen up a bit. It was to be 15X '1minute on, 1 minute off'. So the plan being to run hard but not all out for 60 seconds and then recover at a steady pace. So for me this would mean running around 5:00mm for the hard bits and 6:00mm for the steady bits with the half hour effort section coming in around marathon race pace. Encouragingly I found it quite hard to keep the running as slow as I wanted meaning (hopefully) that I am indeed coming to the boil just in time for race day. The hard bits were anywhere from 4:38-4:56 pace and the steady bits were 5:49-5:56 giving an average pace for the 30 minutes around 5:17 per mile. This is definitely above marathon pace, of that I'm sure but I would be happy to run for 30 minutes at even pace 5:17s in any training session so to have this as the average as a run with the surges is particularly pleasing. This was a really nice sharpening session and although my legs did feel it a little on this morning's run I felt pretty strong and ticked off a nice 14 miler in 6:09 pace which had a couple of cMP mile at the end. This run did bring on a slightly niggly glute/hip though so I'll be rolling on a baseball quite a lot this week to try and loosen it up but I don't feel like it should be too much of a problem.
Weight is back to just below 10 stone which is a big relief as it's what I raced Yorkshire at last year. I am now restricting my carb intake until Thursday morning now before loading up. I've had a positive experience the last couple of times I've tried this and felt really strong energy wise on the day and I also know it should prevent me from putting on additional weight before next Sunday.
Aerobic efficiency has been a bit of strange one this week and it has theoretically got a bit 'worse' with my average beats per mile increasing to 953 beats per mile. I partly put this down to being so tired at the beginning of the week which caused the heart rate to rise a little but it could also be very much down to the taper and the fact that excitement is building, especially given I have been so encouraged by what I have seen this week. The HRM will be put to one side this week now as I could do without my mental fragility being tested any more right now.
So I'm nearly there and I think I am in roughly the same shape as last time. If everything goes perfectly I may even scrape a PB but one thing's for sure, I will run to feel on the day and I will be conservative. Too many times I have screwed it up and too many times have I seen good athletes under deliver at this epic distance. The marathon does find you out if you're greedy. You cant afford to have eyes bigger than the engine so whatever happens next Sunday I just want to be able to reflect and say I ran as well as I could on the day. Only time will tell if that is good enough for another step up. See you on the other side.
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