Yorkshire Marathon 2016 - W/E 28th August - Six weeks to go

M 12 miles (6:33mm), 6 miles HA (7:10mm)
T 9.5 miles HA (6:54mm), 5 miles (7:17mm)
W 18 miles including 4X18 mins (3:00) (5:49mm), 6 miles (7:23mm)
T 11 miles (6:41mm), 6 miles (7:29mm)
F 9 miles HA (6:59mm), 5 miles (7:37mm)
S 16.5 miles including 8X1Mile(1/2M float) (5:52mm), 8 miles (7:22mm)
S 11 miles HA (7:02mm), 6 miles (7:29mm)

Total 130 miles (6:45mm)
Aerobic efficiency 945 beats per mile
Weight 141.6lbs
Body Fat 9.8% (13.9lbs) vs 10.3% (14.6lbs) last week
Lean Body Mass 85.75% (121.31lbs) vs 85.2% (120.47lbs) last week
Water 66.15% (93.67lbs) vs 64.92% (91.8lbs) last week


The last few weeks training has been going well as I entered the specific phase fitter and quicker than I have in previous campaigns. This was all part of the plan that Mike Baxter and I had been working on. Although it didn't seem to translate too well into PBs at shorter distances I knew I was hitting the eight week specific phase in much better condition than I have done before. I had a decent performance at the Great Yorkshire run which while outside my PB was I think worth a PB given the difficulty of the course. This set me up to really go into this part of my training with renewed vigour and excitement of what might come out the other end. It goes without saying that one must be cautious not to burnout when building for a marathon, that is why Mike and I believe in a short build up. I have seen too many runners nail the mileage and sessions for months on end only to end up running a lacklustre marathon. I am trying to ensure that my easy runs are very easy and my moderate runs aren't too stressful either so I can hit the sessions fresh and hopefully avoid that too commonly seen Marathon Burnout Syndrome. I have been guilty in previous build ups for pushing the easy/moderate days a little too much which has resulted in a sub-par performances in sessions. Whilst I have been lucky to have avoided massive burnout in recent build ups I know if I'm honest I have verged on overreaching. Canova is a massive advocate of quality recovery and gets his athletes to do this by what he refers to as 'increasing modulation', i.e. making the slower runs slower to ensure full recovery. It's not rocket science after all!


Sessions wise this week was all about changing focus to more of a speed endurance slant given that the endurance is largely there. Endurance should continue to build with consistent high mileage weeks (in fact this turned out to be my highest mileage week ever) but I don't think I'll be running as far as the 26.5 miles I did in last week's fast long run. So with that in mind there was no 'long run' this week. Albeit both sessions ended up being quite lengthy in their own right at 18.5 and 16.5 miles respectively. Wednesday's session went well with 4X18 mins at 100.5% of PB marathon pace. These came out at 5:23mm average having started the first at 5:25mm and speeding up a little throughout the following efforts. A very satisfactory session and while 5:23 pace would not give me a sub 2:20 in the context of a big week's training the effort is the most important part. It was good to see my HR was in the right zone for marathon effort too. I have also bombed in this session in past build-ups probably due to some of the points I mentioned above. So to nail it gave me a bit of a smile.


The second session on Saturday was scheduled to be 8X1mile at 105%MP (5:10mm) with half a mile float at 77%MP (6:40mm) so with a plan of covering 12 miles in 68 minutes (5:40 pace average). I did this same session at a similar time pre-Berlin last year and it was incredibly tough. This time it was somewhat easier. Although the paces were pretty much identical the effort was much less this time with my heat rate not getting anywhere near as high as last time. The pace for efforts and recovery came in at 106%MP (5:07mm) and 78%MP (6:37mm) respectively.


I have had a few people ask me via FB about the aerobic efficiency number that I quote above. This is something that I feel gives me a really good indication of how aerobically fit I am at any point in time. In a nutshell it is the average number of beats my heart takes per mile of running across the week. It fluctuates from run to run of course depending on fatigue levels, weather, etc. but the lower this number is, generally indicates the stronger I am from an aerobic perspective. As marathon running is in the main about the size of the aerobic engine it is crucial that this number gives me confidence. I have found that when I get below 1,000 beats per mile I am in pretty decent shape and below 950 I am basically as fit as I have ever been. This number is only relevant to me and will obviously vary from person to person. One thing that I am doing differently this time are the Heat Acclimatisation runs which has the effect of 'lowering' the aerobic efficiency on that specific run. I.e. the heart has to work 'harder' at a specific pace. By inference this should therefore mean a slight rise in the number for aerobic efficiency(thus less efficient) across a typical week that has a few HA runs in. It therefore follows that if I can get this number lower whilst including HA training then I can deduce that I am aerobically fitter than before! There is an interesting blog by Christof Schwiening here that talks about this whole concept in more detail. I found this retrospectively but enjoy his blog as it gives some really interesting insights into marathon training. I log my training on Fetcheveryone.com amongst other places like Strava and Garmin Connect and they have a useful analysis tool that lets me keep track of how ones beats per mile is evolving over passing weeks. As you can see below it is gradually trending downwards (i.e. efficiency is increasing) with this week at 945 beats per mile. The most efficient week I have ever had was 938 beats per mile which was before London in 2015. It is nice to be approaching that sort of territory again.

Chart displaying beats per mile over the past six months courtesy of fetcheveryone.com

Weight has been an interesting one to see this week as it hasn't particularly changed. That said according to my fancy scales my body composition has changed quite a bit with me having a lower percentage body fat but higher lean body mass and more water making up my overall mass. That means in addition to shedding a bit of flubber (apparently c0.7lbs of fat) I am both building a bit more lean body mass (0.8lbs) and my body is retaining more water (1.9lbs) perhaps as an adaptation to the heat acclimatisation running I have been doing.This is what I would class as 'helpful' weight. Hopefully the fat value will continue to go down in the coming weeks.

As some readers will know last year I was targeting sub 2:20 at Berlin and all was going to plan until I got a stitch with 7k to go. This lasted the remainder of the race but I held on for a PB of 2:21:51. Whilst a little disappointed with the outcome on that occasion, in a strange way it actually proved to me that I can run under 2:20 on the right day. Of course one mustn't ever take anything for granted and there are no guarantees, certainly not where marathon training and racing is concerned but I feel I am making good progress towards my goal at the moment.

This coming week should see high miles again with a Steve Way session, a Canova style fast long run at the South Cheshire 20 next week and I also plan to include some hill sprints in one of my easy runs.