T 8 miles HA (6:53mm), 6 miles (7:27mm)
W 19 miles including 24, 18, 12, 6, 3mins (3:00) (5:51mm)
T 11 miles (6:22mm), 7.5 miles (7:24mm)
F 9 miles HA (6:29mm), 5 miles (7:40mm)
S 7 miles HA (7:21mm)
S 26.4 miles including South Cheshire 20
Total 118 miles (6:31mm)
Aerobic efficiency 954 beats per mile
Weight 139.9lbs vs 141.6lbs
Body Fat 9.7% (13.57lbs) vs 9.8% (13.9lbs) last week
Lean Body Mass 85.7% (119.88lbs) vs 85.75% (121.31lbs) last week
Water 65.86% (92.12lbs) vs 66.15% (93.67lbs) last week
After the excitement of being called up to represent England in the forthcoming Toronto marathon, it was important not to let that excitement carry through to my training too much. I have had many supportive bits of advice encouraging me not to start pushing the envelope, not least from my coach Mike Baxter. Toronto is scheduled for a week later than the Yorkshire Marathon so it wont really alter my plans significantly these coming weeks. If anything it should allow me to be a little more cautious as I come back to training following a half marathon race I'm doing a week on Sunday. I hope to go for a PB in this race providing the weather is good and will be tapering down for it to ensure I am moderately fresh!
So this week was really the last big week before a bit of a cut back with next week's race in mind and following last week's biggest ever mileage week Mike encouraged me to reduce the miles slightly especially with the sessions we had in mind. The first session was as usual on Wednesday. Again I had to do this in London as I was down with work and so made the jog out to Victoria park which has a great uninterrupted loop of close to a mile which is perfect for marathon tempo type sessions. The plan was 24 mins, 18 mins, 12 mins, 6 mins, 3 mins all off a three minute jog recovery starting at close to Marathon Pace and increasing the pace with each shorter effort. It came off quite nicely with paces of 101.5%MP(5:20mm) for the 24 mins, 103.4%(5:14mm) for the 18 mins, 103.7%(5:13mm) for the 12 mins, 106.2%(5:05mm) for the 6 mins and 108.3%(4:58mm) for the 3 mins. As I started the first 20 mins I was conscious that I felt I was holding back, which is a great feeling and perhaps a good indication of what MP might end up being. It feels a bit like you're running with the handbrake on, i.e. if you took it off and let go, you could pick up the pace quite a bit. That said my mind was telling me not to push too hard as this session really does get a lot harder as you progress through the efforts. Unfortunately on starting the 18 minute effort I forgot my own sage advice and possibly pushed the first mile or so too hard which meant the remainder of the session was tough. I wouldn't say breaking point tough but it was definitely tough! It is a great session though and I think Dave Archer did the same session last week and he noted that the last few efforts really do replicate how the legs feel in those last few miles of the marathon. I couldn't agree more as the legs really do feel very heavy and one's breathing is on the limit. 'Really treacly' is the way I like to describe it!
The second session of the week was another fast long run and this time I had decided to do the fast bit within a race at a controlled effort, hoping that it would make it feel easier. It was the South Cheshire 20. Now, I said I wouldn't run as far as I did a couple of weeks ago and I just about managed it albeit I did still run 26.4 miles including warm up and warm down. It was however probably a tougher run given the profile of the course versus my close to pancake flat tempo loop. Just after I'd registered I met a facebook 'friend' Tony Wardle who told me that Ben Gamble was running today. I knew he held the course record from three years back and so with that took it that I would be happy with second place given I had no intention of running under 1:50! The plan had been to run at solid 5:40s (95% of MP) all the way depending on the course profile. Soon we were off and Ben and I settled in together. I introduced myself and we nattered through the early miles. Ben is such a gent and made a brilliant wind block for many of those miles!
Just after the start: Photo and video credit: Bryan Dale
Luckily for me, Ben was not at his peak fitness and so his pace coincided with what I wanted to run at which meant that I would have company for the vast majority of the race. This was great as it had always been a bit of a daunting session when I had put it in the plan so to have someone to run with would certainly help on what was a hard training run. While the legs felt a little dull, especially on the hills of which there were many (and so they should after the recent miles), aerobically I was really comfortable and well below marathon effort. I didn't want to go much above 170 beats per minute (marathon HR 175-178bpm) if I could help it, this would ensure that it was still very much a controlled run. After a few miles the conversation gradually dwindled to occasional comments of 'they found another hill' and 'surely there cant be anymore now!'
Having fun: Photo and video Credit: Bryan Dale
It's a bit of a strange one doing a race as a session as although it feels 'easier' than a training run, you cant help but think of race tactics. How is the other guy feeling? Is he stronger than me? Will I beat him? As I said before I didn't mind losing today, it wasn't about winning, it was about having a hard training run in a race environment with a number pinned to my chest. As the race progressed however I did feel that I was probably stronger than Ben and so thought I would go for the win, the question was when? As we hit the 16 mile mark I decided to up the effort and see what happened, he came with me and as I was still four miles from the finish didn't want to push that hard for four miles I decided to ease back on the effort and give it another go a bit further on! Ben is one tough cookie because every move I made, he covered and despite it seeming he was working harder than me I couldn't open up a gap. For me, my session was going well, there had been no massive surprises in terms of effort or heart rate, in fact it all looked great! I was tired though, of course I was, I was coming to the end of the biggest five week block of training I have ever done (518 miles in August) and looking forward to an easier week. But as we hit eighteen miles I really went for it, I just got my head down and decided to let off the handbrake. This time I did manage to open up a gap and managed to build it to 10 seconds by the end of the race to take the win in 1:52:11 with the last two miles the quickest of the race at 5:19 and 5:16. My heart rate for the race averaged 169 which tells me I should be in c2:20 shape right now. This is obviously highly promising and showing that things are coming together very nicely.
'I thought this was a road race?'
Weight wise I seem to have dropped about a pound and a half which is great as I think there's still quite a bit of fat to shift and I'm getting close to being as light as I ever have been as a runner. Given there are still six weeks to go to Toronto though I am not looking at crash dieting and will let the training do what it has to while eating as healthily as I can.
This coming week will be all about reducing the mileage significantly and trying to get a PB at a Half Marathon next weekend. I know I am in shape to do it, I just hope the weather plays ball and I have a good day. If I can get close to 68 minutes I know that sub 2:20 will be up for grabs.
Finally, given my news this week, it's all gone a bit 'bonkers' and I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you so much for all the nice messages and comments I have received regarding the news of my selection for England. I am truly, truly humbled. It will be a dream come true to pull on that vest and although I only got selected because of someone's poor fortune (injury) I promise to do the best I can for the remainder of my training and the race itself.
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