Monday, 24 July 2017

Project 2:20 - Berlin or Bust: Week 1 of 10

14 miles Fartlek (6:00mm)), 5 miles (6:57mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:40mm), 5 miles (7:39mm)
9 miles Fartlek (6:37mm) 5 miles (7:29mm)
T 10.5 miles (6:42mm), 5 miles (7:40mm)
F 6 miles (6:27mm)
S 20 miles Split Progressive (6:15mm)
S 11 miles (6:32mm)

Total 101 miles (6:37mm)
Aerobic efficiency 1090 beats per mile
Weight 147.6lbs
Body Fat 12.92% (19.06lbs)
Lean Body Mass 82.72% (122.07lbs)
Water 61.5% (90.7lbs)


As some will know, I have set up a YouTube Channel and Facebook Page to ease my narcissistic tendencies. If you would rather watch me chat through this week's diary then please feel free to watch the link below, subscribe, like, comment and all that palaver. For those that rather read what I've been up to then please just go to below the video.






My first week of 10 in the build-up to Berlin went pretty well on the whole. I had a couple of sessions and a split progressive long run. It was also nice to be back into three figures, mileage wise.


Monday, I jumped on the treadmill and did 20 minutes, 4X3minuts, 20 minutes and set the 20 minute efforts at 17.3kph and the 3 minute efforts at 18.3kph. It was a tough workout but a classic introducer session to the harder ones to come. I then did a fartlek on Wednesday and was intending to do 15X1minute hard (20kph) on the treadmill but it quickly became clear that my legs had not recovered sufficiently from Monday and Tuesday's mils so instead cut it to eight efforts. This was a sensible thing to do and on reflection I probably should have done this session on the Thursday.


It was then all about the weekend and as the pre-long run/session anxiety set in I realised it was going to be a proper slog! Especially when I woke up to Biblical rain. This one I had told myself I should od on the road though as the treadmill really cant replicate what you get from the road in terms of impact. I decided that I would do it as a split progressive long run on a my flat tempo loop. Having toyed with the idea of doing a hilly 22 miles at a steady rate I figured it would make more sense to do something a bit more specific to the marathon and get some decent chunks in at high aerobic paces. So I did a 10 mile chunk at 6:07mm, three minutes jog and then 5 miles at 5:47mm. The 5:47s felt tough, about marathon effort so I certainly have some work to do over the coming weeks! This sort of session should bring my aerobic fitness on a chunk though so I hope to see some quick returns over the coming days.



My body composition has improved slightly which is good but I do have a long way to go to get into racing shape. The picture on the left shows me at the start of the week and the picture on the right shows me early April when I was in great shape before London. Of course I got ill and then had to reassess my Spring targets. Dave Archer, a chum of mine kindly commented 'so what you're saying is, you've never been thin?' :-) I do believe that I could get a bit leaner than the second photo but want to ensure I don't do it at the expense of getting ill (again) or injured.




2 comments:

  1. Like the sound of split long runs...., might incorporate them in to my training, make the long run more interesting

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  2. Like the idea of a split long run, may incorporate that in to my training. Make my long run more interesting. Look forward to reading more of your blogs.

    ReplyDelete