Boston Marathon Training - 10 weeks to go!
My goal for this week was to stick to the plan...and I have! I'm following the 70 - 85 miles a week plan from the book in the picture.
I have also had my biggest mileage week at 87.1 miles!
Monday 30th January 2017
The week started positively with an early morning recovery run. After some serious hills on our 20 mile route the day before, my legs were feeling rather heavy and achy. A recovery run was much needed. 4 miles at 9:24 mm pace.
Today was a double day on the P and D plan so, in the evening, we headed out for our second recovery run of the day. Rather than going around the harbourside as usual, John had planned a new route through Ashton Court. It was a lovely run; dark, warm and no one else around - it felt like we had the whole of Ashton Court to ourselves. 6 miles banked at 9:23mm pace.
Tuesday 31st January 2017
Today was the 4th race in the Aztec West fast 5k series. This race is notoriously flat (apart from the initial hill at the start of each lap) and fast. It is a 3 lap race on pretty much empty roads which is ideal for me; my favourite races are fast, flat and on tarmac. The plan called for 9 miles so we planned to do 3 miles to warm up, the 3 mile race and then 3 miles cool down. I warmed up at 8:22 mm average pace. My legs were still feeling rather heavy and I was missing the springy bouncyness that I know I need for a PB.
Warm-up ended up being 3.4 miles.
The plan was for John to pace Woody (and me - so he thought!) to a sub 19 PB. I knew that I wasn't feeling a PB but I wanted to go off with them and see how long I could hang on. Unfortunately, we started a little too far back and, rather than the crazy fast start that I'd been used to on previous occasions at this event, I got caught up behind load of runners who'd probably started a bit too far forward. Weaving around for a bit, I tried to keep up but my legs were having none of it. I decided to run at a fast but comfortable pace and try and finish in a reasonable time.
My fast-but-comfortable-pace seems to be around 6:30 mm (as I also ran this pace at Barnstaple Parkrun the Saturday before) this is rather useful as I am hoping that I will be able to run the Bath Half as close to 6:30 mm as I can. Good to know that I can comfortably do 3 miles...just need to hold on for another 10!
Finished as 9th Lady with a time of 19:56.
Cool down of 2.6 miles = total for today 9.1 miles - perfect.
Dinner at Nandos with a mix of GWR and Southville crews. I have to admit, when Fi suggested Nandos I wasn't too keen. However, when I asked about gluten free options, the staff were excellent. They have a HUGE file of allergen information to trawl through - which is a bit of a pain to be honest - but at least it is clear what contains gluten and what doesn't.
The really good news is how they deal with cooking chicken for customers with Coeliac disease; they fully clean and disinfect the grill to ensure it is not contaminated. Plus the chips are cooked in a separate oil to any battered foods so I was actually able to have chips - this is a rarity for Coeliacs!
Wednesday 1st February 2017
15 miles on the plan today and I actually wasn't feeling too bad after Aztec. Clearly, doing a proper cool down actually helped - who'd have guessed!
I drove to our running club HQ in Redland to meet John and Marcus to do what I thought would be 5 miles before the winter 10 mile route. However, because Marcus had already ran to club, he only needed 4 miles. Everyone who knows us will know that Dad is the boss so we stopped after 4 miles. I made a mental note to make up that mile later on as my mantra this week was to "stick to the plan."
We then joined the rest of the crew to run our usual 10 mile route through Westbury and along the Portway. I took it fairly steady tonight and enjoyed catching up with friends and having a good old natter.
14 miles done at an average of 8:13mm pace.
To extend John's birthday celebrations even further, a group of us went out for a curry after the run at Redland Tandoori - a top GWR post run venue! Another good gluten free option as all of their dishes are cooked using lentil or chickpea flour.
Thursday 2nd February 2017
To allow John to have a drink with his birthday curry, I drove us both home leaving his car at the club. This meant that Thursday morning's run had to including picking up the car. When we left our apartment - shock horror - it was raining! It wasn't until we were faced with rain that we realised how few wet training runs we've had during our first 8 weeks of Boston Marathon Training. This was the first time that we'd left the house in the morning to rain. Cold and soggy, we quickly agreed to drop our planned 7 miles down to 5.
5 miles recovery at an average of 9:28 mm pace.
A great day at school; I had a maths lesson observation which went brilliantly. Nothing like some excellent feedback to put you in a good mood.
In the evening we had a PT session with Jules booked in. I always look forward to these sessions because they are varied, interesting and challenging - everything a good PT session should be.
Today's work out went like this:
Rowing to warm up.
Circuit 1 = 3 sets of firstly 20 seconds then 40 seconds and finally (and painfully) 60-seconds.
Squat and press with an 8kg medicine ball
side to side squat jumps
squat jumps plus 2 x 6 kg dumbbells
..........
Circuit 2 = 3 sets of 10 reps of
Plank side crunches (or spider-men as I prefer to call them!)
Tube T- squat thrusts
Cable rotations
..................
Circuit 3 = 4 sets of
Box jumps (3 sets) into double box jumps (a smaller box to jump onto first, followed by the bigger box after - like an obstacle course! - This was my favourite activity).
Side step ups with a 5kg med ball held overhead
...................
Circuit 4 = 4 sets of 12 with each set increasing in difficulty.
Seated balance front throws..straight , sides and random (sat, balanced on my bum with legs raised - Jules throws a ball to me for me to catch and throw back - a great core exercise).
Sat chair rows (using the cable machine while in a ski sit (ouch!)
.................
Balance work
Jules presented me with a 'wobble board' for the first time. This would be to improve balance he said. Now anyone who knows me knows that I am rather clumsy. I am known to frequently walk into inanimate objects, fall over and generally injure myself so I wasn't holding out much hope for this exercise!
After helping me onto the board (first challenge overcome!), he told me to get my balance and make small correcting movements. Then he picked up a huge (in size) 3 kg ball and started throwing it for me to catch. Next, he asked me to hold it and squat - while still trying to balance on this very wobbly board. Then, I had to squat and throw the ball onto the floor as hard as I could - this is a great one for getting out any built up frustration!
Finally, he asked me to stand on it on just 1 leg. Well that, for me, was literally impossible. Even with a balancing aid (in the form of a wooden pole), I was simply not able to balance for more than a couple of measly seconds. Jules informed me that we would be practicing this again in the future. I await this with trepidation!
Another really great session.
While John was put through his paces (on exactly the same session as me) I took the opportunity to make up for the missed miles. 3 miles on the treadmill meant that I was back up to date. A really good feeling - keeping my OCD at bay!
Dinner - gluten free spaghetti carbonara.
Friday 3rd February 2017
Today's run was supposed to be a 13 mile Lactate Threshold (LT) run with 6 at half marathon pace. Now we always like to get Friday's run over an done with in the mornings so we can collapse after work on Friday night. Running 13 miles with 6 at pace at 5:30 am filled me with dread. I knew I wouldn't be able to achieve the target (especially after PT the night before) so I decided to swap over the Friday and Saturday runs. I was a little worried that this might cause problems for me during the planned 22 mile long run on Sunday but John assured me that Sunday's run would be slow (8:30 - 9 mm he said -ha ha!) - so I decided to run my 7 mile recovery run on Friday.
John wanted to stick to the plan and do his LT run in the morning so he came up with a rather detailed plan which involved me running at 9mm for 6 miles and him running (a lot faster) for 10 miles and us meeting at our favourite recovery point. Eager to be at the right place at the right time, meant the today's run was a lesson in pacing for me. Trying to keep every mile at as close to 9mm as I could was quite a challenge - especially because, for once, my legs were feeling rather fresh!
Running around the harbourside on my own felt rather odd. I've become so used to running with people that I felt quite lonely! I wasn't scared but my senses were definitely heightened. You can therefore imagine the instant feeling of panic that flooded through when I heard a deep growling sound coming from a dark corner...This was quickly followed by a thudding, scratching sound before two foxes came into sight! Running at full pelt, they sprinted down the harbourside causing my heart-rate to spike somewhat! It was however, lovely to see more of what is fast becoming a favourite animal of mine and a sort of training talisman. Seeing these hairy, ginger creatures also reminded me of a certain someone so I focused my attention on continuing the run!
7.6 miles done at 9:02mm pace.
Friday means running club. Session 3 with the Year 3 and 4 kids at school. Last week, they were all given a number based on their speed. Today we played a game I like to call 'Cat and Mouse'. I sent the slower kids (group 3) off first, followed by group 2 and finally the faster ones - group 1. The challenge is for group 3 - the mice - to hold off the cats - group 2 and 1 for as long as they can. While groups 2 and 1 have to try and overtake as many mice as possible. They love this game because the slower kids,who often finish last, get to finish at the front. The look of pride on one child's face, as he told me that he was first to finish, was just magical.
Saturday 4th February 2017
Eager to 'stick to the plan' we left home at 8:00am (lovely to have a lie in - yes, waking up at 7:30 is now classed as a lie in!) and headed to our home Parkrun of Ashton Court. We ran the 'long way' to get our mileage total up so by the time we reached Ashton Court, we'd already ran 5 miles.
My legs were feeling rather good today- and I needed to get 6 fast miles in- so I planned to go for it at Parkrun and have a bash at a PB. My Ashton Court PB stands at 19:56 so I wanted to run mile 1 (the hardest and totally up hill mile) at 7:04 or less. When I finished mile 1 and my watch said 7:15 I knew I'd have to pick up the pace to get a PB but I knew I wasn't too far off at least. The second mile was much better 6:49 and the third mile was around 5:25 (downhill). It wasn't quite enough for a PB but at 20:10 on a hilly course and 2nd lady as well - not too shabby.
Parkrun was finished but I wasn't. I had another 5 miles to do with 3 of those at half marathon target pace (6:50 or less).
Marcus was in full 'Dad mode' and told me, in no uncertain terms, that I shouldn't be running fast today (because we had 22 miles to do tomorrow) and that I wasn't allowed to complain about my legs hurting tomorrow!
We headed for the Portway - a great road for speedwork. I wanted to get 3 miles in under 6:45 mm pace but I was aware that I'd ran pretty quickly for 3 miles already - this would be a good test as to my current half marathon fitness level.
Mile 1 - 6:38
Mile 2 - 6:37
Mile 3 - 6:33
Progressive splits - that's something I'm not able to do very often. Filled with confidence, I headed home. It's a good feeling to know that after 10 miles I am still able to get down to 6:30 pace.
Annoyingly, my strava data doesn't show these splits as I foolishly stopped my watch a number of times. John kindly stitched them together for me but that has changed the data slightly - lesson learned.
Sunday 5th February 2017
Getting out of bed and, at first test, my legs didn't feel too bad. Unfortunately, that wouldn't last long as, to reach our meeting point on the downs, we had to run 2 miles completely uphill (including St. Michael's hill!). We had planned to meet Paul and Marcus at 8:00 as usual. Marcus, it is well known, waits for no man (or woman it seems!) so when at 8:00 we were still 1/2 a mile away, I was starting to worry...
Reaching the meeting point, we could see two blue figures running across the downs and we knew that they'd given up waiting and started on the 22 miles without us! Remember earlier in the week when John promised me a 8:30 - 9:00 mm pace, well, chasing Paul and Marcus across The Downs isn't exactly the gentle start I'd hoped for! Thankfully, John raced ahead and caught up with them. Now, as I joined the group, we headed for the Towpath. I didn't remain as part of the group for long though. This 8:30 - 9 mm pace, was clearly a cover for the actual planned pace of 8:00 min miles! For the guys, this was an 'easy' pace but for me, I was working too hard to keep up. I decided that I would leave them to it and focus instead on keeping around an 8:30 pace which is comfortable for me.
They kindly stopped regularly to let me catch up and although I'd rather have run with them, I was really pleased with my average pace considering the mileage that I'd done this week. Not wanting to get in trouble, I didn't moan once, despite the fact that my legs were really quite painful! As the miles quickly ticked away, I actually started to feel better and better and stronger and stronger. A few miles went by at 8:20 pace or less and my confidence was high. The last 3 miles were downhill so I decided to try and pick up the pace a little to finish strong. This is a great way of training because it prepares your body to run hard even when you're feeling tired. My last 3 miles were the fastest of the whole run - 7:54, 7:53 and 7:35. Job done.
22 mile done at an average of 8:27 mm.
Total this week = 87.1 miles
My highest mileage to date. But best of all - I stuck to the plan!
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