Abingdon Marathon training - 8 weeks to go
Monday 21st August 2017
This week was going to be a mental battle between wanting to train hard and run lots of miles and having to taper (reduce miles and effort) in order to give me a chance of a successful half marathon on Sunday. I decided to continue training as usual for the first part of the week before reducing miles and just focusing on recovery runs towards the end of the week.
So I started my week of with a body pump class. I've done pump before, so I knew what I was letting myself in for, but not for a few years. Body pump is a class where you use a barbell with weights to do exercises in time to music. I enjoy classes with music in as I find it distracts me from the pain of the workout! This was an excellent class led by an instructor who clearly knows his stuff - definitely keen to return - hopefully with John as well. I also ran there and back to get some miles in.
In the evening, John and I ran 3 recovery miles around the Harbourside before Yoga for some much needed stretching.
Tuesday 22nd August 2017
I spent today resting, tidying the house and starting on some planning for next term. One of the reasons I was resting is because John had planned a particularly challenging speedwork session for tonight. Once John was home, we headed back to the Bristol to Bath cycle path with the aim of running 10 miles with 5 at half marathon pace - which for me now is between 6:20 and 6:30 minute miles.
The warm up run to the cycle path felt good. My legs didn't feel too bad and I was keen to hit the target and get a good workout in. The first 3 miles were 8:06, 7:41 and 7:34 so a good steady warm up pace. Once we hit the 3 mile mark, John started to disappear into the distance (his half marathon pace is 5:50!) As I said, I was keen to get a successful workout so really started working hard at what felt like a good speed. However, when I checked my watch I was only doing about 6:45mm. This first mile was uphill, so I knew it would be hard but, from the effort I was putting in, I felt like I should be moving quicker. Right - I thought to myself - what can I do? I thought about my form - I ran upright, I pumped my arms, I tried some positive thinking, I really worked at it. Mile 4 beeped and I looked down - 6:37. Not bad but not what I should be doing. I dug deeper still for mile 5 but it was just getting harder and harder - mile 5 passed in 6:34 better but still not where I wanted to be and I was quite simply working too hard.
After mile 5 I stopped. Checked my heartrate (177) and took some deep breaths. It wasn't until I relaxed that I realised that I'd clearly been very tense. My shoulder was painful, my legs felt incredibly heavy and (despite not having eaten for the last 3 hours) I had a stitch. This is unlike me and I realised that I had two options. 1) Push on, try harder and keeping working - digging deep when everything hurts is good mental preparation for the marathon.
2) End the workout there - I've still done 2 miles at a good pace and focus on the half marathon at the weekend.
I chose option 2. I felt that I really wanted to give the half a good go and I didn't want to risk injury or simply tightening up my calves any more than was needed.
I did the next few miles slower and steadier using them as recovery. Surprisingly, when I reach John at the end of the cycle path, he said he'd faced the exact same issues. After a bit on analysis, we concluded that that workout was simply too hard to do after the marathon paced efforts on Sunday. It was only then that I remembered we had the same problem during our last campaign - we really need to learn from our mistakes and plan better in the future.
Wednesday 23rd August 2017
I'd booked a sports massage in today with Jenny. I ran there as well to get a recovery 4 miles done. I really feel that a massage in the week before a race makes a huge difference. It's lovely to stand on the start line with legs feeling (relatively) fresh!
I also bought a selection of different brands of gels to try during training - a little experiment to find the type that suits me the best - I'll share the results of the test in a few weeks time.
In the evening, John and I decided to walk to the running club as we were going out for food afterwards to celebrate Paul's birthday. We didn't run as we both had backpacks with changes of clothes in. However, we underestimated how long walking takes compared to running! We missed the start of the group runs so just did our own thing instead - another recovery run around the downs.
Dinner was at Wahaca which had an excellent, detailed gluten free menu. The waitress was very careful to explain which dishes might have cross contamination - she clearly knew her stuff.
Thursday 24th August 2017
Today I was going to check out my friend Julia's new house in Nailsea. I had planned to drive but not told John so he had gone to work taking our car park fob with him. This meant that I had no way of getting my car out of the carpark! Not to worry I thought - I remembered John telling me that the cycle path I take to school goes all the way to Nailsea. I used the Sustran's website to check the route and sure enough, I could follow the Festival way - route 33 all the way from my front door to Julia's!
It was a glorious sunny day and the route was fab! I started off rather slowly - I've started to find that (now I'm getting older) it takes my legs longer to warm up and get to a good speed (something I need to remember for races - must warm up properly first!) so I plodded along for the first few miles. The route took me through the other end of Long Ashton to the one I was used to. It's always surprising what a big village it is! I then went towards and through Failand - another really lovely village. Then I was delighted to come across a beautiful cycle path between Failand and Backwell - all purpose built, away from roads, fields all around - stunning! There was a short 1 mile section on a country lane without pavements which wasn't ideal but the road was relatively quiet so not too bad. I would highly recommend trying it out for a run or cycle - 8.5 miles from Bristol to Nailsea - excellent! My pace got quicker for the last few miles but averaged out at 8:42mm for the run.
In the evening, John and I did another few miles around the Harbourside before our 2nd yoga class of the week.
Friday 25th August 2017
Having picked up a new pair of running shoes from my good friend Clare, I popped out today to try them out. When Clare mentioned that she was giving away a pair of shoes she didn't use, and I realised that the pair in question are my favourite brand, I was delighted! New shoes feel so springy (especially as my current pair has done over 600 miles- oops!).
Just the one run today - tapering sensibly!
Saturday 26th August 2017
With John feeling under the weather, I went out on my own this morning for my last recovery run before the Severn Bridge half tomorrow. Legs felt pretty good. Not really springy but I guess that's to be expected having done a lot of mileage over the last few weeks. I spent the rest of the day with my feet up, eating and drinking sensibly and generally resting ready for tomorrow.
Sunday 27th August 2017
Today was the Severn Bridge half marathon. I was up at 6 am (I always have to eat 3 hours before the race) for my usual pre-race breakfast of homemade egg fried rice! I then went back to bed for another 20 mins before getting up and ready - excitement starting to build!
Marcus, John and I have raced every single one of these races from the start in 2014 (the plan is to keep running it every year!). I find this race especially difficult because the course is very undulating with a couple of seriously steep hills. Last year I finished around 6th place so my aim for this year was to better that. I knew that prizes were given out for the top 5 and trophies for the top 3 so my aim going into this race was to place and get myself a trophy.
We got to the start line in plenty of time and started right at the front. Marcus was planning to run a similar time to me, as was Woody (although we all knew he was in very good form) John wasn't feeling good at all so also decided to run with me so it was really lovely having a group of us running together over the iconic bridge.
Standing on the start line, I looked around - sussing out the other girls - seeing who I recogninsed. Annoyingly, I quickly spotted last years winner (who I know is capable of a 1:24 half) and a couple of others who looked pretty nifty. Still, I thought to myself - you're in with a chance here!
I planned my race tactics - I wanted to get a good position from the start because this isn't a race where you can make up time in the 2nd half - the 2nd half is seriously hard! From the off, I counted the women around me and committed their kits to memory. I quickly got into a good position of 4th place and settled for a little bit. Then I decided to overtake two women who were clearly from the same club and working together (2 birds, one stone!) comfortable in 2nd place I felt good! Until I saw a lady, who I recognised, storm passed me. I picked up the pace a little to see what pace she was doing, but quickly realised that I couldn't stick with her for fear of burning up too soon. My plan was to try and keep her in sight - I was in 3rd position and happy with that for now.
Mile 1 and 2 are downhill so I made the most of them with two relatively quick miles (6:23 and 6:23 - consistent!). The first little hill comes in around mile 3 and then the undulation begin. While I'm racing, I split the race up into sections to make it more manageable. The first 3 are my "get into the rhythm" miles. Once those are gone, I feel better because I run 10 miles all the time. My next target point is 5 miles because mentally it's a nice number and it's half of 10...it works for me anyway! Then I set my target to reach is 7 miles because that's over half way, then 10 miles and then count down to the finish.
At mile 4 ish I started to see the lady in 2nd place slow down a little as Woody overtook her up ahead. This gave me some encouragement to dig in through the difficult undulating section. John had spotted my target and ran with me and at this point Marcus started to drop back a little. So it's just me and John now working together to catch 2nd place! Miles 3 - 6 were - 6:44, 6:51, 6:37 and 6:48. In this race, I knew that 'The Hill' was in mile 7. But, I'd done it before and so I knew what to expect. I really struggle and get anxious when I don't know the course and don't know what's to come. However, I'd done my homework on this one - I spent a lot of time analysing the strava data so I'd reminded myself of where the big hills were. I got up the hill - slowly but surely (and with lots of positive encouragement from my number 1 man). I didn't stop to walk and was rewarded with a lovely long downhill. A 7:55 minute mile did however spoil my pacing somewhat - but I didn't dwell on that, I just wanted to achieve my aim of getting a trophy!
I managed to pick up my pace on the downhill of mile 8 (6:24). I was feeling strong and felt like I could run forever. This positive mental attitude continued in mile 9 (6:41) although, as I had slowed a bit I decided to try a gel. I wont reveal anything about the gel or how I found it as I want to wait until I've tried all the different brands so I can make a fair comparison - I will also blog about my results.
Miles 10 and 11 I knew would be hard. These are the mile which climb steadily uphill back over the bridge. I knew I'd slow down and just tried to keep the pace as much as I could. I did remember to look over the bridge (for the first time in 4 races!) and admire the view! Despite John trying to encourage me to go faster, when I'm into a long gradual hill like that, I find it very difficult to get any acceleration at all. Instead I focused on when the downhill would arrive - I counted the pillars on the bridge and again, broke the mile down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Miles 10 and 11 passed in 7:04 and 7:26. Mentally, I knew I wasn't on for a especially impressive time, although I wasn't really keeping a good check of my splits I remembered seeing too many miles pass with a 7 at the start! Nevertheless, John was still encouraging me and mile 12 was downhill (mostly) so I managed to pick up the pace a little to 6:44. Mile 13 had a couple of hills in it but I managed 6:53 before sprinting down the hill and towards the finish (beating a man in the sprint finish - always nice!) crossing the line just behind John with a time of 1:30:20 - while this would have annoyed me not so long ago, as I was focusing on the position, I really don't mind those pesky 20 seconds (I'll leave the OCD worrying to John!).
I was hoping to see someone at the finish line giving out prizes (as advertised on their website) but none of the race officials were in sight...slightly confused by this, John and I went to investigate and found a little table, tucked out the way a bit, with trophies on...after nervously asking the race organiser if one of those was for me, I was told that I had finished in 3rd place and was handed a beautiful wooden, hand crafted trophy, another medal engraved with my position and the date and an envelope containing £60 in cash! Really over the moon with my race today. I feel like I worked hard but didn't over-do it and I'm feeling more and more confident that I'm getting stronger and fitter- looking forward to the marathon!
Really well done to all the GWR runners - especially Woody who got a PB! Really impressive on this course. Good effort from the Maestro ...even if he did get beaten by me (1st time ever!) a great run from him as he wasn't feeling 100% either. The GWR men won the team prize for the 2nd time and the women's team came in 3rd. A huge thank you to John who ran with me despite the fact that I'm notoriously difficult/ annoying to run with!
No comments:
Post a Comment