London Marathon Training - 14 weeks to go!
Key - John - Orange Kelly - Purple Both of us - Blue
This has been a really great week of training for both of us. We tend to find that it takes around 3 or 4 weeks for our bodies to get used to the increased mileage and volume of training. For once, we had a week without any races so we were looking forward to sticking to the plan and hitting every session.
During this week of our Boston marathon training last year, I came down with a pretty bad cold which quickly went onto my chest. I took two full weeks off running. Since then, I've been taking daily vitamins and haven't been ill since. I'd missed this week of the plan completely so was really looking forward to following it this time around.
Monday 8th January 2018
We didn't run until the evening today which meant that my legs were feeling pretty good. We ran to and from our running club's committee meeting making a total of 5 miles. With my new aim being to put more effort in when running up hills, I started the week of well with a Strava PR on a segment called 'Hampton hill'!
Easing into the week with a steady 5. Year-on-year improvement as a Recovery Run would always have been 5K for us and 9+MM mile pace, whereas this year 5miles seems to the be standard and usually banking all miles <9mm pace.
Tuesday 9th January 2018
Another lie in today which meant that, once again, my legs were feeling in good shape for the planned efforts. 10x100m strides. I was even able to keep up with John for once ...although I think he might have been taking it easy...
I love strides! Feels like cheating in a way as just a tiny bit of effort takes the average pace from being standard GA to a stand out skillz workour! Probably the only technique work we do as well, trying to exagerate the knee lift and elbows during the 100mtrs of effort.
Wednesday 10th January 2018
Wednesday is club night. The plan called for 14 so we ran to and from club as well. Sticking to my new plan, I really worked hard up the main hill (with the Strava segment in the back of my mind!) beating all the boys (woohoo!) and running into the road (because the segment used to end in the middle of the road!) only to be told, by John, that he'd actually created a new - safer segment where you don't have to risk your life for a Strava crown!
I managed a few quicker miles down the Portway and had an average pace of 8mm for the whole run. Not too shabby.
15 miles and a couple of weeks of running long mid week as well as on the weekend. I'm definately feeling the benefits of running for longer rather than running more often, having already banked 6 - 13+ mile runs this campaign - averaging nearly 2-per-week!
GFRG is the first of us to hit the <1000 heart beats per mile economy! A 132BPM average for 14 miles, taking 106minutes = 999!!
Thursday 11th January 2018
Recovery today. A nice easy 3miles, at 9:02mm average pace, around the harbourside.
Ditto + running with the guys from work in the evening. Three of us have formed an unofficial work running club and one of the guys managed PBs at 400m - 5k!
Friday 12th January 2018
Another recovery again today. Knowing that we had a long run with marathon paced efforts on Sunday, meant that I wanted to keep my legs as fresh as possible. 5 miles at an average of 8:50mm.
Ditto - calorie crushing/Strava-OCD satisfying at it's very best!
Saturday 13th January 2018
11 miles on the plan for today (actually it was on the plan for Friday, but we often swap Friday's and Saturday's sessions to allow us to run two and from parkrun). A gentle run to parkrun where I spotted Francesca who has been getting back into running since the birth of her daughter. We ran together today - it was lovely to have a chat and catch up. It also meant that I (for once) didn't get carried away and run parkrun too hard. I was thinking of tomorrow's session and saving myself for that. John on the other hand...
Sunday 14th January 2018
Long run day! Unusually, I'd actually been looking forward to this run all week. I was feeling strong and wanted to see what I could pull off. The plan called for 18 with 10 at marathon pace. However, on our last marathon paced session we only managed 6 so the plan for today was to try and do 8 miles at pace.
We used the Bristol to Bath cycle path which is relatively flat ...the first few miles are definitely up hill so I wanted to do the MP miles on the way back and make the most of the downhill section...sadly, I was outvoted so instead, my first MP mile was uphill. While I know that it is good to train on hilly sections, I do still find it very difficult physically and also mentally. My new marathon pace is 6:40mm which, as it's early on in the plan still, I find really hard. On the flat it is really hard. So uphill, I have to really push myself. Despite working has hard as I could (while still trying to leave enough in the bank for the other 7 miles of efforts), I couldn't quite keep up with John and Marcus.
First 4 miles - warm up (8:03, 7:41, 7:32, 7:31)
Mile 5 - 6:51
Mile 6- 6:50
The path then flattens out and includes some downhill sections that I sped up on to improve my average pace for that mile. The next couple of miles I was much happier with:
Mile 7 - 6:40
Mile 4 - 6:38
Mile 9 - 6:43
Mile 9 was the turnaround point and marked half way of the run and well over half way for the efforts. Marcus deiced to keep going but John turned around and we enjoyed 1 mile of running together at pace before another hill turned up and I couldn't keep up!
Mile 10 - 6:47
Mile 11- 6:54
With just one more mile of efforts to go, I really wanted to finish on a high. I really pushed myself to try and get that last mile closer the 6:40 aim. I concentrated on form: running tall, leaning forward slightly, pushing off with my toes. Eventually, I heard the beep which meant I could slow down. Phew!
Mile 12- 6:42
Feeling pretty pleased with myself, all I wanted to do was stop and rest for a bit. But John was just ahead and waving for me to catch up so I kept at it. The next mile felt really hard as my legs were ready to give up. But then, they seemed to get over it and I felt able to pick the pace up a bit to 7:30s. The last 5 miles actually didn't feel too bad. I was able to finish strong and with a really good average pace for the whole run of 7:15mm I felt really pleased with that session.
The GFRG, the Maestro and I banked some good marathon speed work today. I'm not strictly following the plan until 12/10 weeks to go and as KD said, last times efforts ended up being just 6miles instead of the intended 8 at marathon pace so the target for today was always 8 miles. Progressively week on week building the long run from 13-15-18 has been a steady and comfortable procedure! 18 miles today feeling strong was my furthest and longest run of this campaign so far. HR suggests the engine is working nicely with a 140BPM average meaning just (1011!) over 1000 beats per mile. Although the 8 miles at pace felt strong throughout - I'm glad we only did 8! Different to previous campaigns it was great (and hopefully beneficial?) to run all the 8 in a block instead of 3/4 with a moving recovery.
Total miles for the week -66.4
Total miles for the week - 70+
Next week, I'm going to have a go at stepping up from the P&D 55-70 miles a week plan to the 70-85 miles a week plan. I'm feeling strong and enjoying running the miles. I want to challenge myself further and see how my body copes with higher mileage weeks.
Too big a jump for me right now - gonna stick to ticking over and improving my endurance with a mini taper at the end of the week for a relay race with club mates and the race the shall not be named!
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