Sunday 8 April 2018

Cox-Dicks Runcamp!

London Marathon Training - 2 weeks to go! 


Key - Both of us - Blue Kelly - Purple John - Orange 



As it was week two of the Easter Holidays, John took the week off as we had planned on having our own run camp. We both love the idea of going to Kenya, America or France to Iten, Flagstaff or Font Romeu but as we aren't quite at the standard of being invited to train with the elites yet...we thought we'd have our own one! Unfortunately, with Kelly being injured it wasn't quite the camp that we'd planned on but we still managed to get a good amount of running and cross training in. 

Monday 2nd April 2018 

My plan is still to run every other day to allow time for my foot to recover between runs. However, as I only did 3 miles yesterday and I want to run on Wednesday with my club, I decided to run today. I enjoyed a lovely 5 mile run with John in the evening around Ashton Court at 8:18mm average pace. My foot didn't hurt at all during the run which is brilliant. After the run I did have some tightness so did lots of icing and rolling afterwards. 

A bank holiday of too much food, drink and rubbish weather throughout. Good job we left our run till the end of the day and a nice weather window: 5Miles @ 8:20MM pace. Nice to run in the light and around Ashton Court instead of the usual Portway route.


Tuesday 3rd April 2018 

We started the morning with PT with more of a lie in than usual as we were starting at 7am rather than 6am! I was feeling pretty awake and excited at the prospect of not having to go to work after so was really up for the session. It was one of our favourite types of workout - a competition! 

It's usually pretty close between us...and we both brought our A game! 

Cardio.......ONE MINUTE SETS.......30s rest between each. 
 
The numbers next to each are our respective scores for each rep. 

Round 1 
Crunch and press with a 6 kg ball.....K32       J27
Press ups ..                                         K33       J37
Seated rows with 10 kg                     K27       J32
Elbow to knee crunches                    K58        J30
Squat thrusts over small tube            K27       J32
Row 2 minutes....                              K42.7   J48.8.     (427m v 488 m) 

Total for round 1 =                       K 219.7   J 206.8
Kelly wins round 1!

Round 2 
Clean and press 12.5 kg small bar.....    J32   K15
5kg medicine ball slams.                       J53   K54
Shoulder taps with raised legs              J27    K56
Squat and press with 4kg dumbbells     J26  K31
Squat and throw with 5kg medicine ball against a wall    J33    K40
Row 2 minutes......                                J50.8  K 44.1  (508 m v 441 m) 

Total for round 2 =                     J 221.8. K 240.1
Kelly wins round 2!

Round 3
Bicep Curls with 10kg bar                       K19   J33
Squats holding 10kg                                K34    J31
Shoulder press with 10kg  bar                 K25    J34
Squats to floor with 2 X 15kg dumbbells  K22  J27
Squat jumps                                             K46     J44
Row 2minutes                                          K42     J50.1   (420m v 501m

Total for round 3 =                            K188   J219.1
John wins round 3!


Final overall total of all 3 rounds = 

K647.8.  J647.7

Kelly wins by 0.1!!!!

A brilliant session- hard work but great fun. 

In the evening, I went to yoga ...I think I'm addicted! 

A massive PT session where I thought I was gonna lose the competition by a long way... Turned out to be very close in the end! It's great to compete as I think if I were strength training on my own in the gym I wouldn't get the gains of having proper instruction and competing against someone of a similar/better level.

I ran in the evening... Being that we're on holiday (napping daily) I thought a PT + Speed Work day would be OK... Trying my best to emulate the Maestro's training, I did the Yasso800 workout
Historically this workout was used as a target marathon time indicator. I don't think it's far out but regardless it's  really tough but good speed work session.

The idea is, if you are targeting 3:00 for the marathon - you need to be running 800mtr efforts in 3minutes. 10 efforts with a 1-2minute walking recovery in between.

I'm targetting 2:54 at London so my 800mtrs needed to be around
2minutes 54 seconds (5:48MM pace)

My splits looked like this: 2:55, 2:52, 2:44, 2:40, 2:44, 2:47, 2:44, 2:50, 2:52, 2:51

Success - the first effort was close but all the efforts were on or under marathon pace target. 

A 15 second split (2:40 - 2:55) but there was a very strong head wind in one direction making feeling the pace hard work.

The workout was tough! In hindsight, even with a day of rest, doing any kind of speed work after PT probably not very sensible. Doing the workout solo not very bright either. I think we've both said before throughout the blogs, any kind of speed work, be it marathon pace blocks or an LT workout or even racing on the Prom is a lot easier in a group. Note to self for future campaigns: Yasso800s in a group, no PT and not in a wind tunnel!

10Miles @ 7:15MM pace with Yasso800s


Wednesday 4th April 2018 

John is on a mission to improve his press ups...and not one to be left out, I decided to join in with his 50 press ups a day challenge! Day one complete. 

Wednesday nights are GWR club nights. I was planning to do the 10 mile route which I haven't done for 4 weeks since I was first injured. Running every other day means that for every run I do, I feel fresh and energetic. I ran with our sub 3 London Marathon crew. In the past I've been struggling to keep up with their pace. But today I was bounding along happily and easily keeping up with the boys. 10 miles done with an average pace of 7:28mm with 3 speedy miles at 7mm down the Portway. 

Knackered! After a 4mile plod from home to club I made it round the winter 10 route with the gang but felt horrendous throughout. Proper DOMSed after yesterdays PT and speedwork. 
14miles @ 7:48MM pace looks good but I was being carried by my running club buddies. This feeling relates back to the speedwork: On my own I'd have probably span out 10 miles at 9MM pace but being in a group, you want to keep up and the discussions help take your mind off the pains and wanting to stop. Great to see KD running strong - so strong that she actually left me behind, speeding off down the Portway!


Thursday 5th April 2018 

A spot of cross training today! We went for a bike ride! I'm really keen to cycle to work...but I am very under confident on my bike. I wanted to do a test-ride to try out my route to work and see what it was like. After a very slow start, I got used to it and actually started to enjoy it. Luckily, almost the entire route is on cycle paths so it's pretty safe. Hopefully the weather will be good next week and I can give it a go for real! 


John really loves selfies! 

As I didn't have time to go to a yoga class today, we decided to do our own yoga! 

We started with some sun salutations followed by different stretches like high lunges and then worked on our bird positions - pigeon and (the ultimate challenge) crow. 


John has mastered the crow!


Expert press ups

What do couples normally do when they're bored and on holiday... Cross train! A well taught home yoga class with Sensei Dicks instructing the moves... I'm rubbish at yoga: I can't touch my toes and some days I can't reach my knees BUT after some stretching and various animal titled poses I do feel better for running and less likely to get injured. 

The cycle was fun - KD cycles fine and could commute to school no probs if she wanted to. Nice to get the legs spinning in a different way.

After all the cross training, KD went off to Yoga and I had a recovery plod around the harbourside with the Maestro in blissful sunshine. 5Miles @ 8:43MM pace and my legs are starting to forget what I did to them on Tuesday. 


Friday 6th April 2018 

As I didn't run yesterday, today I could run hoooray! 5 miles down the towpath for the first time this year. It's lovely to be able to start running our summer routes again now. 8:40mm average pace so nice and gentle - it felt super easy. Really looking forward to pushing myself during Sunday's run. 

After doing lots of yoga classes on my own recently, today I was joined by John. I always enjoy doing yoga together. 

In the afternoon I went to see Jenny my physio again. As my foot is improving so much, I asked her to do a little bit of work on it but also to massage my calves and hamstrings on both legs. I have noticed that the muscles in my left leg are aching more and more - I guess this is because I've been doing so much stretching and massage on my right leg to try and heal the PF on my right foot. 

Thankfully, Jenny sorted my left leg so I left feeling more balanced! 

5Miles @ 8:30MM pace - more recovery running and legs defo over Tuesday's efforts now. Nice to try out a different route and explore the Towpath. A few more weeks and it should be dry enough to run all the way up to Pill. 

After yesterdays home Yoga, I had my arm twist to go to a professional taught class. It was a slow and easy session, just what I needed and we worked specifically on hips and ITB. I left the class feeling relaxed and legs feeling fresh and ready for tomorrows parkrun!

Saturday 7th April 2018 

No running for me today. I was planning on going to parkrun to marshal (but they didn't need any more help) or to cheer on my friends - especially Dan for his 100th run. But, as it was so wet and minging out, I decided that standing in the rain for over 30mins wasn't the best idea! 

Instead, I headed for the gym. 30 mins steady on the cross trainer before walking across to yoga.

With the weather as KD described, staying in bed was the best option really! BUT - I wanted to get my run done so I could celebrate marathon expert and fellow P&D enthusiast Dan's 100th parkrun and get home early to spend the rest of the day eating!

parkrun was hard. Wet and windy and the course inevitably full of puddles. I started quick and just wanted to get it over and down with. Out and back in 18:48 got me 2nd place - over 2 minutes behind the mountain goat first place effort and when I crossed the line and looked at my watch my body felt more like I'd run a 17:48... Dan and the Maestro crossed the line shortly after, not too far off their target of Sub19 but feeling the pains of the unavoidable conditions. Good to be back at parkrun after 6+ weeks off - gonna have another go next week and hope conditions are kinder and the tapering means even fresher legs. 

Sunday 8th April 2018 

Today was the big one! My final big push and a bit of a tester really to help me decide what my Marathon race pace should be. The last proper long run with some fast miles thrown in to see how I cope. 

We ran to meet the Maestro at the Suspension Bridge (for once we were early!). We ran across the bridge and then turned right and headed down towards Pill. This is quite an undulating section and I usually find myself lagging behind the boys. Not today! Once again, my legs felt fresh (especially after my massage) and I felt like I could run all day. I was getting quicker and quicker and at some points, I actually opened up a gap between me and the boys behind!  

I managed 3 miles at a good speed during the first half of the run: 

Mile 5:  6:50
Mile 6: 6:45
Mile 7: 6:47 

We then ran over the Avonmouth bridge across the M5. This was the only time during the run where I couldn't keep up with the guys. I must work on this section in the future - especially as it's a Strava segment! 

In the second half, once again I was keeping pace with John and the Maestro and I was still feeling good. We agreed to do 3 more miles at pace on the Portway. I didn't think I'd be able to keep up as their marathon pace is 6:40 (and they often run their training MP miles quicker than that!) but again I surprised myself and was running just behind John. He spotted me and encouraged me to get ahead of him and keep the pace. The next 3 miles were awesome. John went into full Coach Cox mode: encouraging me, reminding me of the pace, how far I had to go and pushing me to improve. It felt great to have his help and support and I was keen to impress him and show him how good I was feeling. 

I managed the next 3 miles of efforts at: 

Mile 12: 6:43
Mile 13: 6:43
Mile 14: 6:36 

A total of 15 miles done for the run. On an undulating route I managed an average pace of 7:26mm. 


A really positive run which has made me believe that my dream of running sub 3 hours for the London Marathon might actually be possible. 2 more weeks of training - although I am going to start tapering a bit - and hopefully my foot can continue to improve. 

A fun long run to finish off a great week on holiday/Cox-Dicks Home Run Camp. 
16 miles @ 7:21MM pace with some marathon pace miles thrown in for good measure. Feeling a little achy after yesterdays parkrun I was more than happy to sit at the back of the pack and watch the revitalised, springy, gazelle like Gluten Free Running Girl take the lead and show us how it's done! (After 4 years of running the same routes, it's lovely that she still needs to turn back and check with the Maestro whether we're going right or left up ahead!)
We all ran strong throughout which was reassuring as it was gonna be our last long run before London Marathon in 2 weeks time. Personally I feel I've got no problem running the 26.2 mile distance and I feel like our target of 2:54 is realistic this time round - although London is similar in stature as an occasion to Boston I'm hoping it's going to be different in stature to the Boston mountain like course! Maestro always runs strong and KD ran amazingly today - considering just 3 weeks ago she was considering throwing away all her trainers as her foot was broken and life was over...

Another 65+ mile week for me - time to start tapering! Less miles but keeping the pace and intenstiy up.

Totals for the week: 

Kelly - 35 miles 

John -  65.5 miles

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