Well, the first of 3 (possibly 4) pre marathon races, and I have to say the weather conditions were terrible! I arrived in plenty of time to do my warm up, stretches and strides but after parking in the car park I was greeted with biblical type rain and howling winds!!! I got changed and started my warm up about 30 mins before the race and found myself doing 3 warm up runs, because when I stopped I froze! Luckily I know what HR zone to run in so I wasnt doing myself any damage. This was also the first time i've entered a race and would be running to a specific pace and not just going balls out and trying to get a good time. My marathon pace is going to be 8 min / mile and in my head i wanted to run this race at 7min 30 sec per mile but deep down I think I was saying that just to get a good time and didnt want to be embarassed when people passed me. I realised this isnt my marathon and it doesnt matter what time i do. London is where it counts! So i decided to run my first 5 miles at 7 min 50 secs per mile and my last 5 miles at 7 min 20 secs per mile. So 10 secs and 40 secs quicker than marathon pace. I was keeping a very close eye on my HR too and i have to honestly say its one of the best races I have ever ran! the first 5 miles were so hilly so i reckon if i had have gone out quicker the final 5 miles would have been a struggle. My HR was in my tempo zone but only just and was in my threshold zone for the rest of the time. it fills me with so much confidence and as my next race is Retford Half Marathon it makes me want to go under 1 hour 40. which again on a flat course is easily achievable. but as i mentioned London is my goal so I dont want to compromise that and do something stupid and burn out! But the good news about Retford Half is that its apparently flat so if my HR allows I will push. It will fill me with more and more confidence and make running at 8 min / mile pace at London so much easier! 11 weeks to go! really looking forward to my recovery run tomorrow and a good tempo session on Tuesday! I cant believe I've completed 6 weeks training already! it seems to have gone so quick. I feel like I lost a few weeks over the Christmas period as its just a manic time but after looking at my runs since I started I can see a massive improvement and most importantly the increase in mileage is there to see.
Coach Tune set me an 18 week plan which is broke down into 3 blocks of 6 weeks. The first 6 weeks was mainly building a base and getting into a routine of running more and increasing my mileage. Luckily I didn't have to adapt too much as I was already running a minimum 3 times a week. the hardest thing is balancing life and work with running. Just last week I had to get up at 4.47am to get an 11 mile run in before work, but I knew there would be hard days and that was one of them! I received my next 6 week plan on Thursday and it looks like this; Monday - Recovery Run 60 mins Tuesday - Tempo Session @ The Keepmoat Wednesday - Rest Thursday - Threshold Run - 90 minutes Friday - Recovery Run - 60 mins Saturday - Rest Sunday - Threshold Run - 150 mins I've also got a few races coming up too, Ferriby 10 (10 mile run), Stamford 30km, Retford Half Marathon and Gainsborough 10km, at these races I can practice my race pace and see how I fair. The Ferriby race is next Sunday and I plan to run at 7min 30 secs / mile pace. I want to stick to this and see how I feel sticking to a certain pace. My marathon pace is going to be 8 min / mile so in theory this should be achievable....... Ill be sure to update you next sunday! Overall I'm really enjoying the training, it may sound sad but there's no better feeling for me than getting the running kit out and doing 10 miles in the pouring rain or going out for a threshold run at 9pm! I know I will be getting nervous the closer we get to race day but If I prepare like I am there should be no reason to be nervous! I've also decided for the last 12 weeks of training I wont be drinking alcohol, I want to be in the best possible condition for race day. I WILL be drinking a cold beer at about 3pm on 13th April though! 12 weeks to go then.... Popped to see Coach Tune @ Blizard today as had a few aches and pains. I wasn't too sure what was causing these annoying niggles but every so often they have a 'free advice' session down at the clinic so I thought I'd go down and see if they could help me out. I saw Ian first who went through my symptoms and we did a few exercises which helped and he did a bit of work on my back (I am not very flexible and my back stiffens up very easily!) so my back has loosened up a bit which helps so much.
I then saw Dave to see why I was having pains on the bottom of my arches and stabbing pains in my ankles. I very recently changed trainers and now wear 2 pairs of trainers (one for long runs and the other for all my other runs) It turns out I should be using my cushioned trainers for all runs but my tempo runs and races. As I've been putting in lots more miles and doing them in my racing shoes I'm risking injury and causing irritation as my racing shoes have next to no cushioning. So moving forward i'll be using the cushioned trainers for all runs apart from Tuesdays at the Keepmoat. I also wanted Dave to have a quick look at me running in the trainers because I didn't know the Racing Shoes (Adidas Mana 7) had a built in support when I bought them and because I have special insoles with extra arch support I didn't know whether to put them in or not. I DIDNT have them in as in my head I'd be over compensating if I put them in so only used them in my Cushioned trainers (Adidas Duramo) so Dave chucked me on the treadmill and checked how I ran in them and luckily I did the right thing and left them out of the racing shoes. I have had issues with trainers before and not wearing the right ones which actually caused a serious injury so I feel confident now I've had them checked out and can continue without risking hurting myself! There's no better feeling than driving to the Keepmoat at half 5 on a Tuesday night for a tempo training session! Due to work commitments I missed last week so this is my first tempo session of the year. Coach Dave Tune prepares some amazing training sessions. I've been going to these sessions since May last year and I've never done the same session twice. Which I think is a good thing because once you have finished you never want to do it again and would be tempted to skip the session if it came up again!!
I've been doing my own tempo sessions over Christmas and even though I've pushed myself its no comparison to turning up and running with 30 other people. The session tonight was 1x1600 (2 min recovery), 6x800 (90 sec recovery), 1x1600. I know that I'd be running over 5 mile at tempo so I had to pace myself accordingly (my first ever session I DIDNT do that and burned out after 800m but had to carry on for another 4 miles!!) I ran the first mile at 7min/mile pace then I ran the 800's with Glyn Jones and we kept to a 6.40 min/mile pace then the last mile at 7 min/mile. I have to thank Glyn lots because we helped each other and paced each other (Glyn has a race sunday so didn't want to push too hard and as it was my first session back I didn't want to burn out too soon) so thanks Glyn, really appreciate that! Rest of the week is a combo of recovery runs and a 11 mile threshold run at 5.30am on Thursday morning! So I decided id use the new garmin heart rate monitor I got after my current HR monitor started playing up (but then started working again. Sort of) In my head i thought id run my current one into the ground then use the new one. But it didn't take long to notice spikes in my heart rate monitor so I decided to use the new one (after spending 20 mins trying to sync it up) it didn't take long to realise I was running too slow! I averaged an 8 min/mile over 8 miles and that includes slowing right down for a mile due to chest pains. It's a real positive as I was running at my marathon pace and it felt so comfortable. As the weeks go on and I get fitter the threshold pace should quicken so when it comes to marathon day I should be confident of the pace Ill be running at. When I'm on my long runs I sometimes wonder what it will be like in London and the crowd support etc. I have ran in big races with big support like the Great Manchester Run but after speaking to people who have done London before I understand the support to be amazing. So at a certain point in my run (on Kirk Sandall Ind Est) I imagine I'm where this bloke is in the marathon (minus the tattoos and random shouting) so on my last half mile, where the industrial estate bends to Doncaster Road I make my way into the middle of the road and imagine I'm turning onto The Mall for the last few hundred yards. it always makes a 15 mile run more worthwhile. Especially that in 13 weeks i'll actually be turning that corner after 3 and a half hours!! As my subject says its been a funny old week, unfortunately I've been carrying an injury for just under a week but fortunately work has taken over soooooo I ran as normal Monday (6 mile recovery run) then as I was in Bolton all day I did my own tempo run on Tuesday (1xmile@Tempo, 4x400m@tempo) plus warm up and cool down and 3 mile threshold and 3 mile recovery on Wednesday. Then! I was in Newcastle all day Thursday working and finally got to the hotel about 6pm and pretty much collapsed then the same again Friday where I was outside from 8am til about 4 then had a 2 hour drive home. Saturday I was at Hillsborough (6-0 against Leeds if anyones wondering!) then we spent Sat Eve at Jennas parents and I had football on Sunday (which was eventually cancelled) but looking back I'm quite happy I've had the rest as I think I've been pushing myself a bit too much and I've pretty much been in pain since last Sunday and now, sat writing this I feel refreshed and ready for some running next week!
I've planned next weeks running already so there shouldn't be any missed sessions plus im back at the Keepmoat with Coach Tune! cant wait!!!! I cant believe I've been in Marathon training for 4 weeks already! It definitely doesn't feel like it. I am proud of myself for getting out for runs over the Christmas period though. I wasn't following my plan 100% but made sure I fitted in what I could when I could! I did 2 tempo runs on my own and ran at a pace quicker than I've ran before. I squeezed in a 17 mile run and kept to running 5 times a week.
I think now Christmas has passed I can concentrate fully on my training and diet etc, which is one thing I neglected slightly! (the diet part) I also think I drank enough to keep the fosters brewery in business for at least another 12 months!! It also helps that my heart rate monitor now works properly so I can actually run in the correct HR zones! I've just come back from an 8 mile threshold run and it feels great to be constant at 8 min / mile pace in my threshold zone! just another 18 miles at that pace and I'm sorted!!!! since I started training I've done 124.5 miles, and with my runs ramping up I expect to be close to 500 miles in the next 14 weeks! rest day tomorrow. thank god! |
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