Tuesday 30th December - Mileage for the year and a burst of speed …..
8m inc. 4.5 miles @ 6.45 p/m (Gym) - lactate threshold run
Back in Brum and an early start in the gym, itching to do a run and in particular, to incorporate some speed work. The schedule for week 3 (again!) incorporated a lactate threshold run, so that was the plan.
In a desolate post Xmas Harborne gym, it was a 20 min warm up on the X-Trainer and a 4.5 mile burst on the treadmill; 2 miles @ 8.7 mph (6.50 p/m) and 2.5 miles @ 8.8 mph (6.42 p/m). Felt really good, enjoyed the feeling of some half marathon pace running and some old Outkast tunes on the iPod. Warmed down with 15 minutes on the X-Trainer and put down for an 8 mile session. I know it's not scientific (and probably incorrect) but I give myself a 'running mile' for 10 minutes on the bike, X-Trainer or rower; seems about fair, the equivalent of a very easy running pace.
Interestingly, a few BVHers have been posting their yearly mileage on Facebook. Had no idea of mine so just had a quick tot up. With one day to go, it's 1265 for the year, an average of 24.3 miles per week. Seems quire reasonable, wonder how it stacks up against previous years? I can feel another stat attack coming on ….
Tuesday, 30 December 2014
Sunday 28th December
5.9m - 47 mins
(2.92 m @ 7.39 p/m, 3m @ 8.28 p/m)
Unexpectedly Xmas came and went without a run in sight! It was typically over indulgent; enjoying catching up with family, over eating and drinking (particularly succumbing to chocolate and crisps) and with lots of dog-walking. The Wales house was chaotic with 4 adults, 4 children, a dog and assorted drop-in family, but truly festive. Had an excellent long Xmas meal on the foot of the Brecons at the Pen-y-Cae and with the sport on Boxing Day and Saturday, the running was put on a back burner. We watched Swansea vs Villa in the football (which was really sentimental as I used to be a regular at the Vetch as a student, although this was in the away end at the Liberty) and back to the Liberty stadium for the rugby, to see the Ospreys beat the Scarlets.
Anyhow, this was a run not in any training manual! A jog down to my mums, a 1.5 mile walk with her dogs and a run back, in the Welsh sleet and rain. Not so nice, but blew off the cobwebs. Afternoon was stunning though, a long dog walk with Delilah and the family on the beaches at Machnys and Llanelli docks, with the winter sun beating down …..
Prognosis for the week; difficult to assess as this was an additional week to the 16 scheduled so ironically I'll aim to repeat week 3 again next week; albeit with the New Year's festivities
Week 3 (the non-week on the schedule!) - 26 miles
Delilah ….
5.9m - 47 mins
(2.92 m @ 7.39 p/m, 3m @ 8.28 p/m)
Unexpectedly Xmas came and went without a run in sight! It was typically over indulgent; enjoying catching up with family, over eating and drinking (particularly succumbing to chocolate and crisps) and with lots of dog-walking. The Wales house was chaotic with 4 adults, 4 children, a dog and assorted drop-in family, but truly festive. Had an excellent long Xmas meal on the foot of the Brecons at the Pen-y-Cae and with the sport on Boxing Day and Saturday, the running was put on a back burner. We watched Swansea vs Villa in the football (which was really sentimental as I used to be a regular at the Vetch as a student, although this was in the away end at the Liberty) and back to the Liberty stadium for the rugby, to see the Ospreys beat the Scarlets.
Anyhow, this was a run not in any training manual! A jog down to my mums, a 1.5 mile walk with her dogs and a run back, in the Welsh sleet and rain. Not so nice, but blew off the cobwebs. Afternoon was stunning though, a long dog walk with Delilah and the family on the beaches at Machnys and Llanelli docks, with the winter sun beating down …..
Prognosis for the week; difficult to assess as this was an additional week to the 16 scheduled so ironically I'll aim to repeat week 3 again next week; albeit with the New Year's festivities
Week 3 (the non-week on the schedule!) - 26 miles
Delilah ….
Wednesday, 24 December 2014
Xmas Eve
14m & 8.58 p/m
2hrs 5 min
It's just gone 9am and I'm back from my longest run to date, a crisp, gorgeous Xmas Eve morning. Sian and the boys are in Wales so it was a 6.30am start as I hit the Hagley Road to town, as the sun rose over the second City. It really is the very best time to run, and it was surprisingly busy! I took the road in to town, did a few loops and headed out to Canon Hill to join the throng of dog walkers, before returning via the University, in a blinding sun!
Feeling fresh; this must be one of the slowest runs I've done in years - purposely aiming for around 9 minute miling and a chance to burn almost 2000 calories! I'm putting faith in Pfitzinger (which advocates this pace - 8.54 to 9.15 for a 3.25 marathon time) and have also started collating statistics on runs for previous marathons. It does seem like there may be an inverse correlation between miles logged and marathon times, but this will need to be examined in a lot more detail.
Anyhow, it doesn't seem to have takes too much out of me so, with the weeks long run in the bag, it's time to head out for a welsh Xmas …..
14m & 8.58 p/m
2hrs 5 min
It's just gone 9am and I'm back from my longest run to date, a crisp, gorgeous Xmas Eve morning. Sian and the boys are in Wales so it was a 6.30am start as I hit the Hagley Road to town, as the sun rose over the second City. It really is the very best time to run, and it was surprisingly busy! I took the road in to town, did a few loops and headed out to Canon Hill to join the throng of dog walkers, before returning via the University, in a blinding sun!
Feeling fresh; this must be one of the slowest runs I've done in years - purposely aiming for around 9 minute miling and a chance to burn almost 2000 calories! I'm putting faith in Pfitzinger (which advocates this pace - 8.54 to 9.15 for a 3.25 marathon time) and have also started collating statistics on runs for previous marathons. It does seem like there may be an inverse correlation between miles logged and marathon times, but this will need to be examined in a lot more detail.
Anyhow, it doesn't seem to have takes too much out of me so, with the weeks long run in the bag, it's time to head out for a welsh Xmas …..
Sunday, 21 December 2014
Sunday 21st December: Thoughts on Paces ….
13.1 miles
5 m @ 8.24 p/m followed by 8.1m @ 7.39 p/m
1 hr 44 mins (ave 7.57 p/m)
The longest run of this particular training programme on the shortest day of the year; unsurprisingly began in darkness once Delilah had been made a fuss of and fed!
I'm not sure that I've ever conscientiously done a split run before but this was what the schedule asked for, so this is what I gave. Took it very easy along the Harborne Walk Way and down to the canals and after the initial five miles decided to abandon the canal up and back policy in view of the muck on the tow paths. I'm not usually fussy but it was really wet and muddy!
This meant coming off at Smethwick and looking to run at 'marathon pace'. Here's the conundrum, for this race I'm not sure what marathon pace is supposed to be? My half marathon pace is 6.50 per mile, and having done three halves this year between 1.28 and 1.31, it's fair to say that I should be aiming for around 3.10 - the old 'double it and add 10 minutes' adage. This would give me an expectation of 7.15 miles all the way. However, experience tells me otherwise, and I do want to actually enjoy this experience, rather than expect it to finish me off. So what's my marathon pace?
My 6 marathon's to date have ranged from 3.28 to 3.50, ranging from 7.58 per mile to 8.45 per mile. I've largely under performed relative to my other times on all but my first couple of marathons. I'll disect these later in the blog, but most of these have been in the 7.45 to 8 min mile range for the majority of the races, before having calamatous last few miles. So I suppose I need to adopt a sensible strategy this time around, especially in the race itself. My 'run around feel good' pace is around 7.45 per mile, so this would probably be the best to aim for with view of training to maintain it for the whole race.
As a guide 3.20 would be 7.37 min p/m, 3.25 would be 7.49 p/m and 3.30 would be 8 p/m
The Plan tells me that if I'm to run for the 3.25 plan, my lactate threshold runs would be at 6.45-6.51 pace, my aerobic at 8.54-9.18 and my long runs at 8.54 - 9.18 per mile. The recovery runs would be at 9.40 pace. These paces for long runs seem almost too slow, but the marathon pace seems about right.
Anyhow, I came off at Smethwick and ran up through Cape Hill and Winson Green on a windy but unseasonably warm winters morning, maintaining a 7.45 pace with not too much trouble. The power of Marathon talk to take the edge off the miles, although I'm still catching up on November's shows! No injury problems either; a faintly stiff left quad after about 9 miles, but this has been around for a while. So, the first of the split long runs completed and back in time for a Carvery lunch and a chilled out afternoon in Warley Woods, dog walking, and watching the footie!
Will have to rebalance the running schedule next week, front load it to compensate for Xmas and going to Wales
Weekly update: Week 2 - 27.3 miles
Good weekend split long(ish) run and with Xmas festivities pleased to have done some mileage. Will need to up it though in the weeks to come …
13.1 miles
5 m @ 8.24 p/m followed by 8.1m @ 7.39 p/m
1 hr 44 mins (ave 7.57 p/m)
The longest run of this particular training programme on the shortest day of the year; unsurprisingly began in darkness once Delilah had been made a fuss of and fed!
I'm not sure that I've ever conscientiously done a split run before but this was what the schedule asked for, so this is what I gave. Took it very easy along the Harborne Walk Way and down to the canals and after the initial five miles decided to abandon the canal up and back policy in view of the muck on the tow paths. I'm not usually fussy but it was really wet and muddy!
This meant coming off at Smethwick and looking to run at 'marathon pace'. Here's the conundrum, for this race I'm not sure what marathon pace is supposed to be? My half marathon pace is 6.50 per mile, and having done three halves this year between 1.28 and 1.31, it's fair to say that I should be aiming for around 3.10 - the old 'double it and add 10 minutes' adage. This would give me an expectation of 7.15 miles all the way. However, experience tells me otherwise, and I do want to actually enjoy this experience, rather than expect it to finish me off. So what's my marathon pace?
My 6 marathon's to date have ranged from 3.28 to 3.50, ranging from 7.58 per mile to 8.45 per mile. I've largely under performed relative to my other times on all but my first couple of marathons. I'll disect these later in the blog, but most of these have been in the 7.45 to 8 min mile range for the majority of the races, before having calamatous last few miles. So I suppose I need to adopt a sensible strategy this time around, especially in the race itself. My 'run around feel good' pace is around 7.45 per mile, so this would probably be the best to aim for with view of training to maintain it for the whole race.
As a guide 3.20 would be 7.37 min p/m, 3.25 would be 7.49 p/m and 3.30 would be 8 p/m
The Plan tells me that if I'm to run for the 3.25 plan, my lactate threshold runs would be at 6.45-6.51 pace, my aerobic at 8.54-9.18 and my long runs at 8.54 - 9.18 per mile. The recovery runs would be at 9.40 pace. These paces for long runs seem almost too slow, but the marathon pace seems about right.
Anyhow, I came off at Smethwick and ran up through Cape Hill and Winson Green on a windy but unseasonably warm winters morning, maintaining a 7.45 pace with not too much trouble. The power of Marathon talk to take the edge off the miles, although I'm still catching up on November's shows! No injury problems either; a faintly stiff left quad after about 9 miles, but this has been around for a while. So, the first of the split long runs completed and back in time for a Carvery lunch and a chilled out afternoon in Warley Woods, dog walking, and watching the footie!
Will have to rebalance the running schedule next week, front load it to compensate for Xmas and going to Wales
Weekly update: Week 2 - 27.3 miles
Good weekend split long(ish) run and with Xmas festivities pleased to have done some mileage. Will need to up it though in the weeks to come …
Saturday, 20 December 2014
Friday 19th December
Gym session - 50 minutes (approx 5 miles)
Ah, the joys of Xmas parties! The office was a bit of a mess today after we went to the GlitterBall at the ICC yesterday. Grand evenings entertainment with top disco music, acts and good company, but there was a distinct lack of work enthusiasm in the post work-comedown! I'd stuck to Peroni and was home by 1am, so perhaps didn't quite suffer as much, which, with a school run to accomplish this morning, was a very good thing!
Forced myself to the gym after work but avoided the treadmill instead opting for a gentle 20 mins on the X-Trainer, 2000m on the rower and 20 mins on the bike. Felt refreshed afterwards and will look for some good pre-Xmas runs on Sunday and early next week.
Delilah is back from her dodgy sojourn tomorrow; can't wait ….
Gym session - 50 minutes (approx 5 miles)
Ah, the joys of Xmas parties! The office was a bit of a mess today after we went to the GlitterBall at the ICC yesterday. Grand evenings entertainment with top disco music, acts and good company, but there was a distinct lack of work enthusiasm in the post work-comedown! I'd stuck to Peroni and was home by 1am, so perhaps didn't quite suffer as much, which, with a school run to accomplish this morning, was a very good thing!
Forced myself to the gym after work but avoided the treadmill instead opting for a gentle 20 mins on the X-Trainer, 2000m on the rower and 20 mins on the bike. Felt refreshed afterwards and will look for some good pre-Xmas runs on Sunday and early next week.
Delilah is back from her dodgy sojourn tomorrow; can't wait ….
Wed 17th December
9.22m @ 8.18 p/m
1hr 16 mins
This was never going to be an easy week to clock up any mileage and keep to the schedule. Is suspect the first of my contingency week 'jokers' is going to played in only the second week. I missed BVH on Monday as after driving back from a great couple of days in Cornwall, I was shattered. I know the old adage - running gives you more energy, but I didn't have enough in the tank to get out of the door in the first place. and thought time would be better spent wrapping presents! Tuesday's excuse was more palpable - James had his Carol service!
Really enjoyed tonight's after work run on a mild drizzly evening, putting the recruitment world to right with Jack. It's a great opportunity to really catch up on things and the miles stacked up quickly; a route down the Bristol road, over to Bournville and back to town via Canon Hill. Ironically, it was again probably a little too quick - although it's a good bit slower than my regular pace, the idea of the long mid-week runs is to go a fair deal slower. Still, felt good and Jack is a good running partner, especially I spent much of the day driving again, having visited the new software centre of CDL in Stockport, with Alex A.
9.22m @ 8.18 p/m
1hr 16 mins
This was never going to be an easy week to clock up any mileage and keep to the schedule. Is suspect the first of my contingency week 'jokers' is going to played in only the second week. I missed BVH on Monday as after driving back from a great couple of days in Cornwall, I was shattered. I know the old adage - running gives you more energy, but I didn't have enough in the tank to get out of the door in the first place. and thought time would be better spent wrapping presents! Tuesday's excuse was more palpable - James had his Carol service!
Really enjoyed tonight's after work run on a mild drizzly evening, putting the recruitment world to right with Jack. It's a great opportunity to really catch up on things and the miles stacked up quickly; a route down the Bristol road, over to Bournville and back to town via Canon Hill. Ironically, it was again probably a little too quick - although it's a good bit slower than my regular pace, the idea of the long mid-week runs is to go a fair deal slower. Still, felt good and Jack is a good running partner, especially I spent much of the day driving again, having visited the new software centre of CDL in Stockport, with Alex A.
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