Sunday, September 20, 2009

Training Week Commencing 14th September 2009

Training Week Commencing 14th September 2009

Monday
AM Did 50 recovery with 8 x Canova Hill sprints (9 seconds flat out)
PM 52 easy averaging 7:49.
PM PM 30 mins Ex. Bike 16.88km

Tuesday
PM 10 minute warm-up, 5 x 6.5@10k pace [90] 10 min warm down. AVG ~78/lap Was absolutely tipping it down with rain. First one averaged about 79 and was really struggling with vest constricting breathing. Then with vest off and Hugh turning up was running much better and most reps were either over or just before the 2k mark. Good session- pleased.

Wednesday
AM 40 recovery AVG 9:06 ~7km Felt really dull on this run and body didn't wake up at all till after half way (6:14,5:54,5:42,5:39,4:10,5:53,5:58,0:28)
PM 60:12 steady AVG 6:43 ~14km + Drills Meant to be an easy run but body was struggling to run that slow so let it have it's way and went faster. Very good run. Hamstrings felt tight at the end. (4:25,4:39,4:21,4:18,4:07,3:58,4:06,4:07,4:01,4:09,4:03,4:09,3:56,4:03,1:44)

Thursday
AM 30 recovery ~8:30
PM 15 w/u and w/d Strides + Drills 28:21 AVG 5:42 tempo plan was to start at 90/lap and cut down by a second per lap every two laps- didn't quite manage it but a good effort and general trend is there... Very pleased to see Adam run a huge PB over 5 miles with 28:41. (88,86,90,87,86,86,88,86,86,85,84,84,82,83,84,83,80,82,81,80)

Friday
Rest- legs itching to run

Saturday
AM 7:30 warm up,Hills all with jog down recovery 4 x 24 secs, 1 x 70, 5 min jog, 5 x 45, 5 min jog, 4 x 24, 1 x 68 7:30 warm down (45)
PM 34 recover @8:23 - unplanned but legs felt real antsy and just had to get out and run for a bit.

Sun: 90 easy/steady with Lee and Matt around St. Albans. Really nice run and some good athletics banter. Pace varied as various niggles played up so we were going at mid-low 6s for most the first half and the second half was a fair bit slower. Felt really good at the pace and moving well up the hills.

Running total: 512.5 Cycling Total 30

Really good week and my highest mileage since about February I reckon with exams, niggles and the groin. Saturday I actually wasn't able to resist going for a 34 minute unscheduled recovery run and it was difficult on Sunday as well! Very pleasing Tempo run and session on Tuesday at New River. Not perhaps the best sessions I've ever posted but Tuesday was good volume in horrendous conditions and Thursday was very pleasing with how easy it felt. Really pleased and now a slightly easier week in prep for the 6 stage.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Marathon Announcement

Hey folks,

Well I'm imagining that I must have told 99% of people who come on here in person anyway, but after realising yesterday that I still hadn't told my parents!, decided I'd make the announcement on here as well.

I've decided to make my marathon début next year and the aim is to do so at London. This really means three things.

1. I need to run a sub 75 half OR get in via the ballot OR get in via a club place.
2. I'll begin my marathon specific training after the Herts County X-Country in early January.
3. My track season next year probably won't begin till very very late after which I'm intending to shift all the way down and have a go at running a 1500m PB.

The target to begin with will be 2:30. This obviously might get shifted slower(likely) or faster(I wish!) as I go along but given my performances over 10k and a few long-runs I've done together with my aerobic profile- I think I've got a serious chance. Added to this I'll hopefully be aiming to run a serious 10k PB by the end of the year at either the Leeds Abbey Dash or the Telford 10k (accommodation in Leeds the night beforehand would be appreciated!) .

I'm well aware that this is relatively early to run a marathon but having watched London the past two years I really wanted to be out there running and it was killing me not to be. I've known since I was a kid that I'd have to run the marathon to make up for my complete lack of base speed and whilst I still have a lot of unfinished business at 10k- I think a while of training for a very different event will be fun as well and probably help my 10k time. After my first marathon unless I run an absolute stormer the intention would be to wait 18 months until my next one - probably Berlin though I'd love to run New York or Chicago.

So - what does this mean? Well for a start I'm going to be bulking up my long run. My rather paltry 90 minutes, whilst sufficient for a 5k/10k runner, is going to need to upped to a regular 120 and probably look at running it faster as well. Even though I'm not starting the block until January I'm keen to start getting used to a few of the work-outs now and in particular I want to be doing some of the work-outs suggested by Canova. Big volume interval sessions which most people seem to hate I really enjoy doing.

Tempo running I'm relatively poor on at the moment but will become an integral part. An easy 8k tempo run on Friday went really well keeping up 5:40 pace very easily on rough terrain, which is exactly the marathon pace I need! An awful lot of my training over the next 5 months will be at 5:40 pace and I want to be able to lock into it automatically. Thankfully it's slower than the current 80/lap I lock into but the difference will be continuous efforts as opposed to reps of a couple of miles at the most.

I guess that's about it at the moment. Race plans, training emphasis and goals! I'm really very excited about shifting up to the marathon and hopefully it'll be a success. If I'm ever going to run internationally I really only have one race as an option and that's the marathon. I need to start getting used to them now so that when I'm 27/28 I'll be sufficiently conditioned and experienced to make a serious drive for a quick time.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

First Proper Long Run Back

Did my first proper long run in a while today. 90 minutes split into 30 easy, 30 steady, 30 easy. Average came out at 7:35 per mile whilst I covered just over 20km. Really nice to actually get out and on my feet for that length of time. I also quite enjoyed experimenting with the steady section in the middle which was mostly at about 6:45 pace but the last few kms dipped down to sub 6 territory which was really a little bit too fast. Wore long tracksuit bottoms and they were really getting whipped around in the wind but was thankfully warm enough for a t-shirt. Not particularly looking forward to the winter months and wrapping up tight.

After run had about 20 minutes recovery during which I watched Alistair Brownlee storming home in his triathlon to win the world series. Made me think a little bit about the choice that a talented young endurance athlete has- years of mediocrity as a runner being possibly even the best 10k runner in Britain but not being allowed to run world championships by your federation (for fear that they'll embarrass them?? which seems ridiculous) and even if you do being beaten into oblivion by the majority of the East African athletes or going to Triathlon and having a legitimate shot, if you work hard, at being a world champion or at the very least being competitive. Triathlon also being a sport with far greater financial rewards, glorifying the distance athletes as opposed to the sprinters and increasing publicity. Given the choice I'm almost shocked that so many opt to choose endurance running and yet, I'm in exactly the same boat and can't easily see myself going multi-sport. In many ways I'd almost prefer to just switch to cycling rather than multi-sport which seems crazy. I do intend to continue incorporating work on the exercise bike into my daily training which is something I've been neglecting in the last two weeks.

The thing I have been very good on is incorporating more running drills and hopefully that'll pay off in terms of a more efficient form, stronger muscles with better flexibility and fewer injuries Whether it will or not remains to be seen.

Almost immediately after the long run I went to play tennis with my family. We actually managed to get through a whole set without arguing- must be some sort of record! Was quite a surreal experience returning to a tennis court after not playing more than a couple of times in the past three years. Was very pleased with how well my surve went (bloody thing seemed better than when I left!) but was shocked at how poor my groundstrokes were. Might be nice to get back playing again a little more frequently as I did used to really enjoy it- unfortuantely it's so hard to get quality singles games and whilst doubles is interesting I do eventually find it frustrating. I'm a loner at heart and enjoy the pitting of my own strength against that of an opponent and with two extra players on the court you just can't do that!

Bryn Running

Training diary and musings on running in general.