Sunday, November 29, 2009

Weeks Commencing 9th and 16th November 2009

Sorry for the long delay guys- after the fairly epic 16+ miler on the 8th November the wheels started coming off a bit so I backed off - here, roughly, is how the last few weeks have gone...

Week Commencing 9th November 2009
Monday
Rest day; after the 16.7 miler just to let myself recover a bit

Tuesday
AM: 40 minute recovery run @ 8:36
PM: 15 wund track session at NR - 5,4,3,2,5,4,3,2 with 90 seconds recovery between each rep hitting just short of 1600,1300,1000 and 700 for reps respectively- finishing most reps either with or just ahead of Hendrik

Wednesday
AM: 43:03 rec/easy run @ 7:34
PM: 82:26 rec/easy run @ 7:58 - done with Jamie and Phil from BSRC - unfortunately got a bit lost - pleased to help Jamie maintain 8 mm though. Slight knee pain on last few miles of this run which got much worse as I got near the finish. Legs generally tired and sluggish.

Thursday
AM: Rest- knee pain had abated but not totally gone so skipped morning run
PM: 15 wund, tempo run 28:39 /5:40 for 5 miles going 6:00 down to 5:20 - struggled in wind and just generally felt carp- knee definitely not happy and decided to see physio and take a few days off.

Friday
Rest- knee felt a bit better but not risking it

Saturday
Rest- same as Friday

Sunday
AM: 30 minute run v. v. easy at 9:06- knee held up fine
PM: 40 minute ex. bike ride- knee was fine

Total: 325 minutes / 43ish miles

Summary: Week going well till the knee- hopefully few easier days will let it recover
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Week Commencing 16th November 2009
Monday
AM: Rest- just giving the knee one more day with this weeks rest week

Tuesday
AM: Physio- confirmed knee should be fine and just a tight quad muscle directly above it pulling on it- huge relief.
PM: 46:03 steady/tempo @ 6:49- odd experiment at Saffron Striders with lots of extra loops and people trying to catch up etc. Not totally sure if it worked but a good experiment and something to definitely be considered. Had some decent bits of pace running with Nick

Wednesday
PM: 67:00 @ 7:44- out around the BSRC 8 mile(ish) loop tonight and added a little on- nice run.

Thursday
PM: 15 wund + strides, Tempo with the lads at Herts Phoenix running a straight tempo with the young 'uns dipping in and out- 27:26 for 5 miles- 5:29 pace which was dead on the target- felt tougher than it should have done- but then I was running up front all by myself bar two laps and those two laps felt a lot easier and were a few seconds faster as well! Wind on the home straight was brutal.

Friday
AM: 30 rec @ 8:53
PM: 58 steady @ 6:55 per mile- first double day since the niggly knee and did this with Anupam around a three bridges/marston ferry loop which was good fun having not done it for a while. Pace varied with some fast sections at v. low 6 minute miling and quite a bit in the low-mid 7s whilst we chatted.

Saturday: Rest (yes- second one for the week- I had a long drive back from Ox hungover and shattered so with Hereward the next day I decided to take a break)

Sunday: 15 w/u 1:00:47 for 9.84 awful miles (a good run- effort-wise close to 5:30 or so per mile) 2nd on stage and 3rd team

Total: 336 minutes / 45ish miles

Summary: A marginally better week across the week- really quite pleased with the Hereward run and whilst the mileage was low- I got a good race, tempo run and some faster running on Tuesday including a few hills. Mileage is perhaps slightly better than reported because this week I ran very few of my recovery runs and just concentrated on getting one decent run in a day. Must say I'm pleased when my "down" weeks are now 45+ miles - okay, by a lot of standards that's still carp but for me right now making sure I am injury free and remain so is priority one and so if running two weeks at 40/45 is needed then I prefer that to one more week at 70 and then three off!

Hereward Relay Report
I had high hopes of the Striders managing to take the title with a strong squad this year and we'd been up for it for the previous 3 months. Chris Dodge started the team well with a 5th place on the first leg only 2 minutes behind the leaders- if that could be kept constant we were in with a shot! At the second leg we saw Mayezar Firouzi coming in a very good time of around 1:03 and thought it might be game over - but Nick absolutely pulled it out of the bag and managed to take 15 seconds out of him coming in 1:45 later in second place overall and individually on the stage (as a Bury St. Edmunds runner was ominously behind him but had cut our lead on them marginally). Unfortunately whilst in a very solid third place and catching the Cambridge Tri guy Ian was sent the wrong way by a misdirected arrow. As I waited for him to come in to Welney ready for the final leg to Ely first and second went through (with Bury St. Edmund starting a minute ahead of Cam Tri and with Kev Murphy on last leg the whole thing being a bit of a foregone conclusion- wish I'd had the chance to start level with him and try and hang on) it was a long wait and after fourth and fifth started about 5 minutes after the two leaders Ian finally came in after rhaving gone around 3/4 minutes off the route. I set off into the driving wind (it is point to point and all South into the wind) and thankfully the leg started on the road- I rapidly reeled in the two who had set off ahead of me over the first 3k and was then faced with the prospect of a very gloomy 45+ minutes running totally on my own over narrow tracks and muddy fields with the fens all around me. Then it started raining, and hailing, oh yay. I kept pushing hard pretty much the whole way in miserable conditions with the pace eventually falling to 7 minute miling despite the effort being consistent (and on a road it would have been ~5:30 pace I reckon) - I actually at one point just yelled "Oh F@:k" when I still had half an hour to go in the sleeting rain which is a first for me in a race (though not in a training run...). Really very pleased to just finish and quite surprised the time stacked up so well compared to others. I reeled the Cam Tri guy in massively but never quite got him in sight so I could really kick on. Striders will be back next year to try and take on Bury St. Edmunds once again! It was however our highest ever finish and I think fastest legs by Striders ever on legs 2 and 4 so an awesome effort. We got very cool pint mugs to go with our well earned horse brasses.

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Bryn Running

Training diary and musings on running in general.