Week 1: 627 Minutes / ~ 84 miles
Run-In XC League at Newport (1st)
64 Aerobic Threshold @ 5:38mm
17:04 5k Tempo @ WC
21.4 Long Run @ 7:21mm
The XC I was pleased with as it was a ridiculously cold and wet day and I wasn't sure how my legs would cope with running XCs on consecutive days. The answer is not particularly well but I was still able to get away. The middle of the week was a stark contrast as the long run was an absolute disaster with me really struggling for energy even running 7 and 8 minute miles. The next day after heading to Oxford, eating junk food and getting uproariously drunk I managed to nail a very solid marathon pace session with Hawcroft, Oz, Anupam and Harper. The WC run was just standard apart from missing the start!
Week 2: 623 minutes, 83 Miles
24 mile long run - 4 miles @ 7:30, 20 miles @ 6:18 - won Thames Riverside 20
Teddy Hall Relays- 3rd on leg 1 / 4th fastest leg - 18:01
69:36 Aerobic Threshold @ 5:40mm
WC Park Run - 17:05 - 1st
A very solid week's work. Tough stuff at times but 3 very solid runs. 18:01 at Teddy Hall was a great run narrowly behind Chris Busaileh and Chris McGurk who both ran stunningly at the Southern and Midland Road Relays respectively. The MP run around BP I was pretty worried about but actually went pretty well- especially solo and late at night. My legs felt very heavy the next day at WC ParkRun but tbh that was expected and nice to sneak the win on very heavy legs. Finally- Thursday evening- definitely a sign of a better attitude - in recent years being tired I'd have just said sod it and stayed in- actually drove to the nearby town and ran in the dark.
Week 3: 632 minutes, 84 Miles
23 mile Long-Run @ 7:28mm
4 sets of x 400,800,400 [200 jog,400 jog]
29:55 / 3 laps BP at AeT @ 5:40
This was always going to be a difficult week what with starting work so I was very grateful to get my long run done on Sunday and also slightly further than I was intending. Tuesday was a great session - I was running 70s and 2:22 and I wasn't even working- lactic set on fairly quickly after the 2:18 though and the final 67 was a struggle. Thursday I just felt poor and could tell my legs needed a quick rest despite pulling the MP session back in. In the past I'd have done 3 x 5 x 300 at the track before a race but David reckoned a half hour @ MP would be more beneficial before Reading.
Week 4: 452 minutes, 60 Miles
Reading Half Marathon 14th Place 69:52 - huge PB!
Clapham Chasers Kenyan Hill session 12 x ascents - 19:21 @ 5:45mm
Great start to the week with the stunning HM PB. Monday was in some ways a bad day (how stupid can you get?) but in other ways I like that I'm able to call a run if I'm having a bad one and make the minutes up either later in the week or not at all (in this case I pretty much traded what would have been 30 awful minutes running very slowly in pain with 30 very enjoyable minutes on Thursday evening!). Thursday's run is still carrying me on right now - meant to be 60 but ended up 90 - just couldn't stop. Actually recovered!
4 Week Period Total: 2334 minutes , 311 miles (627,623,632,452)
Long Runs: 21.5, 24 , 23
Races:4 (6 inc. WC ParkRuns)
Well a very interesting 4 weeks. Obviously the highlight being the huge half marathon PB of over a minute on a PB set about a month ago which was a 3 minute PB in itself! In all honest at the time of Stevenage I felt I was in 71-72 minute shape at the very least (hard to believe when you're running close to 74) given the conditions- it's nice to have now proved that and then some. The first week was a mix with the confidence boosting AeT session following my disastrous long run where for the first time this campaign I was seriously worried. The second week I was glad with how easy running 20 miles @ 6:18 pace felt and then running so well at THR - just annoying McGurk got away! I knew then that I was in at least 15:30 5k shape and probably more like 15:15... Week 3 pretty much backed that up as I felt easy running some of the fastest rep times of my life. Remembering last winter how I struggled running 69s indoors to now when I was floating around it hardly seems the same thing.
The session I'm probably proudest of is nailing 70 minutes around BP in the dark late at night solo. It was tough but well worth it!
Very pleased that a rest week for me now can be 60 miles - the last week was intentionally very easy with no stress on the pace as I know after a HM I usually spend Monday and Tuesday doing little, recover quickly, spank a session on Thursday and then am in doldrums by Sunday/Monday. I also know that to run a decent 10k I seem to do much better off a week long taper of doing fairly little (in contrast to HM where mileage is fine from what I can tell in week preceding). Worked out very nicely that I did a "half" session on Wednesday where I ran fast but not hard (half sessions - either 3/4 usual volume or being done at one race pace down - are increasingly becoming favourites of mine as opposed to destroying myself in workouts) and was fresh, recovered and ready for Sunday- well- all but the calves!
Now into the last month before London- fingers crossed!
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