Training Week Commencing 10th July 2017

Training Week Commencing 10^th July 2017

This week was a substantial step forward from last week with the session / strides / steady, “Triple S” formula working really well.

The week started poorly (as always) with a bad couple of days. A long trip back from Tenby in Wales meant that my evening run was relatively short although I did manage to add in my strides after the hill session on Sunday evening.

Tuesday was a total write-off – I had a tough day at work and by the time it finished I was not in the mood for a run. I’ve been moving to a slightly healthier diet over the past few weeks but today I went straight back and had a big Indian with Gaby. Definitely needed and very tasty.

Wednesday I started actually doing some training… A quick trip to the awesome Running Works to use up my voucher from the London Bridges Relays gave me a good reason to pop out at lunch and I came away with a fab new pair of very colourful socks, with nice red and black highlights for when I’m racing for HHH. The evening had a decent steady at 159 bpm for 6:34mm for 45 minutes.

Thursday was an easy lunch run at a reasonable pace. The evening I popped out with Ed for a run back and we managed to get in two Pokemon raids (yes, we are children) and then a really short sharp session on the Common. Ed and I worked really well together as we sprinted a lap of a cricket pitch (not round, more obloid and with a couple of tree branches nearly knocking us out) and then jogged a lap. We gradually ramped up the pace and by the end were going great runs as we cut the reps from 60 seconds down to 54.

Friday I enjoyed my usual run in with Jazz before heading out to Carshalton and Oaks Park to do a good hour. Rob tried to kill us all going through nettles but we survived and enjoyed the pretty lavender fields. Kev then moaned a lot about doing his strides but he (reluctantly) got them done before being allowed a beer at the pub whilst the midges feasted on his bald pate.

For the weekend we were back off to Wales (yes – we had only just got back I hear you say!) as we went to Tyddyn Llan in Llandrillo for Gaby’s mum’s 70^th. A fantastic venue nestled in the Welsh hills with superb food. I was pleased to knock out a decent steady on the roads. After last week’s tough effort in Tenby where I really struggled to get my heart rate up to 150, this week I felt much better and averaged 159 over a nice rolling out and back route. I was pleased with an average pace of 6:29 heading out but the overall averaged of 6:22 was definitely a step forward from both last weekend and Wednesday.

After far too much good food and company, we came back the next day slightly hungover and Gaby boshed out a decent 60 minute effort with her broken shoulder before I headed over to Battersea Park and did 6 reps of the bigger cricket pitch. These started at 70 seconds and came down to 64 seconds with a lap of jogging inbetween. I was pleased to really push these hard and was feeling the lactic a lot earlier than I had done on Thursday’s session. I was also pleased I decided to do this very short and sharp session as I was thinking about doing a 20 minute tempo on the way over but decided to stick with the work on my running mechanics.

So – good week. Decent mileage and whilst I didn’t hit my 12 hour target, thinking about it got me to an average of 90 minutes running per day. This week I’ve got a Rosenheim league race on Wednesday night and will carry on trying to improve the speed with (hopefully) over 11 hours of running.

Log below:-

Training Week Commencing 10^th July 2017

Monday Evening: Hour easy with 6 x strides  ( 73 minutes / 7:58mm / 9.23 miles)

Wednesday Morning: Station ( 4 minutes / 8:55mm / 0.51 miles)

Wednesday Lunch: Trip to Running Works to redeem voucher and buy socks! ( 17 minutes / 8:34mm / 2.05 miles)

Wednesday Evening: Run home with 45 minutes steady (159 bpm  / 6:34mm) in the middle ( 75 minutes / 7:13mm / 10.37 miles)

Thursday Lunch: Easy lunch run ( 37 minutes / 7:37mm / 4.87 miles)

Thursday Evening: 8 x 1 cricket boundary hard off 1 cricket boundary easy recovery plus 2 x Pokemon Raids - good evening with Ed! ( 84 minutes / 7:21mm / 11.54 miles)

Friday Morning: Early Morning Jazz ( 61 minutes / 9:09mm / 6.64 miles)

Friday Evening: Bryn and Bob Go For A Run - Oaks Park edition - hour easy with Rob, Kev and Dan(ny) + 6 x strides ( 60 minutes / 8:08mm / 7.02 miles)

Saturday Morning: Little shuffle with Gaby before the drive to Wales - heel a bit sore ( 30 minutes / 9:09mm / 3.32 miles)

Saturday Evening: Back in Wales! Warm up then an hour steady over rolling terrain (159 bpm / 6:22mm). Felt strong. Surprised at pace. ( 85 minutes / 6:06mm / 12.58 miles)

Sunday Evening: 70 easy with Gaby then 6 x large cricket field lap hard off a lap jog (70, 67, 68, 67, 65, 64) ( 102 minutes / 7:07mm / 13.22 miles)

Total: 10 hours and 32 minutes / 81 miles

Training Week Commencing 3rd July 2017

Training Week Commencing 3rd July 2016

Monday Morning: Jog to station (5 minutes / 10:39mm / 0.49 miles)

Tuesday Evening: Easy home in the heat (50 minutes / 7:53mm / 6.44 miles)

Wednesday Morning: Easy in with Gaby (49 minutes / 7:28mm / 6.59 miles

Wednesday Evening: Warm up for JP Morgan (46 minutes / 8:15mm / 5.66 miles), JP Morgan Challenge - hot evening. Paced it fairly well with dull legs (18 minutes / 5:25mm / 3.45 miles), Post Race Work-out - 10 x 30s off 60s jog (19 minutes / 7:54mm / 2.42 miles)

Thursday Lunch: Can't walk but I can shuffle! (34 minutes / 9:55mm / 3.5 miles)

Friday Evening: 90 hilly minutes with 60 steady at 151 bpm in the middle (93 minutes / 7:55mm / 11.81 miles)

Saturday Morning: Coastal run with Anna and Ryan (53 minutes / 10:10mm / 5.25 miles)

Saturday Evening: Welsh Hospital Car Parks Run - love my fiancee! (61 minutes / 8:29mm / 7.3 miles)

Sunday Morning: Easy with Gaby, Anna and Ryan (60 minutes / 9:05mm / 6.6 miles)

Sunday Evening: 12 x 50 second hills with jog down recovery on a nice piece of trail (60 minutes / 10:38mm / 5.64 miles)

Total: 9 hours and 13 minutes, 65 miles

Summary: Not a great week training wise with my typically poor Monday / Tuesday combination. It left my legs fairly fresh for Wednesday and the JP Morgan Challenge. I had a great race here in 2015 with a storming 18:22. Last year I wasn't as strong on a very hot evening. This year was a decent race and a good step forward in my fitness. 18:43 was considerably better than my recent race result (Parkland Relays, Bridges Relays). I was especially pleased with how I ran it with a much more conservative start than recent races, moving through really well over the second and third miles to take a few decent scalps.

I knew after the race that I'd be struggling with my achilles / heels the next day so I decided to make the most of it and added in an additional 10 x 30s of hard intervals around the cricket pitch with a minute jog inbetween.

Thankfully, after a very painful Thursday (not least because of a work social where I ended up doing far too many shots of tequila under duress at Giant Robot in Canary Wharf) we headed over to Tenby for Long Course Weekend (basically an Ironman Triathlon over 3 days).

Tenby was fantastic and the wonderfully hilly terrain made for a good run on the Friday night with a decent steady section in the middle. I really struggled on this section to get my heart rate up to over 150 despite running fairly hard.

An easy run with Anna and Ryan (who had both done the swim the prior night) was a nice recovery along the coast. Unfortunately Gaby took a bad crash on her bike on the Saturday and we ended up needing to go to A&E. As Gaby got increasingly frustrated with the delay in being seen I was sent out to do my run "There's no point both of us wasting our time here" - so did half an hour before finding out she'd gone in and then spent 10 minutes doing some strides and then running loops around the 200m stretch of carpark.



I did eventually move onto the 800m loop around the Hospital.

Sunday I decided not to do the Wales marathon - the course profile was brutal and my calves were feeling knackered even before the start. An enjoyable run with the crew (Gaby with her arm in a sling) started the morning before cheering in Martin (who had a superb run to clock sub 3 on the challenging course) and Gemma (who had absolutely smashed the bike yesterday).

The evening was a great little hill session - I jogged out of the village and found a nice little trail with a short hill, starting at a moderate gradient, moving to a VERY steep gradient and then flattening out letting me practice running over the hill.

Not a great week in terms of total training volume - a poor Monday, Tuesday and Thursday put paid to that. But I started implementing my new Session / Strides / Steady rotation and it seems to work well - with shorter sessions and decent moderate aerobic steadies.

This week the focus will be increasing the volume and continuing to work on the speed and getting back on my forefeet whilst running.

Training Week Commencing 26th June 2017

Monday: Absolutely nothing. Early start at work followed by a busy lunch. Went ring shopping in the afternoon and went for dinner afterwards. Gaby somehow managed to get a run done afterwards but I was just sleepy. Think the lack of sleep over the weekend was catching up with me.

Tuesday: Double day! 0.5 to the station. 0.5 home. Yeah – no excuse for this one other than it was raining in the evening and I really didn’t fancy it.

Wednesday: Jog into the office from Waterloo; Easy 4 at lunchtime (133bpm / 8:34mm) ; Run to track and a few strides – 1500m race (4:32) going out way too fast then a 3000m race  (9:55) which was well paced but my legs were just dead – basically a tempo.

Thursday: Jog to Westminster with Martin stopping at the track for a few 400s (~76) pacing him around his session – only did 5 and then the Achilles was playing up; Easy home after work (144 bpm / 7:37mm)

Friday: Easy in with Jazz at about 9mm; easy home with a few long strides via North bank and BP (139 bpm / 7:24mm)

Saturday: 20 with a pace change every 5 miles – meant to be 8 / 7:30 / 7 / 6:30 but worked out at 7:28 / 7:28 / 7:01 / 6:19mm  (152 bpm / 7:04mm)

Sunday: Easy (slightly hungover) 5 with Gaby to pick up the car ( 136 bpm / 8:02mm); 10 steady(ish) with Gaby around the Common after the long drive back (141 bpm / 7:32mm)

Total: 10 hours / 78 miles

Summary

After a poor start to the week I started getting back into the groove from Wednesday onwards. The 1500m was a great rust-buster to get me back running fast on the track again – my Achilles really struggled but some good massage work helped loosen it up. The 20 miler on Sunday was really helpful – with a slightly hilly course. Looking at the HR data my last 5 miles were practically at full on race effort despite not being *that* fast. That’s interesting to see as I’ve always historically written off running hard at the end of a long run as just a very hard way to run a few not-that-fast miles. Knowing those miles are (to my body) feeling like a tough tempo run definitely encourages me to carry on and do it again.

This week I’ve got the JP Morgan challenge, potentially an Assembly League and the marathon at the end of Long Course Weekend – should be a fun one!