Monday, September 16, 2019

Week 3 post-break - time on feet and sports update - 9/9/19

***General Thoughts***

Last week was an interesting one. My office moved from individual offices to open plan. Not great in and of itself, but it has meant that I now have an adjustable desk which lets me stand whilst I work. I've been quite an enthusiastic adopter of this but need to carry on remembering that actually spending an additional 6 or so hours standing each day on my feet is quite hard work. I've now gotten a couple of massage balls for my plantar fascia and a nice foam pad which is much nicer to stand on and far more comfortable.

I have noticed the difference in both a bit of tiredness generally in my legs but also, by using the foam pad, I'm working my ankles a lot more, doing more time standing on a single leg etc. I think in the long run this will be more beneficial than sitting down for hours at a time but I do need to remember to switch it around at the moment.

As we moved to open plan I also tried to get in a bit earlier for the first time which meant doing a run with the Bastards (so called because we run up a Bastard of a hill, Banstead Road South) at 6:15 followed by heading back home, picking up my bag and running the extra 5 miles in to Morden along the Wandle for a nice 8 mile commute. Still getting used to this as it is an earlier start but its good to get a big chunk of daily mileage done first thing.

Generally, this week felt good. I was getting back into a bit more a running routine and the "oh god I'm just starting running again" feeling and wheezing has gone. I'm starting to feel fitter and moving better.

***World of Running***

More widely in the sport, it was interesting to see some fast times last week. Bowerman track club knocked it out of the park at their own custom meeting with the fairly unheralded Woody Kincaid bashing out a sub 13 5000m with his two more illustrious team mates, double US champ Lopez Lomong and reigning Olympic 1,500m champ Matt Centrowitz clocking 13.flat.

This race was a fantastic example of where top quality pacemaking from their team-mate until 2 laps to go and good, quiet conditions led to a fast race. It's amazing how much of a difference this can make.

Separately Geoffrey Kamworor set a new WR in the half with 58:01 (initially reported as 57:59). With this WR, we are starting to see the prospect of a sub 2 in IAAF race conditions look more likely. Double and add 4 minutes is a very challenging and difficult conversion (usually indicating underperformance over the half marathon) but is not totally unfeasible.

On that same point, some of the most exciting news has come out of Team NN (https://www.nnrunningteam.com/en/2019/09/03/team-building/) where it was announced that Bekele has been forcibly removed from Ethiopia and forced to eat right, run lots and do physiotherapy.

Kipchoge has been nigh on unbeatable in the marathon in recent years. There aren't many who can standa toe to toe, let alone genuinely have a chance. Even as dominant an athlete as Farah on the track has been found unable to close that gap.

If you were looking at athletes who might actually be able to race him at his best, and win, Kamworor is probably second on the list with the first a fully fit Kenenisa Bekele. After all - how many of us can run 2:03:03 whilst unfit and out of shape?

***The Training***

Monday Morning: 8 miles at 9:04mm - Bastard warm up followed by commute run in, 1156 BPM.
Monday Evening: 5 miles at 9:21mm - Easy home with Gabster, 1234 BPM.

Tuesday Morning: 8 miles at 8:47mm - Awful start to the run with socks and shoes combining to rub something fierce and create a lovely little blister, felt better after changing shoes and socks, 1145 BPM.
Tuesday Evening: 5 miles at 9:27mm - Sutton Runners: 4 * 200, 4 * 400, 4 * 200, 1321 BPM.

Wednesday Morning: 3 miles at 10:09mm - Bastard with the bastards, didn't run in afterwards as I was feeling a bit knackered from 3 eary 1262 BPM.
Wednesday Evening: 5 miles at 10:03mm - Shuffle home stopping at the kebab shop, 1301 BPM.

Thursday Morning: 5 miles at 9:49mm - Easy in with Rob I guess? I don't remember a thing about this run, 1250 BPM.
Thursday Evening: 8 miles at 7:09mm - Sutton Runners - 1000 then 5 * 1400, 2ish minutes recovery 3:13, 4:48, 5:00, 5:00, 5:08, 4:39, 1098 BPM.

Friday Morning: 8 miles at 9:20mm - Long Morden loop as on the train in the evening, 1205 BPM.
Friday Lunch: 5 miles at 9:34mm - Canal plod followed by picking up a wedding present. Impromptu trip to McDonalds as well, 1205 BPM.

Saturday Morning: 6 miles at 7:55mm - Pre Wedding run going up a big hill midway and trying to catch Gaby on the way back, 1146 BPM.

Sunday Evening: 15 miles at 7:40mm - Warm up, 7 times a mile thresholdy off half a mile recovery jog, warm down, 1135 BPM.

Totals: 82 miles / 11 hours and 57 minutes with an 8:45mm average

I joined Sutton Runners for a couple of sessions this week as my local club. The short session was good on Tuesday giving me a little bit of speed in my legs in Rosehill park and Thursday was a great tempo session. Top group was doing 6 * km off about 3 minutes recovery so I tucked in with them (everyone taking 200m in the lead) through the km then added an extra 400m. Didn't worry about pace but it was comfortably threshold. Maybe a bit too fast.

They seem like a really friendly lot so I'll probably join them for more sessions going forward.

Sunday I incorporated another threshold session into my long run. The paces weren't great but I started around 6:40, got down to about 6:20 then went back up again. Nothing special but gave it a bit of variety.

***Next Week and the Future***

This next week will be focused on getting a decent little hill session in, followed by some tempo / MP efforts on Thursday and Saturday. I need to get racing again at some point so will have a think about that. I've penciled in the Kingston Half now which might be a good one to try and knock out a sub 75.

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Week 2 Post-Break (2/9/19)

The second week back and after last week's 76 miles this was a decent 80. Slightly unexpected with a slow start to the week but a single triple day is quite handy for punching up the mileage and I was feeling particularly good over the weekend so managed to get a more substantive second run in on the Saturday than I was originally planning.

Towards the end of the week I had a good km session with the Ravens where I started relatively easily but bashed out a good 6km in total. Through-out the session I was trying to remember my current mantra that the purpose is to do *something* fast but not to strain or push these sessions. On the last rep my achilles was just starting to feel the work so I'm glad I kept it at that level. Nice working with Arif as well as he keeps a good steady pace.

Saturday was my 50th Parkrun. Now, 50 isn't a big milestone for many but given my first Parkrun was in February 2010 this has been a long time coming! My attendance at them hasn't been great and its only recently I've started to feel a real community at Nonsuch which has meant I've been doing them more regularly this year. It's such a good way to get a nice early run in with folks.

As a tempo effort it left something to be desired though. Realistically I wanted to get about 8 miles of threshold in this week but what with having to distribute prosecco and Colin the Caterpillar cake after my parkrun that wasn't going to be feasible. Reading up about how the Ingebritsens often do double session days to split the threshold work into two, I decided to give it a shot and do a very relaxed tempo session in the afternoon with Kev.

On the grass, I didn't fuss and we started the 5 x 6 minutes very easily at mid 6:30s and gradually progressed down to sub 6s. Nothing ground-breaking but it felt really good and honestly less fatiguing than I think a  5 mile death shuffle might have been which was the alternative.

It worked well and I think that I'll be incorporating more of that into my schedule.

Sunday was very hungover and I had a proper temper tantrum with about 4 miles to go as my feet were sore and I was *done* (that should be bolded). This was entirely Martin's fault as I had bought a bottle of lucozade at 10 miles and he was meant to drink half of it but didn't want to so I'd had to drink it all myself so was feeling a bit sick as well.

When it started to come up I decided to stop by the side of the road, give my feet a good rub and then get going again after a good 5 minutes. Luckily Martin didn't object too much.

Monday Morning: 5 miles at 9:33mm - Easy in with Rob, 1198 BPM.
Monday Evening: 3 miles at 9:55mm - Easy plod home - love a good plod, 1340 BPM.

Tuesday Morning: 4 miles at 8:10mm - Little bit of tempo as Rob went to the wrong meeting place, 1104 BPM.

Wednesday Lunch: 3 miles at 8:27mm - Aborted run - left achilles struggling in Zoom Fly, 1126 BPM.

Wednesday Evening: 7 miles at 9:11mm - Hour very easy, 1228 BPM.

Thursday Lunch: 7 miles at 7:27mm - 6 reps of a km on a 5 minute loop - 3:35, 3:28, 3:26, 3:22, 3:19, 3:21, 1143 BPM.
Thursday Evening: 4 miles at 9:33mm - Easy home after long day at work, 1308 BPM.

Friday Morning: 6 miles at 9:17mm - Easy in with Bob - bonus loop of Morden Hall Park, 1187 BPM.
Friday Lunch: 8 miles at 7:51mm - Ravens Lunch run - 2 runs out of 3 done. Just a shuffle home now!, 1165 BPM.
Friday Evening: 3 miles at 10:15mm - Shuffle home for run number 3, 1350 BPM.

Saturday Morning: 5 miles at 7:01mm - Warm up, 5k tempo @ 5:46mm, warm down, 1059 BPM.
Saturday Evening: 9 miles at 7:26mm - 5 x 6 minutes thresholdy off 1 minute jog, 1095 BPM.

Sunday Morning: 16 miles at 8:11mm - Hungover long run post Rogers Nuptials, 1146 BPM.

Totals: 80.2 miles, 11 hours and 15 minutes (675), average pace = 8:25mm

So - all in all, a very good week. Nice to see a low BPM figure for the threshold work on Saturday at 1059 BPM. Things are progressing well.

This week the aim is to keep the mileage high and build up the threshold work a bit further.

Monday, September 02, 2019

Training for my first week back (W/C 26.08.19)

Looking forward to recording my training back on here for the next few months in the lead up to Valencia marathon. This was my first week back after 2 off to end my season. Starting back up again I've felt a bit portly and off my game for the first few days but gradually perked up towards the end of the week.

I'm mostly running in Altra shoes at the moment - the zero-drop platform seems to be fairly good for my achilles issues which in retrospect appear to be more PF subsequently restricting the ankle joint. It's now working through a much wider range of motion and more of the impact seems to be going to my quads which are tired but can take it.

So - training for the week...

Monday Evening: 4 miles at 8:10mm - Easy loops around the Common with Gaby - puffing a bit more than I would like, 1198 BPM.

Tuesday Morning: 5 miles at 9:52mm - Easy in with Rob - Wandle looking beautiful this morning, 1223 BPM.
Tuesday Evening: 6 miles at 8:08mm - Easy track session, ***Km tempo at 3:30 then 10 x 400 off 60 - starting high 70s and finishing low 70s*** - in retrospect should have kept this at 80s and run with group 2, 1222 BPM.

Wednesday Evening: 8 miles at 9:55mm - Very easy miles home - 75 minutes, 1272 BPM.

Thursday Morning: 5 miles at 8:37mm - Doughnut Club is back! 40 easy minutes with Chris before a doughnut stop. No doughnuts were harmed in the making of this run, 1190 BPM.
Thursday Lunch: 5 miles at 9:28mm - Lunch shuffle along the canals, 1248 BPM.
Thursday Evening: 7 miles at 8:54mm - 6am route in the evening with Kev finishing at the pub - nice mix of hills, 1237 BPM.

Friday Lunch: 5 miles at 8:37mm - Easy lunch shuffle - legs feeling heavy, 1196 BPM.
Friday Evening: 4 miles at 9:57mm - Easy home after a surprisingly long-feeling 4 days week, 1305 BPM.

Saturday Morning: 5 miles at 7:10mm - Warm up, ***5k tempo at Dulwich Parkrun at 5:53mm***, wd, 1067 BPM.
Saturday Evening: 6 miles at 8:44mm - Easy hour with Gaby - legs feeling surprisingly okay, 1182 BPM.

Sunday Morning: 15 miles at 9:54mm - Easy 15 on the trails from home to Boxhill, nice to get 2:30 on my feet, 1345 BPM.

Total: 76 miles / 11 hours and 31 minutes / 9:06mm average pace 

Summary: A good first week back. Session on Tuesday was a little early but glad I did it. Overall volume was slightly higher then planned boosted by a triple day on Thursday.

Two light sessions got me moving again. Sunday's trail long run was fairly challenging on the legs but it was nice to get on my feet for two and a half hours and feel strong.

Next week will see a slight bump to 80+ hopefully and another couple of light sessions. 

Bryn Running

Training diary and musings on running in general.