Howdy, Stranger!
Categories
Options
A marathon in 4:15 (or maybe less)
The materials in this website are in no way intended to replace the professional medical care, advice, diagnosis or treatment of a doctor, qualified personal trainer, therapist, dietitian or nutritionist Runners's World, Part of the Hearst UK well-being network © Copyright 2017
Comments
*waves to SOLB* How are you doing?
Don't know what was wrong with it but it kept saying that even the first 2 bits put together were too long! I'm sure I've rabbited that much before without it complaining.
Hi USB
I'm still not allowed to run; mean old cardiologist says no.
I've been stealing a virtual piggyback on some of your runs instead - that might explain why it has felt harder lately (Insert cheeky naughty face here)
In that case I shall make sure I talk to you on the next run! 4 x 1 mile intervals suit you?
Are you allowed to do any cross-training?
I'm allows to but as I have developed an irritating habit of passing out every time I hit the gym I'm having to cool it. On the plus side I FINALLY have an excuse not to do any more squats
I can swim so long as I don't mind looking like a pregnant rhino having a fit in the water ... wanna come for the ride virtual USB?
It will be another Saturday LSR this week as Mr USB has got to go to Greenwich again - no point in waiting till Sunday and abandoning him
My wish for this week? To enjoy the whole 10 miles of the midweek long run.
Well the intervals very nearly didn't happen as my right leg which has been achy at the top on and off decided to be particularly grumbly today. However having got home and thought about the logisitics of doing them tomorrow I decided to see how the warm up mile went and go from there.
By the end of the warm up the ache had gone so I carried on. Steve had suggested 10, 9.30, 9 and 8.30 for the 4 reps of 1 mile each.
First one was OK despite a nice sharp uphill around halfway.
Second one was tough and I felt quite
at the end of it. One sharp but short uphill but i think the rest just has that very gentle sort of rise that you don't notice until you try to run harder.
After that I was really unsure about the 3rd one. However when the lap pace showed 9.00 at both quarter and half mile I knew it would be ok
The 4th one was quite enjoyable but i did have to work hard even with some downwards drift in it.
9.53, 9.30, 8.54 and 8.31
Two reps under, one bang on and one over by just 1 second
PS. The leg is still behaving itself
Great interval session USB.
Hope the leg is ok.
Tonight we have a race on at the club. Think its about 5 miles and we have to predict our time so no timing devices are allowed to be worn. Its bound to be hilly!
Are you resting today?
Hi Suze
Leg has been fine today which you guessed right is a rest day. I've not told it about the 10 miles tomorrow evening though.
A 'naked' run eh? I really struggle with that due to my obsession with logging everything but I suppose you can always use mapping software after and add whatever time you do. Enjoy
The mid-week long run hit double figures tonight. I'm very glad of the summer evenings so that I can get out into the country for these.
I'd hoped perhaps this week my legs would feel happy all the way through but nope, after a stop at 5.5 miles for a drink and a sweetie it all felt that much harder again. I did notice that I struggled to get back into a steady rhythm so perhaps that is the root of the problem. At the weekend I'll try to keep it steadier and see what happens.
The average pace turned out to be identical to last Wednesday's run but overall the splits were more even (strangely the last 2 weekend long runs have also had matching average paces too).
11:13
10:52
11:23 (this finishes at the top of Signal Hill which explains the pace)
10:53
11:00
11:03
11:16
11:05
11:17
11:12
10.01 miles in 1:51:21 Average pace 11:07
Tomorrow is a tempo run with 3 miles at half marathon pace
Very warm out there tonight and I had to get going early as I was going up to Tesco for a focus group (nice easy £30
)
Managed to take out most of the hilliest bit of the route and did the 3 HMP miles in 9:15, 9:12, 9:15. My half marathon PB was run at 9:14
It was hard work though keeping the pace going with the sweat dripping off every part of me. Had to glug an entire can of coke the minute I got home despite taking a small doughnut bottle with me.
Rest day tomorrow and then will do the 15 mile long run on Saturday as Mr USB is off to Greenwich again. It will have to be in the afternoon though as I'm RD for parkrun in the morning and getting my contact lens check too. Be nice to lounge around or just do 3 miles easy on Sunday though.
That 15 miles will take me to my highest July mileage ever and the 3rd highest month of the year
No long run yesterday in the end
Parkrun went well with 2 new scanners meaning that the queue kept moving nicely at the finish. Luckily I decided to leave the results till after my eye check as there was a time missing so had to do some jiggery pokery to produce the results (may still have editing to do once people get their times through).
Walking down to the optician I realised that as well as a lingering headache that I had on Friday evening my neck was stiff and my sinuses were sore. Pottered around the town doing the errands before going home and takng various drugs.
Then did the results and still felt crap so decided to ditch the run, have an early night and see what I felt like in the morning.
Still headachy and nose a bit bunged up but I have eaten my porridge and am going to see how the run goes. I've planned a route with options to cut back if needed.
Well to my surprise the run went really quite well. Despite having felt a bit under the weather I never really indulged in any 'mile watching' and it just ticked by nicely. I did stay slower overall than the last couple of weekends but felt good even though it was really rather hot and the sweat was literally dripping off me at times (TMI moment).
The route involved some of my usual roads, some that I have run before but only in the opposite direction and a couple of miles that were new to me. It's interesting how things can look completely different when viewed from another angle, I managed to miss a turning onto a rough track which I needed to get over the dual carriageway and only realised when the road started to drop downhill into the village again!
New sights today were a microlight taking off, paintballers giving it a bit of welly and a sign warning of 'Swans Crossing'. There was also a shadow that moved across me as I stopped for sweeties - I looked up to see a beautiful red kite
Splits were:
12:11
11:55
11:41
11:56
11:23
11:13
11:19
11:31
11:45
11:03
11:07
11:27
11:31
11:21
10:48
The 5 miles chunks:
59:06
56:56
56:14
Very satisfied with that
Next weekend I go up to 18 miles
6 lots of 1 Km today with 200m recoveries
"For the 1k suggest you start slightly quicker than normal and do first just inside 6:00 and then try and pick up 5-10 secs each rep ie last one should be inside 5:30 even 5:15 – make sure the recovery is slow and takes about 90 seconds"
Had a day off work today so we could attend the internment of aunt-in-law's ashes so I decided to get up at 5 am (as you do) to do my speed work before it got hot. Temperature was perfect but sadly my guts weren't and after warming up for a mile I headed back home having run a very slow 1.75 miles.
So Plan B had to come into play and shortly after 4.30 pm I was off out again. Boy was it hot! I walked at least half of each recovery so that I could get the salt out of my eyes and reduce my temperature slightly. Missed the target reduction for just 1 rep but at least it was a wee bit faster than the one before.
5:58
5:52
5:42
5:37
5:34
5:27
I suspect that had I been able to keep going in the moring then the times might have come down a wee bit more but still pleased with the session.
We did 200m hard with stationary recoveries ran as a relay this evening. Still not made friends with the Garmin so I'm going to have to guess the mileage to log on fetch but with warm up and warm down I think we did 3 miles. Better than nothing.
Suze - once you've made friends with Mr G you'll be devoted to him
Can you remember how many lots of 200m you did?
Tonight I put ice cubes in my water bottle before I went out for my midweek long run. It was so nice having cool water to drink instead of warm stuff. Last year I froze my Camelbak bladder before an offroad marathon and that worked well too!
i really easn't overly keen on going out tonight. I felt hot just changing into shorts and t-shirt but the schedule said 9 miles and I'd worked out that a 4.5 mile out and back would enable me to nab a Conquercise zone (a game we play on Fetch) that was nicely off most people's beaten track
After a slow first mile I decided that nice and easy should be the order of the day but with the aim of not running any slower than mile 1. *looks at Garmin* Check
Route was undulating and I'll leave you to work out from the splits which way the miles undulated. Mile 5 was nice as it was half a mile up and then back down again. Got to the turn around point in 5:44 but did second half in 5:03 without pushing myself down the hill!
9.06 miles in 1:41:08. Average pace 11:10.
11:36
10:47
11:25
10:45
10:47
11:24
10:56
11:26
11:22
Tomorrow night I have a race - 4.25 miles. Not sure how I will run it, Probably play it by ear.
Schedule for tonight was 4 miles hill session but with the 4th race in a summer series being moved closer to home due to roadworks in Chipping Norton how could I resist? The course being used is quite hilly anyway.
Distance was actually around 4.28 miles as they made it slightly longer than the race run here in June so that there couldn't be a course record run.
I set off fairly steadily but then picked up some pace on a downhill which meant the first mile was my fastest. After that there were more uphill bits to deal with so the pace fell away a bit but I focussed on pushing up the hills and relaxing a bit more on the flat. Once we'd settled into racing I passed a total of 5 people, a couple of them followed my bobbing plait but didn't manage to pass me
4.28 miles in 41:17.
Splits:
9:19
9:30
10:00
9:51
2:36 (9:10 mm)
I could definitely feel in my legs that I was running the 3rd day in a row and had done a hard session on Tuesday but I still enjoyed myself
It isn't a very good idea to knock a Calor gas cylinder over using just your knee but luckily elevation and some ibuprofen seemed to sort it out and this morning there was just a little lump, a little bruise and it only hurt when pressed. Still I decided I would drive over to the Grand Union Canal as it would be flatter and easier on my legs along the tow path.
Parked a little way along the river and had about 1.5 miles along gravelled paths with several gates before I got to the tunnel under the canal and the steep climb up to the aqueduct. After that it was pretty flat and mostly grassy till I got to Stoke Bruerne where there are a few locks and therefore some short sharp ups. Also some more gravelled stuff due to the number of tourists for the canal museum. I hadn't reached 9 miles but as I'm not swim training I couldn't head into the tunnel
Made a note of the fact that I was 0.31 miles short and headed back the way I had come (after nipping into the pub to use the facilities. I do like it when you can get to the loos without going through the bar). When I got back to the aqueduct I went just that bit further along the canal and back again to make up the distance. This meant I got to see one narrowboat for a 3rd time! Then back along the river and through all the gates - a nice couple held the last one open for me.
11:08
11:13
11:17
At this point I decided to try to keep all the miles around 11:05 to 11:15
11:06
11:05
11:08
11:10
11:01
11:07
Now it seemed like a good idea to target below 11:10 for the rest of it
11:08
11:07
11:06
11:10
11:05
11:09
11;04
11:10
10:47
Total of 18.08 miles in 3:20:53. Average pace 11:07
According to my calculations that is a negative split too
Longest run since early June and it felt great. I seem to have got past feeling that the second half is tough. My next run will take me through 1000 miles for the year so far.
Intervals again tonight with 12 x 400m (200m recoveries)
'Re the 400s aim for an average of about 2 minutes per rep (8 minute miling) but perhaps start around the 2:05-2:10 mark'
This felt rather daunting. I looked back at my log and I had run 400m in under 2 min before but always when doing a session with the club not on my own. I told myself that the target would have been set to be challenging but achievable and therefore I should JFDI!
I actually started slightly quickly but found that the reps were pretty consistent. After halfway I had to dig in more, particularly for the odd numbered reps as there was a breeze blowing in my face (strange how you never notice that sort of wind when it is behind you). At the end of the 11th rep I was almost jumping around punching the air as I knew that I was (just) going to beat the target. I did consider trying to belt that very last rep but decided my legs would not thank me for it.
2:01
2:02
1:59
1:58
1:58
1:59
2:02
1:59
2:00
1:59
2:00
1:58
I make that a smidgin under 8 min miling on average (something like 7:595 I think)
Job done
Two nights of bad sleep, a nagging headache and the fact that I needed to close my eyes briefly in the Waitrose car park have led me to abandon plans to run tonight. I could have made a very strong coffee in an attempt to jump start myself but then I think my sleep would suffer again.
So the intention is to do tonights 10 miles tomorrow instead. If I wasn't planning to do my long run on Saturday I'd probably shift the tempo to Friday night but I think I'll keep that as a rest day.
Looks like an early night all round then USB. I was ready for bed around half four.
Just trying to raise a bit of cash by selling some stuff on fleebay then I'll be heading up the wooden hill.
Last night was our handicap, I came 18th and was fairly happy with my run. DId just under 6 miles in 55 minutes overall.
Glad to see your training is going ok. Do you have any half marathons in your training plan?
Nap yesterday evening while Mr USB cooked and then a better night's sleep have left me feeling much less bleurgh this morning
Nice running Suze
Mr USB wants me to sell some camera stuff for him on eBay but hasn't got it together to take photos yet so it will have to wait until after our holiday now. The money will come in handy for September anyway!
There are 2 half marathons in the plan but I skipped the one in July. There is also one in September which fits in with one in Northants so not too far and it is not too expensive to enter either so thinking of doing it. Trouble is I am remembering the fact that I did the one in MK before Paris, had a great run in MK and then look what happened.
Definitely the right decision to leave the 10 mile until today although there was an anxious moment just before I put my shoes on when my ankle started to hurt. No idea why and it went away again once I started moving.
Warm again tonight but I did get a short downpour coming up to halfway which felt like running into a cold shower. It soon stopped and everything got warm and steamy again.
Undulating route (I've been debating whether it can be called hilly or not) with some U-bend downs and ups. I decided I wasn't going to try accelerating down them only to slog up the other side but to take it steady all the way. As the splits show it was a good strategy. Legs were achy after 6 miles or so but it was more of a nice ache lingering from the speed session on Tuesday rather than the tired ache I was getting 2 or 3 weeks ago.
10.01 miles in 1:49:57. Average pace of 10:59. There was a time when my PB was slower than that on a flat course!
11:11
10:52
11:04
10:48
11:02
11:00
11:01
10:59
10:49
11:08
I am going to have to change my name to Little Miss Consistency at this rate
The original plan for this weekend was very slow 18 miler on Sunday and then intervals a day early on Monday as we head for the sun on Tuesday
Then I realised that (a) I'd quite like to run parkrun for a change (b) I'd also quite like a lie in this weekend. Add (c) that we needed to take the MiL shopping and I began to hatch a different plan.
Plan B went - drive to parkrun venue, run 7.5 miles out and back along the canal to the south, run parkrun at something like marathon pace, do the other 7.5 miles using the canal to the north for a change of scenery.
Steve said this was ok but to run the first bit very slowly.
Needless to say things didn't quite go to plan. First thing was getting myself there too late to do the 7.5.
First 2 miles were 11:28 and 11:29 which was fine.
Then I began to have to concentrate on keeping the pace down - 11:20, 11:10, 11:13. There were times when I felt I almost had to slow to a walk!
Did 5.5 miles back to the parkrun start. Stopped the watch and restarted it when we set off.
11:00 (half parkrun), 10:22, 10:18, 11:02 (half parkrun). The 5K itself felt really good (took around 32 min), I was running very easily, able to chat and legs felt fine.
Then I was back to the towpath. I think I prefer it further north of MK where there is either a definite path or pretty smooth grass. I think the fact that in MK there is usually a foot/cyclepath running almost parallel means it is less well maintained.
It started to get really tough! I'd worked out I needed to turn around when my watch said 13.28 but having persuaded myself past the 12 mile mark I actually turned just short of 13 miles and then slogged back again. 11:45, 11:36, 11:38, 11:36, 11:38, 11:35, 11:44 (there was a certain amount of consistency there at least).
Gathered myself for the last mile and did 11:24.
Overall 17.08 miles in 3:13:18. Average pace of 11:19.
Not that bad really but I don't think I'll be repeating that experiment!