From Solo Run The last few months, since early November, have all been about rebuilding the base by means of high volume aerobic running leading to a 50 mile effort on Christmas Eve and including a marathon distance run for the first six weekends of the new year, culminating in a 3:13:49 9th place finish in the Clonakilty Marathon on 6th February – my first M50 win and M50 marathon PB.
The focus for the next 9 or 10 weeks is to see if I can improve on that M50 marathon PB by targeting a lifetime marathon PB (sub 2:54:35) – a tough ask perhaps, but certainly worth giving a shot – nothing ventured etc. ….. already looking forward to the pain……still etched in my memory from last year’s training programme. I haven’t selected a target race as the date is flexible, ideally mid to late April, which means that the start of my training programme is a bit fluid – i.e. I can have a practice week or two.
Week 1 ( x 2)
Session 1 – 3 x 2 miles @ HM Pace
The fist quality session is 8 miles warm-up followed by 3 x 2 miles @ HM pace and 2 miles cool-down. My previous sub-3 hour training plans had a 6:20 (or less!) target pace. Last week I did my practice session, which involved a much shorter warm-up and 3 x 2 miles @ 6:18/23/28 pace. This week, after the 8 miles warm-up, I had a more disappointing session with the first 2 miles slower than last weeks slowest and the pace falling apart (relatively speaking) thereafter. My paces were 6:32,36/43. The strong wind down the back straight certainly had an impact and did note to help my confidence. The fade in pace from first to last is a little worrying as I should have buckets of endurance. Ordinarily, I would probably have thrown in the towel after the second 2 miles but I reckoned that it is better to continue and complete the session at the same relative effort to get the full training benefit.
Session 2 – 18 Miles with the last two at M Pace
My plan for this weekend long run was to keep a steady pace for the first 16 miles (I had 7:30 miles in my head) with the MP miles at 6:40 or less. Both last week and this week the opening 7:30 pace did not materialise getting to 7:38 & 7:43 pace on each occasion. The marathon pace miles were on target although, as usual, so early in the programme, the effort felt more like a tempo session. The paces for each run were 6:37/38 last weekend and 6:40/31 yesterday (both miles with the wind at my back and the 2nd mile a net downhill – there was no way I was going to run hard into that headwind)
So a less than inspiring start to the programme – I may just repeat Week 1 for the third time. It all depends on where my head/body is after 3 x 2 miles @ HM pace on Tuesday and my inclination/ability to tag on another 2 miles at the same pace/effort, which is the “Week 2” Session.
Posted by Grellan at 18:32 2 comments: Links to this post
Friday, 8 January 2016
From humble beginnings
It is 10 years to the day since I first put on a pair of runners and stepped outside my front door to run the 2-mile loop around the block as my first training session for Dublin City Marathon 2006, has committed to running the once in a lifetime event with Adrian over the Christmas holidays. The first 200 yards felt effortless as we glided along. Half a mile in we could feel the fatigue setting in and our early brisk pace had slowed to a jog. By the time we had completed a mile we were struggling and wishing for the finish. 1.5 miles in Adrian stopped and walked but I struggled on until the 2 miles were complete. Two days later we completed the same loop with much less stress, at 2 minutes per mile slower – my first lesson in pacing, although I didn’t know it at the time.
Since then I have covered about 22,500 miles on foot and learned a few lessons about myself along the way…. and had some fun!
