Monday - an old man
Tuesday - a middle aged man - 15 minutes on the cross trainer
Wednesday - a man in his 40's
Thursday - almost myself - 15 minutes cross trainer and 15 minutes on the bike in the gym
Friday - felt normal and ran 6.5 miles easy. Felt ok until I ran down a hill and my quads creaked badly!
Saturday - sneaked a 4 mile easy run in the glorious Easter sunshine
Sunday - 6.5 miles steady in the sun - left hip stiffened at the end
19 miles in the week which to be honest I had written off as a non event and expected to be running free.
My big thoughts for the week are what is next? I am a firm believer in steady incremental increases in milage and have a new strategy to keep my milage in the 35 - 45 miles a week range through the following strategy.
5 miles gym treadmill interval session
10 miles approx with Tring running club
10 miles tempo run
Weekly long run - ranging from 10 - 20 miles
This will allow me to develop improved endurance for marathons and hopefully longer races in the future.
Finally the last sections shoes! I am keen to continue my progression on the minimal foot ware front, and have purchased a pair of NB MT101's which I first used this week and felt good if not for the calf tightening at the end which is to be expected running in a fore foot manner. My shoes also need to be monitored for wear. From this moment onwards I am going to mention the shoes I use weekly and the milage they get so they can be phased out at 500 miles. This is the age profile so far (estimates for all but the NB's):
Asics DS 16 - 200 miles - used for long road runs
Mizuno Musha 2's -200 miles - used for short road, treadmill and dry trail runs
Innov 8 Roclite 315 - 300 miles - used for longer trail runs
NB MT101's - 6.5 miles - trail runs to mid length at present
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Week ending 17th April - Marathon Week!
Tuesday - steady 6.5 miles steady - just ticking over
Sunday - London Marathon 3h25m25secs
Where do I start? I suppose I should say that the time was 10 minutes slower than the target of 3h15, and I had even speculated of a 3h10 and a good for age time so I had expected to be disappointed. On reflection I am not as frustrated as I thought I would have been as it was a great day and compared to 99% of the population my debut was better than any one else will do in there life time. I am still unsure what went wrong. I had until about 21 miles (my race memory is surprisingly poor - is this normal or was it fatigue?) been on target for the 3h15 but had for a mile or so been feeling my left hamstring twitching and suddenly I got cramp. This then plagued me consistently for the rest of the race every half a mile or so, and really effected my time. I did have to run more slowly after the cramp set in to keep it under control and on bird cage walk in the last mile I then got cramp in my left thigh whilst stretching the left hamstring. I then spent the next minute leaning against a lamp post swinging my leg backwards and forwards getting cramp in one whilst stretching out the other! I finally realised that if I held the leg at 90 degree's the leg relaxed and away I went, but I lost another 2 minutes.
The big question is what caused it? There are two major possibilities. The first being fatigue which is always possible but I did not feel exhausted and certainly fuelled myself well - water and carbs through gels and drink throughout the raw which I do not do in training so I felt pretty good. The other possibility (and the reason I would like to believe) is sweat/salt loss. What I have not said so far is that it was about 21 degrees celcius and by the end of the race had large patches of salt on my face and arms which I cannot recall ever happening before. Salt loss certainly causes cramp and with a winter training plan and all long races happening in the cold I am not used to the heat when running a long way.
Ultimately I will not know the reason as I will develop a salt replacement strategy and will train harder - more thoughts on this next week, but I will learn from it for sure.
Nevertheless I had a great day and wonderful support from a lot of family who came to watch and the roadside thousands who roared their support too was great
Sunday - London Marathon 3h25m25secs
Where do I start? I suppose I should say that the time was 10 minutes slower than the target of 3h15, and I had even speculated of a 3h10 and a good for age time so I had expected to be disappointed. On reflection I am not as frustrated as I thought I would have been as it was a great day and compared to 99% of the population my debut was better than any one else will do in there life time. I am still unsure what went wrong. I had until about 21 miles (my race memory is surprisingly poor - is this normal or was it fatigue?) been on target for the 3h15 but had for a mile or so been feeling my left hamstring twitching and suddenly I got cramp. This then plagued me consistently for the rest of the race every half a mile or so, and really effected my time. I did have to run more slowly after the cramp set in to keep it under control and on bird cage walk in the last mile I then got cramp in my left thigh whilst stretching the left hamstring. I then spent the next minute leaning against a lamp post swinging my leg backwards and forwards getting cramp in one whilst stretching out the other! I finally realised that if I held the leg at 90 degree's the leg relaxed and away I went, but I lost another 2 minutes.
The big question is what caused it? There are two major possibilities. The first being fatigue which is always possible but I did not feel exhausted and certainly fuelled myself well - water and carbs through gels and drink throughout the raw which I do not do in training so I felt pretty good. The other possibility (and the reason I would like to believe) is sweat/salt loss. What I have not said so far is that it was about 21 degrees celcius and by the end of the race had large patches of salt on my face and arms which I cannot recall ever happening before. Salt loss certainly causes cramp and with a winter training plan and all long races happening in the cold I am not used to the heat when running a long way.
Ultimately I will not know the reason as I will develop a salt replacement strategy and will train harder - more thoughts on this next week, but I will learn from it for sure.
Nevertheless I had a great day and wonderful support from a lot of family who came to watch and the roadside thousands who roared their support too was great
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Week ending 10th April
A very quiet week of tapering. I am now bored and want to run the marathon.
Friday 4 miles on the road and the trail quite hard in 26.55. Nice after 4 days off
Saturday 6.63 miles on road and trail on a new run through Hockridge woods - pretty and a little bit more technical than expected. Blue bells are now coming out.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78844925
Not long now, and not sure what to expect on the day. I am confident that I can hold 7.30 per mile, and do a 3h15 marathon.
However knowing that 3h10 means a quick for age time (I quite fancy that), and a guaranteed entry for the marathon for 2 years the temptation to set 7.15 per mile as the target gets more prevalent in my thoughts every day. Will it cause me to blow or can i handle it? Most runs I do are with a couple of gels, no water or food before and after the run or during, so at the marathon with bundles of gels, lucozade sport on tap and plenty of water I should be energised to the max and nail it! Will I blow though? Oooooo the temptation!
Friday 4 miles on the road and the trail quite hard in 26.55. Nice after 4 days off
Saturday 6.63 miles on road and trail on a new run through Hockridge woods - pretty and a little bit more technical than expected. Blue bells are now coming out.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/78844925
Not long now, and not sure what to expect on the day. I am confident that I can hold 7.30 per mile, and do a 3h15 marathon.
However knowing that 3h10 means a quick for age time (I quite fancy that), and a guaranteed entry for the marathon for 2 years the temptation to set 7.15 per mile as the target gets more prevalent in my thoughts every day. Will it cause me to blow or can i handle it? Most runs I do are with a couple of gels, no water or food before and after the run or during, so at the marathon with bundles of gels, lucozade sport on tap and plenty of water I should be energised to the max and nail it! Will I blow though? Oooooo the temptation!
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Week ending 3rd April
An easy week of tapering.
Wednesday - 5 mile trail run - steady pace - circa 39 mins
Saturday - 5 miles road run - steady pace - circa 38 mins
Sunday 10 miles treadmill - tempo effort 7m30secs a mile - 1h15mins
More of the same next week. 2 weeks till the big one and I can't wait. I am ready!
Wednesday - 5 mile trail run - steady pace - circa 39 mins
Saturday - 5 miles road run - steady pace - circa 38 mins
Sunday 10 miles treadmill - tempo effort 7m30secs a mile - 1h15mins
More of the same next week. 2 weeks till the big one and I can't wait. I am ready!
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