Thought I'd bore my legions of non readers with a breakdown of my training for last week which is pretty ytpical to what I've been doing for the past few weeks. This summer was the first time I'd purposefully trained for any race other than a marathon. Everything else I'd ever done was just the basics to keep things ticking over but I had a plan in the summer that culminated with me getting decent PB's over 5 miles/5k and 3k.
Biggest mileage week last week for a long time and I had planned on running something similar this week, keeping up around 80 miles a week for four weeks leading up to the Abby Dash. I started off with a steady Monday 7 mile run with my work gang. This invariably turns into a mini progression run, usually ending in a marathon type pace.
On Monday evenings, my wife has booked us into an Iyegnar yoga class which is very tough, but in a good way. My wife's a yoga teacher so I've done a bit with her but mainly gentle stuff. I'm not and never have been flexible, I was a gymnast as a kid and although I could do flick-flacks I couldn't touch my toes. The class holds poses longer so is a good strengthening session. Amongst the usual routines I'm familiar with, I was doing hand stands, head stands and shoulder stands. Mentally and physically it's very challenging but in a real positive way and the teacher is brilliant.
Tuesday I ran an easy 5.5 miles in work then in the evening I headed for the track for a session. I usually take my car to Sefton Park to meet James McNally and we jog up to Wavertree which is about 2 miles. The session on Tuesday was 10 mins then 2x5 mins followed by 10x1 min. I ran the 10 mins at 5.45 which was a bit of a kop out, we were in the Mystery so nobody could see me hiding plus everyone seemed to be taking there own route! We then headed back over to the track for the 2x5 mins which I ran at 5.20 pace which is well within me for 5 mins but hard enough. The minute repeats I tried to hit the 200m in 35 seconds then push a bit for the next 25 seconds - sounds easy but believe me it isn't'! I was surprised how consistent I was, getting roughly 330 metres.
Wednesday I ran 10 miles in work around a hilly route that we call Bate Mill. I usually try to keep the pace under 7's and do this with a few work colleagues but was on my own and ran it 68.42 (no chat so it's easier to breathe!). I went to my wife's yoga class in the evening which is based at John Lennon's old school fab fans. This is much gentler class than the Iyegar session but a good core workout none the less.
Thursday - after a couple of progression runs in the evening with Dave Evan's group at the Harriers I decided running fast at night wasn't for me! It's too risky and having broke my ankle a few years back I'm too tentative and always have that at the back of my mind. So I made a conscience decision to carry out my tempo/progression runs at work, in the light and on nice empty country roads. I'd set the tone for this session, agreeing with Stu and Nick we'd run six miles, starting off at marathon pace then each mile ramping up the pace by 10 seconds. I planned to average 6 min miles with Stu running 5.30 pace - Nick was doing 4 miles so he went off with me.
Now I'd purchased a pair of most excellent Jedi Knight slippers, aka Nike Luna Spider Racer that weigh in less than 150 grams. I'd worn them on a Tuesday session for a 10x2 blast so thought I'd try them for something a bit longer. After a mile warm up I started at 6.21, 6.14, 6.01, 5.53, 5.50 and a final blast at 5.32 - I felt great but my calfs were a bit tight which I'd put down to the shoes - think I'll keep them for racing/track work.
Friday I ended up doing 9 miles in work (7 of the 9 were all around 6.45) then another 5 in the night steady. My missus had some passes for her gym so I'd agreed to go to a (another) yoga class which was more Ashtanga - progressive series of postures, a process producing intense internal heat and a profuse, purifying sweat that detoxifies muscles and organs. The result is improved circulation, a light and strong body, and a calm mind. Sorry the story goes anyway! It was pretty tough and some of the routines I felt were too hard on my ankle so I eased off. After the class I had a swim and went for a steam/jacuzzi. I was pretty beat after it and should have known better because I had another tough session lined up for the Saturday.
Saturday I ran upto the Black Woods for a tempo/interval session with Dave's group. It's around 3 miles from my house to the Woods so I wanted to do around 10 miles, knowing the session would be 30 to 40 mins of effort. Unfortunately the group were late in assembling and then proceeded to have a warm up. Double unfortunate for me was calibre of the group - the slowest lad there was James McNally! The session was to be 5x8 mins at tempo pace, which is supposedly half marathon effort. By the time they got going I'd been out for over an hour and with the stop/start nature of the warm up I was getting cold.
The Black Woods is deal for sessions as a loop is roughly 1k. Dave does your k splits then darts through to the mile point for the mile splits. The Woods were very muddy in parts but not too bad but hard enough to maintain a good tempo pace. I wanted to run 5.45's but in the conditions it felt like I was pushing harder. I ran 3 of the 5, gradually getting 5 seconds slower but because I'd been out so long I called it a day. It would have been unfair to hold up the other lads (not that they'd have waited!) so I ran home for a total of 12 miles.
My calf's were feeling tight and the Friday shenanigans had took their toll on my Saturday session so I decided to go on the bike Sunday rather than run - I cycled a leisurely 10 miles, wishing I was running instead! Still I done a healthy 68 miles with plenty of quality thrown in. Cross Country starts this weekend so I'm intrigued to see how I get on after a good few weeks of training under my belt. |