Training Notes - 30/08/2013

No serious running for me at the weekend (in line with my more relaxed training approach for the autumn), but did round 4 of the Salty Seadog sprint tri at Boscombe pier on Saturday. It was my first ever and I learnt 3 things 1) my swimming is terrible 2) my bike fitness is only marginally better 3) my running is reasonable (3rd best 5k time in the field ). Happy to get through unscathed in 29th place in 1:2x:xx

Having a more speed orientated week this week before a little taper to Maidenhead HM a week on Sunday (8th Sept). I joined the Tuesday night BAC session doing 8x800m on the Littledown grass loop and discovered that my speed work has been sorely lacking over the summer av of 5:16/M, which is only a tiny bit better than my last 6x1M session average.... 11.3M in total.

Thursday night's 6 x 1 mile reps session turned out to be a bit brutal.... due to a co-incidental spot of email/facebook organisation we ended up with a good bunch out on the track, fired up for a good session. Did 4:59/5:10/5:15/5:19/5:13/5:13 off a 400m jog recovery (c. 2-3min) average of 5:11/M. First rep was definitely over enthusiastic and I paid for it subsequently! Still very happy to be 7"/M faster than the equivalent workout at the start of July. Ran 4M to the track with 5x20" strides and back 5.3M which was a bit progressive in pace from 9:37/M to 6:22/M (my legs were fairly well shot straight after the reps), for 17.2M @ 6:50/M overall.

Managed to break my mile PB by less than a second in the 1st rep, but at least it's now the right side of 5:00 

Just a 7.2M @ 7:14/M easy run first thing around the Rheinfield Drive area in Forest this morning, but the legs felt surprisingly good given the intensity/distance from the previous evening.

Turning out to be quite a big week, hit 60+ miles by Friday and still have a 15 miler with 10M tempo planned for early doors on Sunday, looking forward to tapering with a few fast 400s and a cheeky fast mile on Wednesday. If you're in or around the New Forest check out the Magic Mile event being held at Woodside in Lymington on Weds evening, details here .

Training notes - 23/08/2013

Wednesday night was the final round of the local RR10 summer XC series, 3 laps (4.3M) of the park around IBM Hursley near Winchester. Had a good first mile and then faded a bit, with a stitch threatening. Thankfully had no-one in close proximity behind (probably contributed to the slow down by letting me slacken off) and managed 17th in the end. Think I just about squeezed a top 10 place for the series. 

I seemed to have gone backwards a bit compared to those I was racing against earlier in the series, but I figure this is probably down to my lack of speed/track work compared to a lot of them! Mentioned the stitch issue to a club mate afterwards and he suggested getting my iron-levels checked to see if I have any deficiency as this can cause them...

Day off from running Thursday, so did 3x750M in the pool this morning as a bit of prep for the spot of multi-sport larking about on Saturday morning I'm signed up for.

My intended progressive 10miler this morning didn't really go to plan.... Went down to Bournemouth prom for a traffic free flat route. Started with 3M easy which felt pretty good and then got on the prom the start the 10M out and back section. Set off a bit quick and clocked 6:09/6:04/6:00/5:58/5:56/5:55 for the first 6M, although I was struggling to get a good rhythm going. It was very warm already and I was going downwind, which was helping the pace, but I was getting pretty hot. Turned around at 6 miles and hit a cooling but surprisingly stiff breeze. Mile 7 was not pretty, managed only 6:08 and canned the effort at that point as it felt the quality was only going to go one way! Looking back at my heart rate data, it was really too high (av176bpm) for the pace I was doing, my marathon HR is normally 165bpm give or take a beat....

 Ran the rest easy for 15.3M total@6:42/M. Overall an ok run, as a 7 mile tempo. Wind/warmth didn't help and I felt my glutes were refusing to play ball this morning (I could feel my calves getting a bit sore/tight, good sign they're over-working). But also I've been playing around with more low-carb/high fat eating this week (except for Weds when I had a decent amount of carbs in prep for the race) and I really felt drained at the end of the 7M effort today. Usually if I struggle in a session and it's down to muscle soreness/fatigue or conditions, I find I can pick it back up to a good steady pace after a mile or so recovery. But today the whole run back to the car was fairly hard work (~7:30/M!). So think I was a bit carb-depleted, good learning experience on fueling.... Also should factor in that I've fitted in 60M in 5 days, which won't have done my glycogen levels much good either 

That's pretty much it for running this week apart from the small matter of the 5k at the end of the Boscombe Sprint Triathlon I'm having a crack at tomorrow...

Quick Race Report - Stur Half (4th August)

Going back a bit, I did a bit of racing at the start of August with the Sturminster Newton (Stur) Half in Dorset on Sunday 4th. Planned to go out hard and see what happened. Hilly-ish course (mostly in the back half) so not PB potential, but a good mid-summer fitness gauge. 
First 5 miles were speedy coming in under HM PB pace (5:39) with a lead group of 3 (including fellow Club Captain, Simon Munro from Bournemouth) The other two guys slowly started to pull away as I slowed down a bit. Lost a place back to 4th before recovering one to finish 3rd overall in 1:15:55. Very happy to go sub 76mins on a lumpy course at an early point in autumn marathon training.
It was nice to feel like I was moving reasonably quickly in a race again, some of my other recent efforts have felt decidedly pedestrian...

Leading off from the gun - what's wrong with a little early enthusiasm? (the downhill start did help...)

Training Notes - 21/08/2013

My hamstring resolved itself from last week, but unfortunately the mile reps session never happened (As the track was in use for an event when I turned up!), so I did a decent length tempo around Southampton Common instead, 14.5M inc 13.2M tempo@6:18/M, which was a bit quicker than I intended but ok.

Due to wedding commitments the past weekend,  I got the long run for the week in on Friday morning, post trip to the physio (shin still an issue, but answers may be forth coming, I hope). Did 22.6M as 1hr(ish) even pace (7:00/M) and then 10x0.5M at faster than MP with 3min even pace and 1min steady inbetween. Averaged 5:45/M for the efforts and they felt pretty good and smooth. Popped another couple of steady pace miles on the end for good measure. A good pre-specific marathon phase session and I guess a bit akin to the 'Kenyan Fartlek' where runners surge for nominated periods in a given easy/steady run.

Got the last round of the local RR10 XC series today, but I'm a bit worried about the state of my left piriformis after a running technique session on Monday lunchtime. Been for a jog and a few strides at lunchtime today and it feels not too bad, so lots of gentle warm up and dynamic stretching pre-race tonight! 

Also planning to do a medium-fast progressive run this Friday, about 1 hour long, starting at around 6:20/M and winding it up to sub half marathon pace if possible. Then got a bit of a change at the weekend as I've entered a sprint Tri at Boscombe beach on Saturday morning so no long run this week.

Training Notes - 12/08/13

This weekend's long run was another combo effort consisting of 5M easy/1M inc 5x20s strides/Parkrun/3M Easy/5M HM Tempo/5M easy. The Parkrun was also a mob match between New Forest & Lordshill from Southampton, although I didn't really have any competition at the front end and finished 1st in 17:17 for a new course record (still very soft, but improving!). HM tempo section was tough, flat but largely offroad and uneven, managed to averaged 5:49/M for the 5M. That said I felt pretty good on the 5M easy at the end and turned the pace up to 'steady' to get home in time. Total of 22M@6:28/M although there was a 15min pause before and 30min after Parkrun to catch my breath. Also due to the amount of higher intensity mileage, I decided to ditch the 'fresh air and water' approach this time and have breakfast plus a couple of gels (before/after Parkrun), think it helped towards the end of the run, as I was happily ticking along around 6:30/M on the way home.

Downside of Saturday is that I have aggravated my R hamstring a bit, I felt it a bit on Friday's run but it seemed ok running on Saturday. Stil a bit sore today, so giving it good doses of foam roller and a couple of rest days to try and sort it out.
Subject to the state of my hamstring the plan is to do a 6 x 1 mile reps session on the track Wednesday and then a long run Friday (got the day off) with 1hr Easy pace followed by 10x0.5mile marathon pace/effort with 0.5 mile recovery and 1min even pace inbetween. I'm at a wedding this weekend, so got to fit the hard sessions in during the week as a result!

Link to Garmin Stats Brockenhurst Parkrun #12 and 3M/5M HM Tempo/5M section below