I’m only human after all

I was worried I would have another sub-par tempo run. However I didn’t consider that I might abandon the tempo section altogether.

The plan called for 11 miles with 5 @ LT pace. LT pace is supposed to be a bit faster than half marathon pace. Probaby about 6:15 for me. This is a tough workout at the best of times. However after 4 cycles and 3 runs in the previous two days and with a slight cold it was too much.

The first 3 miles felt ok. Then the tempo section started. The first mile was a bit sluggish at 6:24. In the second mile the effort felt like it was the final tempo mile and the pace started dropping off.

I didn’t really even make a conscious decision to bail out; my legs decided for me. I just jogged the rest of the run and cut it short slightly to 10 miles.

I think you need to be physically and mentally fresh to crush this type of workout. I was neither. One early start too many. Hopefully after a good sleep tonight and can do 2 x 2 miles @ LT in tomorrow’s 15 miler.

One more six and four

Two runs and two cycles today makes it seven cardio sessions and one gym session in the first two days of the week!

However the cycles are just 6 mile commutes and generally at easy to steady effort. It is almost impossible to know if they help my overall fitness but my guess is they help a tiny bit. They also count as triathlon training I guess. As I am not a fan of being stuck in traffic jams I intend to continue with them.

The second run was on the treadmill in my lunch break and once again I didn’t have enough time to go slowly. So 8 minutes miles it was and as ever my legs didn’t seem to mind.

13 miles wet

So the third longest run of the week is done! 13 miles in the dark, wind and rain first thing this morning. Ah winter training...

The first half was a bit of a slog into the wind but once I turned round I locked into a nice 7:10 pace which felt pretty comfortable (partly thanks to the wind I guess.)

Once home I had 30 mins to get my son out of the house for school and then a wet ride to work. Quite an active start to the day but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Last of the recovery weeks

I never thought I would call a 68 mile week an easy week but that is the case with this crazy plan.

Just 6.5 miles at recovery effort today in gloriously mild weather. No gloves required.

Next week it is back to the plan with a vengeance. Out of the 20 weeks of marathon training, 6 have a mileage of 80 or more. Next week is the first of the bad boys at 84. By my calculation that will be my highest weekly mileage ever. I know it is not about collecting miles but for a data geek like me it is nice to set records.

16 miles paying for Thursday

I guess something had to give. You go too fast on one run and you will pay for it later. Thursday was fun, pushing on the 13 miler and getting the average pace down to 7:30 minute miles.

Today I had to work hard on the last 5 miles to get the average pace down to 8:00. A nasty headwind in the middle didn't help and I was struggling to get the miles below 8 minutes, even with the effort turned up in the second half. However once I turned around and had the wind behind me I decided to get to work.

I switched the watch to lap pace and aimed for 3 7:20 miles on the flat trail with the wind behind me. It should be doable and so it proved. Miles of 7:10, 7:10 and 6:50 got me to the trail turnoff and then two downhill miles to home finished it off nicely. 16 miles in 2:07.

When real life makes you run too fast

When Pfitzinger and Douglas wrote my marathon plan I'm sure they did not take into account the difficulty of getting two children off to school in enough time to allow me to do my run commute at recovery pace.

Sadly I did not succeed and had to do the run at steady pace to avoid walking into a meeting late. This has happened a few times and I seem to get away with it. I have always thought that my main talent is not getting injured easily.

So just a 6 and 4 mile double today. The second run was genuinely at recovery pace as it was only 4 hours after I finished my first run. Again my legs seemed to put up with it.

If my legs keeping on putting up with everything I throw at them I may have to consider the P&D high mileage plan next winter. Or maybe not.

13 miles steady

Well the legs were evidently pretty well recovered at the start of this run and after getting a bit carried away they are less recovered now!

The easy miles in the first half were around 7:45 minutes miles and the harder effort miles in the second half were under 7 minutes when not uphill. So a hilly 13.1 miles in 1:39 or 7:30 average pace.

I am definitely going a bit better now than I was a few weeks ago. Bring on the speed work!

10 miles easy

Gradually the miles and speed are increasing as I recover from the race. Today’s 10 felt pretty good with the last 4 miles all sub 8 minute and the effort reasonably easy. I did get hit with a Biblical downpour though. The rain was so heavy that I had to turn off my head torch - the light reflecting on the rain meant I couldn’t see the path. The rain eased after a few minutes and the rest of the run was quite pleasant apart from the fact I was totally drenched.

I have to say the winter so far has been pretty harsh. Cold, wet, wind - we have had more than a normal amount of them all. But the days are getting longer. It can only get better from here.

6 mile plod

I don’t believe in pushing the pace when recovering from a race. I just let my legs set the pace and try to embrace the plod. Today my legs were happy with 9 minute miles so that’s what I did. I am lucky to be able to run pain free. The speed can wait.

6 miles recovery

The dreaded recovery run the day after a big race. Thankfully the legs were happy to plod along at about 9:20 pace and I wasn’t about to make them go any faster.

Looking back at yesterday’s race, I think I was in decent shape. Everyone struggled with the conditions and those early 6:20 miles felt comfortable so I’ll take that as my new HM pace!

I have added an extra recovery week into the plan this week to get over the race so I have some easier days to look forward to.

Four Villages HM - 1:25:03

Tough HM for me today. I think we had all the types of winter weather in one morning. It was snowing in my warm up. This became hail and sleet in the early stages of the race. In the second half it was just rain. It was cold and windy the whole time!

The first four miles were solid, all around 6:20. The course then goes gently uphill for 3 miles and my pace slipped to 6:3x. The road was covered in slush which was slippery underfoot so most runners ran through the water streams for better grip. This obviously meant that socks and shoes got heavy.

The 8th mile climbs about 100 feet and I really struggled to get the lap pace under 7 minutes. This ended up being about 20 seconds slower than the same mile last year. There seemed to be a headwind at this point as well.

The 9th mile was a more respectable 6:33, mainly because someone came past who I managed to cling on to. The 10th miles was another climber and this was a bit of a disaster at 7:09. Aaagh!

The course starts to drop in the 11th mile and I managed a 6:27. Then the fun really starts in the 12th mile with a drop of 165 feet. Managed a 6:00 here! The last mile is also slightly downhill and I tried to give everything I had and got a 6:13. Sub 6:00 for the last 200m and my watch said 1:25:05 when I stopped it. Was disappointed not to get a sub 1:25.

So no PB but my second fastest HM.

The winner, Ben Fish, only managed 69:00 and he did a 65:16 HM last year so I guess the conditions affected everyone.

At least my next race will almost certainly be in better conditions!

6 miles and a bit of hope.

Just a very easy 6 miles today with tomorrow's half marathon in mind.

I think I am going to use my watch tomorrow unless I am having a really bad day in which case I will just run. The plan is to keep the flattish miles at sub 6:30 pace and then another sub 1:25 time should be mine.

I am taking great solace in the first mile of my recent marathon pace workout, which was a very comfortable 6:30 minute mile. If I can dial into that pace again over the first 11 slightly uphill miles then I should be able to blast out the last two downhill miles and get a decent time.

The weather looks pretty horrible. Just above freezing with rain and sleet. However this race is now on closed roads so I don't think it will get called off. And the wind is just a normal 12 mph or so, so nothing to fear there.

Let's hope for some fun tomorrow!

Double daze

The plan said 10 miles but my other commitments said do a double. In light of Sunday's race it probably made sense to do something a bit easier in any case.

6 miles into work felt surprisingly good despite yesterday's 13 miler. Another 4 miles on the treadmill at lunch time got the miles done.

The treadmill run was obviously at gym temperature (maybe 18 degrees C) and was a bit of a sweat fest despite the easy effort. London Marathon is at the end of April and can be warm so I may need to do some more of these treadmill runs to acclimatize myself. But I'm not sure I can stomach more than 4 miles at a time on the dreadmill. I made it slightly more interesting by increasing the speed every kilometer but still... Running for me is about being outside in the fresh air, not stuck in some sweaty gym.

13 miles steady

What’s this? A good run?

Well yes, despite the wet and cold this run flew by. Sub 8 min miles felt easy in the first half and when I increased the effort in the second half the pace went down to 7:15. The tailwind was cancelled out by the run being net uphill so I’m putting this down as a good one.

13.1 miles in just over 1 hour 40. Can I do the same distance 15 minutes quicker on Sunday? Maybe. Or maybe I am asking the wrong question? Can I have fun on Sunday? Can I run it without looking at my watch? Hmmm.

10 miles with strides

Getting outside on these winter mornings is a bit of a challenge when it is cold and dark. I got lucky with the rain again and the strong winds were mainly crosswinds so shouldn’t complain.

The legs just felt ok, despite two easy days. A fairly easy effort resulted in 8 minute miles so I guess I’ll settle for that.

The forecast for Sunday’s HM has changed from icy to cold and wet so at least the race won’t be cancelled. I’m quite tempted to race it without looking at my watch, just to try to enjoy it but that feels very radical to me!

Another easy 6 miler

If only I had a pound for every 6 mile run I am going to do on this plan. Not only is it the most common recovery run distance in the plan, it is also the distance from home to work, which makes run commuting very useful.

Often these runs have to be at a slightly faster pace as I have to be at work or home by a certain time. But being able to combine my commute with my run means I can do a 6 mile run and it only adds 20 minutes to my day compared to cycling or driving (in the rush hour.)

Today I was heading into the wind but the legs felt decent and a respectable 8:10 pace didn’t require any effort.

The weather this week has been dreadful but I have been lucky so far and avoided the worst of the rain. My luck may be about to change tomorrow morning...

6 miles recovery

Winter has returned with a vengeance. Wind, rain and cold is on the forecast all week. Fortunately the wind was behind me today and no doubt contributed to a pleasanter Monday run than normal.

Hopefully last Monday’s slog was rock bottom and the only way is up. Despite doing 28 miles over the weekend the legs weren’t too bad and the run went smoothly.

This week is a recovery week in preparation for the Four Villages Half Marathon at the weekend. I have done this race three times and have got a PB each time so I am feeling the pressure to produce a good performance.

With six weeks of marathon training in the bank hopefully my legs can rediscover some speed from somewhere.

Hilly 18

What do you do when the plan says long run and you don't feel like going fast? Take to the hills of course. Then you can blame the pace on the climbing.

I am lucky enough to live on the edge of the Peak District so it isn't hard to find some decent inclines. Today I went to the top of Lyme Park. The climbing was mainly in the first half and looked like this:

1400 feet of climbing overall. However the pace was slower than normal and it was cold and windy. The run was turning into a slog but in the second half I turned onto my favourite trail and finally got going. I even managed a 7:30 mile which was almost the right pace for the second half of a long run (7:20.)

So 79 miles for the week. My legs feel OK. I think the fitness is coming. But speed may take longer.

XC indifference

I just wasn't in a competitive mood today.

At the start of a cross country race everyone races off to get good positions before the route narrows into a trail. There is a lot of jostling and tripping and you have to be quite aggressive to get a high enough place where you are going to get pulled along.

I wasn't in the mood for pushing and shoving so allowed myself to end up mid-pack. This was comfortable and gives the false illusion of having a good race as you spend the rest of the race gradually working your way up the field. But in reality you leave a lot in the tank and that is what happened today.

It didn't help that I never saw any club mates ahead of me to chase so in the end I just treated the race as a relatively easy tempo session. My HR was generally around 150 when really it should be closer to 160 if I was really going for it.

So an enjoyable workout but part of me is frustrated for not leaving it all out there. At least my long run tomorrow should be less of a plod.

Double trouble

I know someone who is doing RED January - run every day. They are making quite a show of it on social media which is fair enough. In the meantime I am quietly doing RALOAD Jan - Mar. Run At Least Once A Day.

Today was the first double. 6 in the morning and 4 at lunchtime. You are supposed to leave at least 6 hours between the runs to maximise recovery but I chose instead to do them both in daylight and avoid the dreaded after-work-in-the-dark shuffle.

Despite yesterday's 15 miler the legs felt OK which is fortunate as I had to rush the first run to get to a meeting on time. They should have both been at recovery pace (8:30 min / mile) but the first one had to be under 8:00 pace to get to work acceptably late!

Big weekend now. 10 miles including XC tomorrow and then 18 miles on Sunday. Onwards.

15 creaky miles

On paper today’s run looks ok. 15 miles averaging 7:50 pace with a pretty low average HR of about 130 (can’t be exact as it glitched at one point). However the legs felt stiff and pretty lifeless. That seems to be a theme at the moment. The pace for HR is decent but the legs just don’t want to move fast.

Cross Country this Saturday could be interesting!

Another easy 6

Thanks to moving days around to allow XC on Saturday I had two easy days in a row. And boy did I need them!

The legs were still pretty lifeless this morning but I picked up the pace a few times in the middle of the run and was rewarded with a sub 8 minute mile. Maybe I have a low level virus or maybe it is just fatigue but hopefully I’ll be able to enjoy a run at some point this week!

6 miles easy

Well a slightly better run today. There was still no spring in my step but I managed to jog along at 8:15 pace with a nice low HR so not too bad.

Thinking about yesterday’s tortuous run, I am going to have to avoid doing long runs in the dark after work. They are just grim and frankly life is too short and I am too slow to justify an unpleasant and entirely optional activity like that. I will have to bite the bullet and get it done at the crack of dawn. At least the run will end in daylight and I can use my favourite trail. Running around traffic just makes me grumpy.

13 mile plod

Oh dear. Obviously it is taking me more than two and a half days to recover from that 20 miler on Saturday. Today’s 13 miler after work started off slow and just got slower. The fact that it was dark, cold and into a headwind didn’t help but there is no hiding from the fact that this was a terribly sluggish run. A run to forget.

On the upside I have two easy days now and the foot seem to be ok.

6 miles recovery

The day after the session. My right foot is sore. Probably a return of plantar fasciitis (runners’ heel.) I can normally sort that out with some fully loaded calf raises so I’m not too concerned.

Well my legs really were in plod mode today. I let them choose the pace and that pace was 9 minute miles! It is ironic that after years of hard training I am now doing some runs slower than when I started. Oh well. Do your hard runs harder and your slow runs slower is what most coaches say. Do your hard runs hard enough and slow becomes very attractive.

20 miles with 10 at marathon pace

So this morning was the second MP run, brought forward a week to allow XC next weekend. I didn't feel that fresh and felt quite intimidated by the thought of 20 miles with 10 @ MP. To make it more palatable I broke it down into 3 sections - 8 miles easy, 10 miles tempo and 2 miles shuffle. Of course I didn't rest between sections - that would be cheating! The pace for the first 8 miles was a bit slow but the legs felt OK. I normally pace marathon tempos by HR these days but my Garmin decided to glitch just before the tempo section so I had to go on lap pace for the first two miles. 200 metres in to the first mile I glanced at the pace and it said 5:55! Probably a GPS glitch but a nice surprise all the same. That mile was a 6:34 and the next four were all around 6:40. I then turned around into the wind and the second half had a couple of 6:55 miles as I zoned out a bit too much but the rest were 6:40s.

So 20 miles on tired legs with no breakfast or nutrition in the run ended up OK. Thanks to switching days around I have done 84 miles in the last 7 days - no wonder my feet are sore!

6 miles recovery

Today was an easy day. 6 miles jog in to work. Gym session at lunchtime. 6 mile cycle home. Easy. That means my legs should be ready for a big workout tomorrow. Gotta be positive.

The run was slow at 8:30 pace but my legs felt ok after a few miles. Let’s hope a good sleep has them ready for action!

14 miles steady

My Thursday afternoons are going to get very repetitive. For the next three months or so I will have the afternoon off work to do the medium long run. These will typically be 15 miles long and I didn’t fancy getting up at 5:30am to do it before work. Having the afternoon off means I can have a good rest afterwards and also see more of my kids.

I have found a decent route that eventually takes me to my favourite trail so, not being one to change something that works, I guess this is a route I’ll be getting very familiar with.

Today I had a strong wind behind me most of the way so the pace was decent, averaging 7:33. Mile 12 was not with the wind but came out at a 7  min mile for a HR of about 142. These are good numbers for me. Is fitness coming back?

12 miles into a gale

As normal the reality was much better than the forecast. I was expecting torrential rain and gale force winds but all I got was an annoying headwind. It was enough to slow me down and I didn’t feel the need to increase the effort much in the second half. After all I was out there getting the miles in while others were still in bed or in a warm car so I at least deserved to run at a nice effort level. I did pick up the pace for one mile when the wind was behind me and was rewarded with a 7:10 split.

In any case the January Blues seemed to only last for one day so all is good again.

6 wet miles

January blues! They seem to be a thing for me. Holiday over, money spent, no sign of the sun. Not my favourite time of year.

Was feeling a bit meh all day so unsurprisingly my motivation to run home in the dark and rain was lacking. Fortunately I am a very stubborn man and once out there you just get on with it.

So the 6 mile recovery run at 8:30 pace got done. Another plod in the dark that I am praying will one day count for something.

Tomorrow will be 12 miles straight into storm Eleanor. Better get some sleep!

10 easy miles

Time for a bit of colour - a picture from the Adlington Winter Warmer last week:

Today it was back to the P&D plan - week 4. I was supposed to do strides in today's 10 miler but as my legs were sore from yesterday's 16 miler I just did 10 pick-ups instead.

Despite last week being a recovery week I have done 72 miles in the last 7 days so the poor legs are a bit fatigued.

Luckily tomorrow is a recovery day but I am more worried about Wednesday's 12 mile run into work - it will be into 40 mile an hour gusts of wind according to the forecast. Fortunately, in my experience, the weather always looks worse in the forecast that it actually feels so no point worrying about it. If you will train for marathons in winter...