Sunday 20 March 2011
Saturday 19 March 2011
Marathon Training Update - Week 7
What a week! At the start i was aware just how much work was still required to get me to 26.2 mile endurance. At the end, i'm thinking there's even more than i thought. I mean, i am able to run 10 miles at 7m30s/mile pace. Trouble is, that's too fast. I need to start running slower :(
Week 7 (w/c 13/03/2011) schedule:
Sunday - 8 miles
Tuesday - 6 miles - speed work
Thursday - 9 miles
Saturday - 5 miles
So, in my last post i mentioned that Week 7 had already got off to a flyer, because i posted on Sunday after i'd already run my Sunday run ;)
I was supposed to run 8 miles, but i screwed up my route a little bit on the way back and ended up running 7.63m at a good 7m25s/mile pace. TOO FAST! I need to aim for somewhere in the region of 8m/mile to achieve 3.5hrs at the Marathon - although i'd settle for anything under 4 hrs. Cardo's record is defo not in danger (3h 19m, if you are interested, and i know you are not, cause he's a chopper). Anyway, i had a tight groin afterwards and my calf was a little bit sore as well, but on the whole, i'm over most of te injury problems i had during Feb, so that's a good sign :)
On to the Tuesday 6 miler, which i did on Wednesday, cause of other commitments (i was shattered on Tuesday after the mighty Gogol Bordello gig on the Monday!!) also i had a cold that was cured by the sweaty factor of the Gogol gig too :D TOP WORK COCKBURN!!
I needed to do some work at home, so i ran home at lunch at a decent pace, again 7m23s.mile. It's TOO FAST! :D sorry. Anyway, felt good after that, which included some speed work which i got into later in the run after i'd stopped hitting the fastbit on an uphill seciton!!
Again a busy time as Wed evening was c9cks birthday, a quiet pint, followed by Premier League Darts on Thursday which was an early start and a late finish. The only drawback to that night was that i walked home from Haymarket Station and aggrivated my calf a bit :( So, on Friday i had to protect it a bit, which i did. I decided on Saturday that it would be beneficial to go for a longer run and Thursday scheduled run of 9 miles looked like a possibility, so i devised an extended route and set out with good intentions....wow it was hard today!!
7m49s/mile average for the 9 mile run, well it was a little shorter than 9 miles, for some reason, but that's GPS for you! Anyway, i started out pretty quick, as you can see from the following Mile Splits:
From mile 5 to 8 you can see that it was pretty much uphill, which is a killer when its blowing a gale, which it was. I've come off the back of this with a very tight groin and that calf is still not really right, but, BUT, i'm going to take a couple of days off now, run on Tuesday next week and then see if i can do a Thursday and Saturday to keep the miles up. Maybe a 10 miler next weekend.
The Edinburgh Half Marathon is in 2 weeks time, and Mo-arch madness is calming down at the moment, so that's good too. Haddowfest will take care of itself and i'm off to run the route that i'll be running on the Marathon day itself next weekend, so i need to be right for that :)
Top work - feeling good. 1000 calories burnt this morning - not that i need to watch my intake, but it feels good as i'll be pigging out later no doubt :)
Until next week :)
PS, Cardo, i love you man.
Thursday 17 March 2011
Monday 14 March 2011
Sunday 13 March 2011
Marathon Training Update - Weeks 2-6
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Has it really been 5 weeks since i posted an update on my training? Yes it has. Anyway, seeing as i'm being badgered from foreign lands to post an update, i felt that i should use the time my PC is taking to author some videos to post an update. And quite an update it is.
Week 2 (w/c 06/02/1011) schedule:
Sunday - 8 miles
Tuesday - 5 miles
Thursday - 6 miles
Saturday 4 miles
Sunday is always the worst day, it's the one after Saturday, really?, meaning that you have to run two days in a row. Sunday is also the longest run of the week on 90% of the schedule. I approached this run with much to fear, but i was confident that i could pull off two runs in two days even if my body was sore. I devised a new route that i had never taken before in order to hit the 8 mile mark. It was much downhill to begin with and much uphill to end with, something that i would have to contend with on race day.
I started off quite steady (but still too fast) at just over 7mins per mile for the first 3 miles, but mile 4 was uphill and i slowed to 7m 47 for that mile. I was tired at this point and then it happened. A pain like i've never felt in my shin. At 5.74 miles of the 8 i was intending to do, i had to stop, i couldn't put much weight on my foot. Shin splints. Ouch. I'm typing this 6 weeks later and it still hasn't fulled healed, but i'm getting through it. I had to get the bus home!! haha. And that was me out for a while, just typical :(
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday were all sacrificed as i hobbled about at work and struggled to come to terms with the fact that i was having a mare.
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Week 3 (w/c 13/02/2011) schedule:
Sunday 10 miles
Tuesday 5 miles
Thursday 6 miles
Saturday 5 miles
Again, this week, i had to sacrifice Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, that was 6 scheduled runs all down the swanny due to shin splints. Having procured a calf support, ankle support and two new insoles, i thought i'd chance things on Saturday 19th Feb at the 5 miler. I still wasn't comfortable on my foot to be honest, but i decided to run 4 x Silverknowes Loop, as at least i would be local if it all went pear shaped. 5.33 miles later and i was fairly happy that i had managed to get back out there. Massive damage to my feet caused by new insoles and ankle strap though - that will take a while to heal :(
So, week two only had one run, as did week 3. Week 4 would need to be better....and it was.....a wee bit anyway.
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Week 4 (w/c 20/02/2011) Schedule:
Sunday 11 miles
Tuesday 5 miles
Thursday 7 miles
Saturday 5 miles
I was still tender after my Saturday run so i again decided to miss the big Sunday run to heal both my cuts and blisters as well as my shin splints. Dogged by a tight calf and a dodgy groin as well.
Tuesday was my first lunchtime run in a long time and i decided to use my trusted 5 mile route, which came in at 4.91 miles, which was weird. Pace was decent at 7m 24s per mile for the entire run.
Thursday was a 7 mile attempt, but i felt that Thursday was pushing it a bit, so i delayed until Sunday when i ran the 7 miles i should have run on the Thursday (studio engineering there!). Anyway, this was slow - well, fast compared to what i should be running but ultimately slow compared to everything else lately, but it was the longest i had run in a long time also accutely aware that the Lasswade 10 mile race was coming up on the 6th of March and i hadn't really touched anything like near 10 mile yet.
I kept it local again, just in case, and the foot wasn't too bad when i finished. All was well for the following Sunday's race then ;)
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Week 5 (w/c 27/02/2011) schedule:
Sunday 12 miles
Tuesday 5 miles
Thursday 7.5miles
Saturday 5 miles
Well, having already run last week's Thursday run on the Sunday, and bearing in mind i had a 10 mile race to go to on Sunday coming, i decided that one run was all i needed this week, a short 5 miler on Tuesday around my favourite short course at lunchtime. 7mins 22secs per mile for the 5 miles wasn't too bad. I didn't enter any notes on runkeeper so i mustn't have had a lot to say about it :)
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Week 6 (w/c 06/03/2011) schedule:
Sunday 13 miles (although this was 10 mile race day actually)
Tuesday 5 miles
Thursday 7 miles
Saturday 5 miles
So, on the Saturday before my race I was up in Perth to see the mighty Hibees draw 1-1 with the less than mighty Saints. That night i did something strange to my back, i thought i'd pulled a muscle as i couldn't breath to the capacity of my lungs nor could i exhale properly. Well, this was not good. Then i was getting jabbing shooting pains like i'd never felt in my life near my shoulder blades slightly to the right. I spent the rest of Saturday night lying like dracula trying not to provoke it :( I also got about 2 hours sleep. No good for Sunday's race!!
Sunday was worse, i was climbing the walls in pain :( So, no race at all.
When i woke on Monday morning, it was completely gone :( That's just weird. Never will i have a go at someone with back pain again :(
Ultimately another week with no running!! :(
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Week 7 has got off to a flyer, so i'm hoping to report some good news in my next blog post. 4 weeks till the edinburgh half. 10 weeks will the marathon!! GULP
Since i started this schedule, i have been due to run 23 times. I have completed just 8 of them. That needs to improve.
www.runkeeper.com/user/zooldafool
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