P&D 12 week up to 55 mile review - Chester marathon 2017
3:01pm, 6th Oct 2017 | Chester Marathon | 6 Comments
Blog by larkim
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Build up / preamble / ramble
============================
The year started with me being brave / foolish and entering a local ultra at 33 trail miles for no good reason other than a part of the course ran along the end of our road, the finish was half a mile from home and it was cheap!
So the year started out with Helsby half, followed by committing to long weekend runs for the first time, and breaking into the 20+ mile run club too.
Up to March 2017, my highest monthly mileage had been 125 when training for the Cardiff World HM Champs in 2016, and Chester thereafter, but injury had cropped up - my Achilles turn out to be my Achilles...
So despite upping mileage to the point where I'd exceeded 1000 miles in a year for the first time in 2016, I was definitely way short of what many would be doing, despite achieving respectable HM times (89 minutes).
So mileage went up. 172 in March as the 20 mile long runs kicked in, similar in April despite a family holiday and the ultra in May went fine - died a death at the end, but enjoyed it and placed well. I completely surprised myself in the build up when I went sub 19 at 5k for the first time, especially as I'd done absolutely zero speed work in that period. And that in part changed my view that simply upping volume (and actually decreasing pace) could result in race improvements.
With those miles in the bag and being uninjured at that point, I had to choose to get a marathon done. Chester was the obvious choice, being local, and whilst I was fearful that the summer months of hot weather (!) might get in the way, there was no time like the present.
Had a look around at various plans, and the 3:15 thread were very positive about P&D so I looked there to see if anything fitted my time and inclination. With a mix of slower and faster stuff, and an option to keep the mileage at a controllable level, the up to 55 mile week plans looked good. Instead of adopting the 18 week plan, which felt like a long build up, I opted instead to go for a steady period of consistent mileage and long runs, and then take up the 12 week P&D plan to bring me up to Chester.
Having bought the book, I've done my best to run the plan to schedule, but as P&D say in the book there are always times when things need adapting, so when I needed to adapt for holidays, conveinence of tune up race locations etc I did. On reflection, some of the weeks should have been swapped around wholesale due to the timing of tune up races, but its now the Friday before race day, I'm uninjured, I've hit or exceeded my pace targets and I'm ready for the marathon!
At the outset I set the framework for my run paces in line with a 3:15 marathon, though using a cautious lactate threshold pace and a more aggressive 5k intervals pace.
Pace zones based on 7m26 MP (3h15 marathon)
Recovery Any
General Aerobic 0:08:33 0:09:18
Long runs 0:08:11 0:08:55
MLR 0:08:11 0:08:55
Marathon pace 0:07:26 0:07:26
Lactate threshold 0:06:48 0:07:00
Intervals 0:06:06 0:06:10
HR zones based on MaxHR @ 184
Recovery 0 140
General Aerobic 129 149
Long runs 136 155
MLR 136 155
Marathon pace 145 162
Lactate threshold 151 167
Intervals 171 175
Broad target time - sub 3:30 ("A" objective), sub 3:20 ("B" objective, felt this was doable), sub 3:15 ("C" objective - if it comes, brilliant)
I'm not precious about privacy, so all my training log is available for all to see via my profile.
Week 1
------
Plan
Tues - 8 GA with 10x100m strides
Thur - 9 GA
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 13 incl 8 @ MP
Actual
Got stuck in right away into the plan, though moved Tues to Mon for convenience. Never really done strides before, so polled the 3:15 group as to whether they should be in the middle of the GA runs or at the end. Mixed responses (though most said they effectively fartlekked them in the middle), but reading P&D and the suggestion of walked recoveries etc, I decided I'd treat the 8m as a warm up and then stick in the strides at the end on a piece of road I could use consistently to track progress.
Had the day off work on the Friday, so rather than "waste" it wih just a 5m recovery run, pushed out to 9.5 miles by throwing in more miles at a sedate pace running with SWMBO so she could get a decent run in too.
This week ends with a reasonably tough starting longer run - I was apprehensive about this as I'd not done any MP running, and was in two minds as to what I should plan my MP at. Decided to "go for it" and aim for around 7:20s which was just under 3:15 pace on the basis that nothing ventured nothing gained. Also elected to up the distance in this week as doing less than 16 on a weekend run felt "wrong", so ran parkrun with one of my boys, then another lap of the parkrun course before starting the watch on a new session for the MP session. With a net uphill track and a reasonably warm day, probably went out a bit too hard, but averaged 7:09 for the MP miles, so on the basis that was MP+ I was happy with that.
Week 2
------
Plan
Tues - 11 MLR
Thurs - 8 tempo, incl 4 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 15 MLR
Actual
Monday off work again (it was my birthday) so jogged down to the "Frodsham joggers" group that my wife does and did a bit of general fitness first thing, before heading off on the MLR. HR device gave up the ghost so decided to invest in a new one based on this run! Pace at around 8:06/mile was a little tougher than I'd expected, putting that down to the fitness session and the MP+ miles at the weekend.
Extra 4 on Tuesday as trying to encourage eldest son back into training, but the "easy" pace I wanted was too slow for him, so we ended up running at 7:40s.
First tempo of the plan came next, and P&D were very clear about how this should be run. Set out in the 4 tempo miles aiming to hit 6:50-7:00, actually ended up progressing from 6:43 to 6:33 and felt strong at the end. Enjoyed the anticipation of a tempo - those first few miles of warm up fly by when your expecting the pain and suffering of the faster miles to come!
Put in a very light and easy 4 recovery instead of the 5 on the Saturday because this weekend saw my first big deviation from the plan. A long standing commitment to run the Heckington 10 mile race whilst staying down with family. Had two previous attempts at this and been carrying an injury both times, so really wanted to see how I could go, and was really looking forward to running it with Christopher as he'd promised to pace me around, as he was still building confidence in his speed.
Ended up with a 1s overall 10 mile PB, had a good solid consistent race and followed it up the next day with 5 easy recovery miles to complete my deviations from the plan, but match the weekend mileage target of 15 miles.
Week 3
------
Plan
Tues - 8 GA with 10x100m strides
Wed - 4 rec
Thur - 11 MLR
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - 16 incl 10 @ MP
Actual
Back to the plan this week, a few adjustments for the precise days but this was also the first week of a proper MLR. When I first started running, 11 mile runs on a week day were included towards the end of a HM build up so heading out in the summer for 1hr30+ wasn't an issue. Tried to manage HR to consistently under 150 even when climbing, so rather than watch the pace I watched the HR and ended up with a pace of 8:00 on a new route.
After sticking to the plan, the next 10 days would be out of kilter as it was a family week holiday down in Devon. Against advice from the 3:15 group (!), after a 4am start to drive down to Barnstaple parkrun, sneaked under 20 minutes as I couldn't resist running faster as its a course I've only done a few times, even though Sunday was expected to be a tough run.
Sunday was a run I'd thought a lot about before we went away on holiday. The Tarka Trail was a perfect spot for running consistently and evenly, and with the weather fair I jogged the 4 miles down and cracked on. Had an excellent run in the early morning, no ill effects from the previous day's parkrunning, and averaged 7:17 for the 11 MP miles that I did (added an extra on "just because") before jogging uphill back to the family. So 19 miles instead of 16 for the long run package, but a real confidence boost.
Week 4
------
Plan
Tues - 5 rec
Wed - 10 tempo, incl 5 at pace
Thurs - 11 MLR
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 17 LR
A very distrupted week due to the holiday. A couple of short bike rides on Monday to get down to the beach, and then 23 miles cycled to the "Big Sheep" attraction (our car was one seat short of what we needed, so I'd agreed to cycle to some days out) on Tuesday (plus the return) meant I had no interest in the early week miles. Knocked the tempo on the head too as didn't have enough time, but did run a hilly 11 MLR on the Wednesday, before more cycling (15m total) to Ilfracombe and then nothing through the end of the week. Deferred the 17 LR to the Monday due to travelling.
Week 5
------
Plan
Wed - 12 MLR
Fri - 9 tempo, incl 4 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 16 LR
Catching up on the long run from the last week was the first port of call, 17m on a weekday night is not ideal. Pace at 8:26 was comfortable, though the gloom meant I was struggling to see where I was putting my feet for large chunks so that slowed me down.
Back on schedule with the 12 MLR and then tempo on Friday which was uneventful but equally satisfying in terms of getting under the 6:50-7:00 bracket I'd cautiously targetted. Saturday easy running revolved around running with my boys at parkrun, and then I extended the 16 mile target long run to a 20.5 mile run along large chunks of the Chester marathon course to get some local knowledge. 20 mile runs didn't faze me as I'd done a fair few in the earlier part of the year, so I started the plan with an idea that if I could push a long run into the 20s I should. Set off steady, but gradually picked up the pace to around MP+20s.
Week 6
------
Plan
Tues - 5 rec
Wed - 10 incl intervals, 5 x 1000m
Thu - 12 MLR
Sat - 6 rec with 6x100m strides
Sun - 15, incl 12 @ MP
Miscalculated Tuesday's run by a mile but had a bit of "fun" by running a 6 mile recovery run at a very gentle pace around a 270m grass track whilst the kids were at their athletics club. A mindless activity, but just something to make the recovery miles a little less uninspiring!
Intervals all went to plan round my usual road loop, but the pace was swifter than I expected, dipping under 6min/mile for each rep, but also with consistent recovery paces. P&D describe the jog sets to be at 50-90% of the time taken for the fast reps, so tried to stick to about 2m45.
MLR done to plan, but dropped Saturday's recovery for a day out on the MTB with the family.
Long MP run at the weekend was the focus of this one, and again headed out onto the Chester marathon course for this one. Made sure I had gels with me to trial taking them at MP and to check on no stomach issues - a bit of a waste of money in all honesty, but does give me confidence about race day. MP exceeded with 7:17 average and a good solid HR too. Not easy, but another good confidence boost.
Week 7
------
Plan
Tues - 6 rec with 6x100m strides
Wed - 12 MLR
Fri - 12 tempo, incl 7 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 20 LR
This was going to be a big week. Whilst attempting to stick to the plan, I'd also booked a 20m race for the end of this week. Before I started out on the plan I'd imagined running it at 20m race pace, but advice not to do that was well heeded so the plan was to run it as a 20 mile LR with 15 at MP, but also use it as a kit dress rehearsal.
Early week runs done to the schedule, getting used to the MLRs now. The 12 mile, incl 7 at tempo pace, on Friday looked intimimdating. 7 miles at close to 10 mile race pace in the middle of a 12 mile session took a decent chunk of focus to get into the right mindset, but once again nailed the paces at just under the 6:50s I had planned at the outset. Having hung on successfully throughout the tempo miles on this, I really started to build confidence that the plan was developing me properly, and especially that the recovery from hard efforts was now coming quite quickly so the 20 mile race on the Sunday shouldn't be an issue. Ran an easy parkrun on Saturday with the family as part of 5 miles of gentle stuff (though still sub 8min/mile) too.
Sunday's race went about as perfectly as I could have hoped for. Practiced race day nutrition and kit, early rising etc etc. First 5 miles at about 8:20-8:30 then picked up the pace to 7:20s and enjoyed cruising past a hugh number of participants. Course was hillier than Chester will be, so locked the confidence in the vault from this run.
Week 8
------
Plan
Tues - 8 incl intervals, 5 x 600m
Wed - 11 MLR
Fri - 4 rec with 6x100m strides
Sat - 13 inc 5-10 mile race
Sun - 17 LR
Not content with temp on Friday and MP on Sunday, I brought forward the intervals to Monday to fit in with home / work, but chose to run them on the undulating grass track rather than my normal intervals tarmac simply so I couldn't beat myself up for pace deficits caused by having tired legs. Whislt definitely not feeling as fast as on the tarmac, didn't have too many issues with keeping the reps and the rest consistent.
MLR that week was very strong - HR showing real signs of improvement from a few months ago. I hadn't managed to schedule a race for this weekend, so instead time trialed around parkrun at a decent effort, and was within 10s of my parkrun PB without trying "too" hard. Short on miles this weekend, so again extended the long run up to 20 miles, this time along the pan flat out and back along the canal to see what the HR was doing, as I'd done this "benchmark" a few times for precisely this reason - to judge objective improvement. Kept the HR well under control at under 140 all the way, with a slow out-bound 10 miles at 8:30s, and the return limited by HR, with an average pace of 8:19.
Overall this was the biggest mileage week of the planm topping out at 55.9 miles run, my highest ever.
Week 9
------
Plan
Tues - 7 rec with 6x100m strides
Wed - 10 incl intervals, 4 x 1200m
Fri - 11 MLR
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - 20 LR
Getting to the sharp end now, but another week where the plan was modified. The fastest local 10k race was scheduled for the Sunday so it was an ideal one to enter. Spent the week fretting about what pace I might be able to achieve, as I knew a PB was almost certainly on offer. PB prior to this was 41:05, so was hoping I might sneak sub 40 on a good day.
In the run up, followed the plan quite closely, shifting Tuesday to Monday as usual but adding in a few extra easy miles to compensate for not doing a full 20 miles at the weekend.
The 10k race on Sunday went well, far beyond my expectations. Found myself cruising (ish!) at 19:15 for half way, and as the course didn't get any harder in the second half managed to get under 39 minutes with 38:44. Despite throwing up beetroot juice just after finishing (I was completely raced-out at that point) I felt fantastic. Sub 40 had always looked out of reach, but to be a minute faster than that truly exceeded my expectations.
Not content with rinsing myself for a big PB, I'd also planned to run the 8.5 miles back home. Surprised myself with being able to manage it, though would readily admit it was a bit of a struggle, but was glad I did as this is just the sort of training which I'll be able to dig out of the back of my mind when I'm finding the race getting tough when I'm in the midst of Chester marathon!
Week 10
-------
Plan
Tues - 8 incl intervals 5 x 600m
Wed - 6 rec
Fri - 4 rec with 6 x 100m strides
Sat - 10 incl 10k race
Sun - 16 LR
Actual
Messed around with the schedule again this week, mainly in response to sticking in the race last week.
6 easy on Tuesday and 8 including the 600m intervals on Thursday were more or less to plan, though out of order. Once again the intervals paces exceeded my expectations, helped by chasing a fit young 17 year old as he got back into training too. Threw in an MLR to add volume and replace the race day, as the plan for this week was really built around the expectation that it was a week including a race at the weekend. Realised a little too late that my shuffling around would have been more sensibly organised by simply swapping the weeks 10 and 11 around completely.
Getting near to taper time though, so whilst there was a temptation to push the 16 miles out to 20, stuck to the plan rigidly, though did run the last 5k of the 16 miler at around MP just to give my legs some additional intensity. Pleasing to note that the HR for these MP miles was around about 150.
Week 11
-------
Plan
Tues - 7 GA with 8x100m strides
Wed - 8 incl intervals 3 x 1600m
Fri - 5 rec with 6x100m strides
Sun - 12 MLR
Actual
Apart from shuffing the intervals to Thursday and running them in the day, stuck religiously to this plan. Intervals were done at possibly too intense a pace as I practically threw up at 1450m into the final rep, but even if I'd gone slower I'd have been going faster than I had thought I could
achieve.
Week 12
-------
Plan
Tues - 6 rec
Wed - 7 dress rehearsal incl 2 @ MP
Fri - 5 rec with 6x100m strides
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - RACE DAY
Actual
All done to plan, though moved Tues and Weds earlier to Mon / Tues to fit in with work / home stuff.
Plenty of debate about whether this week is "too much" running close to the marathon on the 3:15 board but having got this far mostly following the plan, I wasn't going to throw out the logic of trusting P&D at this point.
Ran easier than I might have done earlier in the plan for the early morning Friday recovery run. Still yet to do the Saturday run, but expecting to cruise around the local parkrun at 9am with some family in tow. And then let's see what Sunday brings!
============================
The year started with me being brave / foolish and entering a local ultra at 33 trail miles for no good reason other than a part of the course ran along the end of our road, the finish was half a mile from home and it was cheap!
So the year started out with Helsby half, followed by committing to long weekend runs for the first time, and breaking into the 20+ mile run club too.
Up to March 2017, my highest monthly mileage had been 125 when training for the Cardiff World HM Champs in 2016, and Chester thereafter, but injury had cropped up - my Achilles turn out to be my Achilles...
So despite upping mileage to the point where I'd exceeded 1000 miles in a year for the first time in 2016, I was definitely way short of what many would be doing, despite achieving respectable HM times (89 minutes).
So mileage went up. 172 in March as the 20 mile long runs kicked in, similar in April despite a family holiday and the ultra in May went fine - died a death at the end, but enjoyed it and placed well. I completely surprised myself in the build up when I went sub 19 at 5k for the first time, especially as I'd done absolutely zero speed work in that period. And that in part changed my view that simply upping volume (and actually decreasing pace) could result in race improvements.
With those miles in the bag and being uninjured at that point, I had to choose to get a marathon done. Chester was the obvious choice, being local, and whilst I was fearful that the summer months of hot weather (!) might get in the way, there was no time like the present.
Had a look around at various plans, and the 3:15 thread were very positive about P&D so I looked there to see if anything fitted my time and inclination. With a mix of slower and faster stuff, and an option to keep the mileage at a controllable level, the up to 55 mile week plans looked good. Instead of adopting the 18 week plan, which felt like a long build up, I opted instead to go for a steady period of consistent mileage and long runs, and then take up the 12 week P&D plan to bring me up to Chester.
Having bought the book, I've done my best to run the plan to schedule, but as P&D say in the book there are always times when things need adapting, so when I needed to adapt for holidays, conveinence of tune up race locations etc I did. On reflection, some of the weeks should have been swapped around wholesale due to the timing of tune up races, but its now the Friday before race day, I'm uninjured, I've hit or exceeded my pace targets and I'm ready for the marathon!
At the outset I set the framework for my run paces in line with a 3:15 marathon, though using a cautious lactate threshold pace and a more aggressive 5k intervals pace.
Pace zones based on 7m26 MP (3h15 marathon)
Recovery Any
General Aerobic 0:08:33 0:09:18
Long runs 0:08:11 0:08:55
MLR 0:08:11 0:08:55
Marathon pace 0:07:26 0:07:26
Lactate threshold 0:06:48 0:07:00
Intervals 0:06:06 0:06:10
HR zones based on MaxHR @ 184
Recovery 0 140
General Aerobic 129 149
Long runs 136 155
MLR 136 155
Marathon pace 145 162
Lactate threshold 151 167
Intervals 171 175
Broad target time - sub 3:30 ("A" objective), sub 3:20 ("B" objective, felt this was doable), sub 3:15 ("C" objective - if it comes, brilliant)
I'm not precious about privacy, so all my training log is available for all to see via my profile.
Week 1
------
Plan
Tues - 8 GA with 10x100m strides
Thur - 9 GA
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 13 incl 8 @ MP
Actual
Got stuck in right away into the plan, though moved Tues to Mon for convenience. Never really done strides before, so polled the 3:15 group as to whether they should be in the middle of the GA runs or at the end. Mixed responses (though most said they effectively fartlekked them in the middle), but reading P&D and the suggestion of walked recoveries etc, I decided I'd treat the 8m as a warm up and then stick in the strides at the end on a piece of road I could use consistently to track progress.
Had the day off work on the Friday, so rather than "waste" it wih just a 5m recovery run, pushed out to 9.5 miles by throwing in more miles at a sedate pace running with SWMBO so she could get a decent run in too.
This week ends with a reasonably tough starting longer run - I was apprehensive about this as I'd not done any MP running, and was in two minds as to what I should plan my MP at. Decided to "go for it" and aim for around 7:20s which was just under 3:15 pace on the basis that nothing ventured nothing gained. Also elected to up the distance in this week as doing less than 16 on a weekend run felt "wrong", so ran parkrun with one of my boys, then another lap of the parkrun course before starting the watch on a new session for the MP session. With a net uphill track and a reasonably warm day, probably went out a bit too hard, but averaged 7:09 for the MP miles, so on the basis that was MP+ I was happy with that.
Week 2
------
Plan
Tues - 11 MLR
Thurs - 8 tempo, incl 4 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 15 MLR
Actual
Monday off work again (it was my birthday) so jogged down to the "Frodsham joggers" group that my wife does and did a bit of general fitness first thing, before heading off on the MLR. HR device gave up the ghost so decided to invest in a new one based on this run! Pace at around 8:06/mile was a little tougher than I'd expected, putting that down to the fitness session and the MP+ miles at the weekend.
Extra 4 on Tuesday as trying to encourage eldest son back into training, but the "easy" pace I wanted was too slow for him, so we ended up running at 7:40s.
First tempo of the plan came next, and P&D were very clear about how this should be run. Set out in the 4 tempo miles aiming to hit 6:50-7:00, actually ended up progressing from 6:43 to 6:33 and felt strong at the end. Enjoyed the anticipation of a tempo - those first few miles of warm up fly by when your expecting the pain and suffering of the faster miles to come!
Put in a very light and easy 4 recovery instead of the 5 on the Saturday because this weekend saw my first big deviation from the plan. A long standing commitment to run the Heckington 10 mile race whilst staying down with family. Had two previous attempts at this and been carrying an injury both times, so really wanted to see how I could go, and was really looking forward to running it with Christopher as he'd promised to pace me around, as he was still building confidence in his speed.
Ended up with a 1s overall 10 mile PB, had a good solid consistent race and followed it up the next day with 5 easy recovery miles to complete my deviations from the plan, but match the weekend mileage target of 15 miles.
Week 3
------
Plan
Tues - 8 GA with 10x100m strides
Wed - 4 rec
Thur - 11 MLR
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - 16 incl 10 @ MP
Actual
Back to the plan this week, a few adjustments for the precise days but this was also the first week of a proper MLR. When I first started running, 11 mile runs on a week day were included towards the end of a HM build up so heading out in the summer for 1hr30+ wasn't an issue. Tried to manage HR to consistently under 150 even when climbing, so rather than watch the pace I watched the HR and ended up with a pace of 8:00 on a new route.
After sticking to the plan, the next 10 days would be out of kilter as it was a family week holiday down in Devon. Against advice from the 3:15 group (!), after a 4am start to drive down to Barnstaple parkrun, sneaked under 20 minutes as I couldn't resist running faster as its a course I've only done a few times, even though Sunday was expected to be a tough run.
Sunday was a run I'd thought a lot about before we went away on holiday. The Tarka Trail was a perfect spot for running consistently and evenly, and with the weather fair I jogged the 4 miles down and cracked on. Had an excellent run in the early morning, no ill effects from the previous day's parkrunning, and averaged 7:17 for the 11 MP miles that I did (added an extra on "just because") before jogging uphill back to the family. So 19 miles instead of 16 for the long run package, but a real confidence boost.
Week 4
------
Plan
Tues - 5 rec
Wed - 10 tempo, incl 5 at pace
Thurs - 11 MLR
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 17 LR
A very distrupted week due to the holiday. A couple of short bike rides on Monday to get down to the beach, and then 23 miles cycled to the "Big Sheep" attraction (our car was one seat short of what we needed, so I'd agreed to cycle to some days out) on Tuesday (plus the return) meant I had no interest in the early week miles. Knocked the tempo on the head too as didn't have enough time, but did run a hilly 11 MLR on the Wednesday, before more cycling (15m total) to Ilfracombe and then nothing through the end of the week. Deferred the 17 LR to the Monday due to travelling.
Week 5
------
Plan
Wed - 12 MLR
Fri - 9 tempo, incl 4 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 16 LR
Catching up on the long run from the last week was the first port of call, 17m on a weekday night is not ideal. Pace at 8:26 was comfortable, though the gloom meant I was struggling to see where I was putting my feet for large chunks so that slowed me down.
Back on schedule with the 12 MLR and then tempo on Friday which was uneventful but equally satisfying in terms of getting under the 6:50-7:00 bracket I'd cautiously targetted. Saturday easy running revolved around running with my boys at parkrun, and then I extended the 16 mile target long run to a 20.5 mile run along large chunks of the Chester marathon course to get some local knowledge. 20 mile runs didn't faze me as I'd done a fair few in the earlier part of the year, so I started the plan with an idea that if I could push a long run into the 20s I should. Set off steady, but gradually picked up the pace to around MP+20s.
Week 6
------
Plan
Tues - 5 rec
Wed - 10 incl intervals, 5 x 1000m
Thu - 12 MLR
Sat - 6 rec with 6x100m strides
Sun - 15, incl 12 @ MP
Miscalculated Tuesday's run by a mile but had a bit of "fun" by running a 6 mile recovery run at a very gentle pace around a 270m grass track whilst the kids were at their athletics club. A mindless activity, but just something to make the recovery miles a little less uninspiring!
Intervals all went to plan round my usual road loop, but the pace was swifter than I expected, dipping under 6min/mile for each rep, but also with consistent recovery paces. P&D describe the jog sets to be at 50-90% of the time taken for the fast reps, so tried to stick to about 2m45.
MLR done to plan, but dropped Saturday's recovery for a day out on the MTB with the family.
Long MP run at the weekend was the focus of this one, and again headed out onto the Chester marathon course for this one. Made sure I had gels with me to trial taking them at MP and to check on no stomach issues - a bit of a waste of money in all honesty, but does give me confidence about race day. MP exceeded with 7:17 average and a good solid HR too. Not easy, but another good confidence boost.
Week 7
------
Plan
Tues - 6 rec with 6x100m strides
Wed - 12 MLR
Fri - 12 tempo, incl 7 at pace
Sat - 5 rec
Sun - 20 LR
This was going to be a big week. Whilst attempting to stick to the plan, I'd also booked a 20m race for the end of this week. Before I started out on the plan I'd imagined running it at 20m race pace, but advice not to do that was well heeded so the plan was to run it as a 20 mile LR with 15 at MP, but also use it as a kit dress rehearsal.
Early week runs done to the schedule, getting used to the MLRs now. The 12 mile, incl 7 at tempo pace, on Friday looked intimimdating. 7 miles at close to 10 mile race pace in the middle of a 12 mile session took a decent chunk of focus to get into the right mindset, but once again nailed the paces at just under the 6:50s I had planned at the outset. Having hung on successfully throughout the tempo miles on this, I really started to build confidence that the plan was developing me properly, and especially that the recovery from hard efforts was now coming quite quickly so the 20 mile race on the Sunday shouldn't be an issue. Ran an easy parkrun on Saturday with the family as part of 5 miles of gentle stuff (though still sub 8min/mile) too.
Sunday's race went about as perfectly as I could have hoped for. Practiced race day nutrition and kit, early rising etc etc. First 5 miles at about 8:20-8:30 then picked up the pace to 7:20s and enjoyed cruising past a hugh number of participants. Course was hillier than Chester will be, so locked the confidence in the vault from this run.
Week 8
------
Plan
Tues - 8 incl intervals, 5 x 600m
Wed - 11 MLR
Fri - 4 rec with 6x100m strides
Sat - 13 inc 5-10 mile race
Sun - 17 LR
Not content with temp on Friday and MP on Sunday, I brought forward the intervals to Monday to fit in with home / work, but chose to run them on the undulating grass track rather than my normal intervals tarmac simply so I couldn't beat myself up for pace deficits caused by having tired legs. Whislt definitely not feeling as fast as on the tarmac, didn't have too many issues with keeping the reps and the rest consistent.
MLR that week was very strong - HR showing real signs of improvement from a few months ago. I hadn't managed to schedule a race for this weekend, so instead time trialed around parkrun at a decent effort, and was within 10s of my parkrun PB without trying "too" hard. Short on miles this weekend, so again extended the long run up to 20 miles, this time along the pan flat out and back along the canal to see what the HR was doing, as I'd done this "benchmark" a few times for precisely this reason - to judge objective improvement. Kept the HR well under control at under 140 all the way, with a slow out-bound 10 miles at 8:30s, and the return limited by HR, with an average pace of 8:19.
Overall this was the biggest mileage week of the planm topping out at 55.9 miles run, my highest ever.
Week 9
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Plan
Tues - 7 rec with 6x100m strides
Wed - 10 incl intervals, 4 x 1200m
Fri - 11 MLR
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - 20 LR
Getting to the sharp end now, but another week where the plan was modified. The fastest local 10k race was scheduled for the Sunday so it was an ideal one to enter. Spent the week fretting about what pace I might be able to achieve, as I knew a PB was almost certainly on offer. PB prior to this was 41:05, so was hoping I might sneak sub 40 on a good day.
In the run up, followed the plan quite closely, shifting Tuesday to Monday as usual but adding in a few extra easy miles to compensate for not doing a full 20 miles at the weekend.
The 10k race on Sunday went well, far beyond my expectations. Found myself cruising (ish!) at 19:15 for half way, and as the course didn't get any harder in the second half managed to get under 39 minutes with 38:44. Despite throwing up beetroot juice just after finishing (I was completely raced-out at that point) I felt fantastic. Sub 40 had always looked out of reach, but to be a minute faster than that truly exceeded my expectations.
Not content with rinsing myself for a big PB, I'd also planned to run the 8.5 miles back home. Surprised myself with being able to manage it, though would readily admit it was a bit of a struggle, but was glad I did as this is just the sort of training which I'll be able to dig out of the back of my mind when I'm finding the race getting tough when I'm in the midst of Chester marathon!
Week 10
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Plan
Tues - 8 incl intervals 5 x 600m
Wed - 6 rec
Fri - 4 rec with 6 x 100m strides
Sat - 10 incl 10k race
Sun - 16 LR
Actual
Messed around with the schedule again this week, mainly in response to sticking in the race last week.
6 easy on Tuesday and 8 including the 600m intervals on Thursday were more or less to plan, though out of order. Once again the intervals paces exceeded my expectations, helped by chasing a fit young 17 year old as he got back into training too. Threw in an MLR to add volume and replace the race day, as the plan for this week was really built around the expectation that it was a week including a race at the weekend. Realised a little too late that my shuffling around would have been more sensibly organised by simply swapping the weeks 10 and 11 around completely.
Getting near to taper time though, so whilst there was a temptation to push the 16 miles out to 20, stuck to the plan rigidly, though did run the last 5k of the 16 miler at around MP just to give my legs some additional intensity. Pleasing to note that the HR for these MP miles was around about 150.
Week 11
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Plan
Tues - 7 GA with 8x100m strides
Wed - 8 incl intervals 3 x 1600m
Fri - 5 rec with 6x100m strides
Sun - 12 MLR
Actual
Apart from shuffing the intervals to Thursday and running them in the day, stuck religiously to this plan. Intervals were done at possibly too intense a pace as I practically threw up at 1450m into the final rep, but even if I'd gone slower I'd have been going faster than I had thought I could
achieve.
Week 12
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Plan
Tues - 6 rec
Wed - 7 dress rehearsal incl 2 @ MP
Fri - 5 rec with 6x100m strides
Sat - 4 rec
Sun - RACE DAY
Actual
All done to plan, though moved Tues and Weds earlier to Mon / Tues to fit in with work / home stuff.
Plenty of debate about whether this week is "too much" running close to the marathon on the 3:15 board but having got this far mostly following the plan, I wasn't going to throw out the logic of trusting P&D at this point.
Ran easier than I might have done earlier in the plan for the early morning Friday recovery run. Still yet to do the Saturday run, but expecting to cruise around the local parkrun at 9am with some family in tow. And then let's see what Sunday brings!
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larkim
Got to 38 without really running a step, started a bit of running and found out I wasn't terrible at it. Gradually getting addicted to fetch forums... Now past 50 and still finding this curious past-time something I can't stop doing. Still hunting PBs, but getting more obsessed with WAVA by the dayProfile | Blog | Other Blogs