P&D 18/55 week 1
5:12pm, 25th Dec 2022 | 5 Comments
Blog by tipsku
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This week was Christmas week but also the start to my next training block for a spring marathon - again. This time, I'm going to go with the P&D plan after last spring's attempt with the advanced Garmin plan that didn't yield the result I wanted. I'm going blog each week about my experiences with. P&D. A bit of history before I delve into week 1:
Since autumn 2014, I've been chasing the elusive 3:29:59 and got pretty close a few times: Chester 2014 (3:34:55), Abingdon 2015 (3:33:00, my PB), MK 2016 (3:36:23?) and Helsinki 2016 (3:37:24). Since moving to Germany in 2017, faster marathon times have been derailed either by hot weather or health issues. My club is going to pay for my entry for Leipzig marathon on 23 April 2023 so that's my next target. Fingers crossed it's not going to be either 3°C and sleet (2019) or 23°C and blazing sunshine (2018). I'd be very grateful for normal spring weather.
So week 1 is in the books and it went pretty well.
Monday: I did my 9k for Run The Sum inside because freezing rain made running outside too dangerous. I also cancelled the beginners group.
Tuesday: Plan said 7 miles with 10x 100m strides. I did 12k with strides. The roads and cycle paths were mostly free of ice but I had to navigate some big puddles and one path in Dölitz was still icy so I ran on the grass. Happy with the pace overall (9:05ish) and 6ish for the strides. That felt pretty good and I felt stable and in control.
In the evening, I ran 6k with the beginners at 11:48 m/m pace - nice recovery run.
Wednesday: travel day. DB, the German railway had a bad day at the office and my 6 hour journey turned into a 7:30 affair. I was fed up and hungry by the time I got home but a nice 4.4 km run with my mum just under 11 pace got me settled. Thanks mum!
Thursday: 9 miles on the plan, I did just over 15k, 9.4 miles on the hills around my parents' home town. Running hills felt great after months in flat Leipzig but I'm quite slow, haha. Enjoyed good weather but it was very windy! Stryd showed me that the wind resistance added 27% to the power needed to run the pace.
Friday: 6k Recovery run to collect a few Rundle digits and to stay in the game Run The Sum.
Saturday: 4 miles recovery run on the plan but I did a 4.6 miles tempo test. I wanted to see what my pace is like in the threshold zone but I didn't even get HR into Z4, so it was a marathon paced tempo run in Z3. Happy with around 8:20 pace for now. It wasn't a good time in the month anyways.
Sunday: 12 mile long run on the plan, I did a half because I still needed a half to get the badge in Strava. The plan was to run in Z2 and that went to plan. Happy with roughly 9:35 pace on a hilly course. Effort remained steady throughout and I only dipped into Z3 for 21s on a steep hill 4k from the end.
Good going and my new shoes are great! I got a shoe fitting from my parents for Christmas so the half was a fitting baptism for my shoes.
Under Armour recently expanded their product range into running shoes and they do a good job. I'm looking forward to more long runs in those shoes.
Bottom line: good start to the plan, managed all the sessions despite doing Marcothon and Run The Sum besides the plan. I'm sticking to HR zone 1 for the the extra runs outside the 4 planned runs to keep the additional strain to a minimum. In January, I won't do run the sum so I can focus more on the plan. Two recovery runs with the beginners on Monday and Tuesday will always be added to my weekly mileage but at 11:30-12:30 pace, they won't do much damage.
Since autumn 2014, I've been chasing the elusive 3:29:59 and got pretty close a few times: Chester 2014 (3:34:55), Abingdon 2015 (3:33:00, my PB), MK 2016 (3:36:23?) and Helsinki 2016 (3:37:24). Since moving to Germany in 2017, faster marathon times have been derailed either by hot weather or health issues. My club is going to pay for my entry for Leipzig marathon on 23 April 2023 so that's my next target. Fingers crossed it's not going to be either 3°C and sleet (2019) or 23°C and blazing sunshine (2018). I'd be very grateful for normal spring weather.
So week 1 is in the books and it went pretty well.
Monday: I did my 9k for Run The Sum inside because freezing rain made running outside too dangerous. I also cancelled the beginners group.
Tuesday: Plan said 7 miles with 10x 100m strides. I did 12k with strides. The roads and cycle paths were mostly free of ice but I had to navigate some big puddles and one path in Dölitz was still icy so I ran on the grass. Happy with the pace overall (9:05ish) and 6ish for the strides. That felt pretty good and I felt stable and in control.
In the evening, I ran 6k with the beginners at 11:48 m/m pace - nice recovery run.
Wednesday: travel day. DB, the German railway had a bad day at the office and my 6 hour journey turned into a 7:30 affair. I was fed up and hungry by the time I got home but a nice 4.4 km run with my mum just under 11 pace got me settled. Thanks mum!
Thursday: 9 miles on the plan, I did just over 15k, 9.4 miles on the hills around my parents' home town. Running hills felt great after months in flat Leipzig but I'm quite slow, haha. Enjoyed good weather but it was very windy! Stryd showed me that the wind resistance added 27% to the power needed to run the pace.
Friday: 6k Recovery run to collect a few Rundle digits and to stay in the game Run The Sum.
Saturday: 4 miles recovery run on the plan but I did a 4.6 miles tempo test. I wanted to see what my pace is like in the threshold zone but I didn't even get HR into Z4, so it was a marathon paced tempo run in Z3. Happy with around 8:20 pace for now. It wasn't a good time in the month anyways.
Sunday: 12 mile long run on the plan, I did a half because I still needed a half to get the badge in Strava. The plan was to run in Z2 and that went to plan. Happy with roughly 9:35 pace on a hilly course. Effort remained steady throughout and I only dipped into Z3 for 21s on a steep hill 4k from the end.
Good going and my new shoes are great! I got a shoe fitting from my parents for Christmas so the half was a fitting baptism for my shoes.
Under Armour recently expanded their product range into running shoes and they do a good job. I'm looking forward to more long runs in those shoes.
Bottom line: good start to the plan, managed all the sessions despite doing Marcothon and Run The Sum besides the plan. I'm sticking to HR zone 1 for the the extra runs outside the 4 planned runs to keep the additional strain to a minimum. In January, I won't do run the sum so I can focus more on the plan. Two recovery runs with the beginners on Monday and Tuesday will always be added to my weekly mileage but at 11:30-12:30 pace, they won't do much damage.
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tipsku
Triathlete in my youth (1994-2001), martial artist in Finland (2002-2006), a brief stint on the rugby field (2009-2010) before I ran my first marathon in October 2010 and haven't looked back since. Still looking to improve my PBs even though it's been 13 years of running. Times to beat: 5k: 21:20 (2016) 10k: 44:37 (2023) half: 1:37:42 (2023) mara: 3:29:26 (2023)Profile | Blog | Other Blogs