My first 100km week.
8:03am, 25th Mar 2024 | 6 Comments
Blog by ptr_red nose runner
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Seemed like a momentus enough occasion to write up a blog. The first time i've ever run 100km in a week!
I'm trying to take my marathon training more seriously, with the (long-term) aim of going Sub 3. I know i'm still a long way off that, but this intermediate goal is to get on the right side of 3:30. I ran my current PB of 3:44 back in October, and knew I had more to give if I got my training right, so that's where I am now.
My next race is the Regensburg marathon on Sunday 12th May. That's 7 and a bit weeks from now. With my new Half marathon PB last month, I know i'm on the right track, but there's always more work to be done. I felt like in my previous training block, and often in this one, I was really lacking runs that were more than 60 minutes. The majority of my ruins would be 10km or so, but that's still sub 60 mins. I figure what better week to crack this than my high mileage week.
Enough preamble, here's a breakdown of my 100km week.
Monday 18th
Last week's long run was yesterday, so today was just an easy-effort, low HR Z2 10km run. In the morning before I ran at lunch, I could feel my hips were a little stiff, but the run loosened me up and I felt fine during. Decent start to the week.
Week cumulative distance: 10km
Tuesday 19th
Intervals! And really good ones at that. Last week I had done 4 x 1,600m but felt like this wasn't quite enough volume. This week, I upped it to 6 x 1,600m and dropped the pace by a few seconds. I thoroughly enjoyed this session, running in circles around the local sport park down the road from my office. Legs felt good, I was reasonably hydrated and i'd slept well the night before. These are the two biggest factors for me on how a run will go. A lack of either will have a noticable effect of my performance.
The reps looked like this (shown as average pace min/km):
Rep 1 - 4:13
Rep 2 - 4:12
Rep 3 - 4:12
Rep 4 - 4:13
Rep 5 - 4:14
Rep 6 - 4:11
Really consistent pacing, with the HR steadily climbing with each rep. That last one was hard, i'd say more mentally than physically. I had to really believe my legs could keep up the pace, and because i'm just running circles, i'm never far from the "exit" so to speak. I have to convince myself to keep going, remembering why i'm doing this etc. This run was 14.2km and an 66 minutes, so just over the hour mark.
Bonus run! Four hours after my intervals session, I got a fresh run kit on and ran my commute home from work. I tried to keep the effort really low here and mostly succeeded. I did get carried away a little at the start but otherwise good. 46 minutes of running, but on top of the hour earlier in the day.
Week cumulative distance: 32.5km
Wednesday 20th
Up early to run back to work this morning. That's how it works, drive to work: run home, then run to work the next day: drive home.
Again, keeping the effort low. Pace was of little concern, with my aim just being to get the legs moving and keep the HR in check. I actually ran a little faster than yesterday evening (45 minutes) and my legs didn't feel as clunky as they sometimes do on a 6am run to work.
As the goal this week is distance, there's no substitue for running the distance. So today was another double run where I went out for my normal lunchtime loop and logged another 10km easy run. It was really nice in the sunshine and reasonably warm after the cold start. Part of me would like to have combined these two runs into a mid-week medium long run of maybe 16 - 18km, but I didn't really want to get up that early to do that kind of distance before starting work at 7am.
Week cumulative distance: 51.3km
Thursday 21st
Tempo Thursday! I really enjoy doing a tempo run. Get the pacing right and it's a comfortably hard session that allows me to run hard and feel good.
I would normally do a 10km tempo run, but as I said at the start of this blog about hour+ runs, I changed the plan for this run. For this session, I did my warm up, then went into a 60 minute tempo run with the aim being to hold 4:25/km. I plotted a 16km route from the office because there's nothing worse than trying to find a route on the fly, particularly when you're running hard.
Conditions were shit, to put it bluntly. There was a reasonable wind from the west and the sky was threatening rain, which it unleashed the very moment my effort started.
Anyhow, the run was good. The first 5k was running straight into the wind, but I managed to hold 4:26 and boy was I pleased to turn the corner at the end of the road. The next 5k had quite a few turns, and I managed to hold 4:16. Perhaps a little fast, but HR was in check and legs felt good. The last 3.85km that took me to the hour point I was holding 4:15. This was tricky as that last km was again straight into the wind and obviously the legs were feeling the distance now. I was tempted to try and push to hit 14km, but decided against it mostly because of the wind. I'd have to really lift the effort and I knew it would push my HR too high.
I was really happy with 13.85km in 60 mins though. 14 can be my target for another day.
Week cumulative distance: 67.7km
Friday 22nd
Busy busy day. I didn't get out until after the kids had gone to bed, so about 8:15pm. Just an easy effort 5km, legs felt pretty reasonable considering the effort yesterday. But that's partly why I didn't push it to 14 on that tempo. I didn't want to completely ruin myself.
Week cumulative distance: 72.7km
Saturday 23rd
I had originally planned to do my Long Run today, but for various reasons, it got pushed back to Sunday. Instead, I went out for an easy run at lunchtime. I had a bit of a dodgy stomach towards the end, so I cut a little off the route and clocked 9.5km.
Week cumulative distance: 82.2km
Sunday 24th
Long run day. And the weather is terrible. Not quite as bad as Thursday, but not far off. My weather app says it "feels like 0°c" with hail and/or rain due, being blown around by strong gusts. Ideal then...
I set off just after midday, into a bitterly cold wind, but it was dry. I was heading for the lake and I was hoping that this would keep me from running into the wind, and it did. The first 5km was easy pace, so about 5:25/km. This section passed fine, albeit with a toilet stop just before the end.
The next 5km was to be done at Marathon Pace which i'd set at 4:40/km. I settled into a rhythm just faster than this, and held 4:36 for the 5k. I was on the footpath that runs alongside the river for this, and in a small number of places it was muddy, which added some slippery bits.
After that, another 5k easy, where I averaged 5:24. It's here that i'll say that I find this pace really awkward and clunky. Like i'm not using my legs properly. I feel like if you looked at my running form, it would be horrible, bad posture, no bum kick. I feel like I should be walking rather than doing this awkward slow run. But then my HR suggests it's the right place to be so what do I know.
Next up, 8km at Marathon Pace. A few minutes into this effort, it was time to turn around and start the run homewards, back along the river. It was here I realised i'd had a little tail wind for the last 6 or 7km. Not much, but enough to notice when you suddenly turn into it. The first 5km of this effort I was holding 4:40, I decided to try and lift the pace a little, to see if I could match that of the previous effort, so for the last 3km, I held 4:34, to give an 8km average pace of 4:37. With this little surge, my HR dipped into the bottom of Zone 4 (mid 160s).
Then finally, it was 5km easy back to my house. Again, slow and clunky, and trying to keep my HR down as low as possible whilst still making progress. Averaged 5:32 for this which is still a fine Easy pace. I did get my maths a little wrong, so when I hit the 28km point, I was still 350m from home. Oh well, just a little extra for the weekly tally.
Week cumulative distance: 110.7km
So there we have it. Blow by blow, my first ever 100km week. Three great sessions, two run commutes and plenty of easy running. Thanks for reading folks.
I'm trying to take my marathon training more seriously, with the (long-term) aim of going Sub 3. I know i'm still a long way off that, but this intermediate goal is to get on the right side of 3:30. I ran my current PB of 3:44 back in October, and knew I had more to give if I got my training right, so that's where I am now.
My next race is the Regensburg marathon on Sunday 12th May. That's 7 and a bit weeks from now. With my new Half marathon PB last month, I know i'm on the right track, but there's always more work to be done. I felt like in my previous training block, and often in this one, I was really lacking runs that were more than 60 minutes. The majority of my ruins would be 10km or so, but that's still sub 60 mins. I figure what better week to crack this than my high mileage week.
Enough preamble, here's a breakdown of my 100km week.
Monday 18th
Last week's long run was yesterday, so today was just an easy-effort, low HR Z2 10km run. In the morning before I ran at lunch, I could feel my hips were a little stiff, but the run loosened me up and I felt fine during. Decent start to the week.
Week cumulative distance: 10km
Tuesday 19th
Intervals! And really good ones at that. Last week I had done 4 x 1,600m but felt like this wasn't quite enough volume. This week, I upped it to 6 x 1,600m and dropped the pace by a few seconds. I thoroughly enjoyed this session, running in circles around the local sport park down the road from my office. Legs felt good, I was reasonably hydrated and i'd slept well the night before. These are the two biggest factors for me on how a run will go. A lack of either will have a noticable effect of my performance.
The reps looked like this (shown as average pace min/km):
Rep 1 - 4:13
Rep 2 - 4:12
Rep 3 - 4:12
Rep 4 - 4:13
Rep 5 - 4:14
Rep 6 - 4:11
Really consistent pacing, with the HR steadily climbing with each rep. That last one was hard, i'd say more mentally than physically. I had to really believe my legs could keep up the pace, and because i'm just running circles, i'm never far from the "exit" so to speak. I have to convince myself to keep going, remembering why i'm doing this etc. This run was 14.2km and an 66 minutes, so just over the hour mark.
Bonus run! Four hours after my intervals session, I got a fresh run kit on and ran my commute home from work. I tried to keep the effort really low here and mostly succeeded. I did get carried away a little at the start but otherwise good. 46 minutes of running, but on top of the hour earlier in the day.
Week cumulative distance: 32.5km
Wednesday 20th
Up early to run back to work this morning. That's how it works, drive to work: run home, then run to work the next day: drive home.
Again, keeping the effort low. Pace was of little concern, with my aim just being to get the legs moving and keep the HR in check. I actually ran a little faster than yesterday evening (45 minutes) and my legs didn't feel as clunky as they sometimes do on a 6am run to work.
As the goal this week is distance, there's no substitue for running the distance. So today was another double run where I went out for my normal lunchtime loop and logged another 10km easy run. It was really nice in the sunshine and reasonably warm after the cold start. Part of me would like to have combined these two runs into a mid-week medium long run of maybe 16 - 18km, but I didn't really want to get up that early to do that kind of distance before starting work at 7am.
Week cumulative distance: 51.3km
Thursday 21st
Tempo Thursday! I really enjoy doing a tempo run. Get the pacing right and it's a comfortably hard session that allows me to run hard and feel good.
I would normally do a 10km tempo run, but as I said at the start of this blog about hour+ runs, I changed the plan for this run. For this session, I did my warm up, then went into a 60 minute tempo run with the aim being to hold 4:25/km. I plotted a 16km route from the office because there's nothing worse than trying to find a route on the fly, particularly when you're running hard.
Conditions were shit, to put it bluntly. There was a reasonable wind from the west and the sky was threatening rain, which it unleashed the very moment my effort started.
Anyhow, the run was good. The first 5k was running straight into the wind, but I managed to hold 4:26 and boy was I pleased to turn the corner at the end of the road. The next 5k had quite a few turns, and I managed to hold 4:16. Perhaps a little fast, but HR was in check and legs felt good. The last 3.85km that took me to the hour point I was holding 4:15. This was tricky as that last km was again straight into the wind and obviously the legs were feeling the distance now. I was tempted to try and push to hit 14km, but decided against it mostly because of the wind. I'd have to really lift the effort and I knew it would push my HR too high.
I was really happy with 13.85km in 60 mins though. 14 can be my target for another day.
Week cumulative distance: 67.7km
Friday 22nd
Busy busy day. I didn't get out until after the kids had gone to bed, so about 8:15pm. Just an easy effort 5km, legs felt pretty reasonable considering the effort yesterday. But that's partly why I didn't push it to 14 on that tempo. I didn't want to completely ruin myself.
Week cumulative distance: 72.7km
Saturday 23rd
I had originally planned to do my Long Run today, but for various reasons, it got pushed back to Sunday. Instead, I went out for an easy run at lunchtime. I had a bit of a dodgy stomach towards the end, so I cut a little off the route and clocked 9.5km.
Week cumulative distance: 82.2km
Sunday 24th
Long run day. And the weather is terrible. Not quite as bad as Thursday, but not far off. My weather app says it "feels like 0°c" with hail and/or rain due, being blown around by strong gusts. Ideal then...
I set off just after midday, into a bitterly cold wind, but it was dry. I was heading for the lake and I was hoping that this would keep me from running into the wind, and it did. The first 5km was easy pace, so about 5:25/km. This section passed fine, albeit with a toilet stop just before the end.
The next 5km was to be done at Marathon Pace which i'd set at 4:40/km. I settled into a rhythm just faster than this, and held 4:36 for the 5k. I was on the footpath that runs alongside the river for this, and in a small number of places it was muddy, which added some slippery bits.
After that, another 5k easy, where I averaged 5:24. It's here that i'll say that I find this pace really awkward and clunky. Like i'm not using my legs properly. I feel like if you looked at my running form, it would be horrible, bad posture, no bum kick. I feel like I should be walking rather than doing this awkward slow run. But then my HR suggests it's the right place to be so what do I know.
Next up, 8km at Marathon Pace. A few minutes into this effort, it was time to turn around and start the run homewards, back along the river. It was here I realised i'd had a little tail wind for the last 6 or 7km. Not much, but enough to notice when you suddenly turn into it. The first 5km of this effort I was holding 4:40, I decided to try and lift the pace a little, to see if I could match that of the previous effort, so for the last 3km, I held 4:34, to give an 8km average pace of 4:37. With this little surge, my HR dipped into the bottom of Zone 4 (mid 160s).
Then finally, it was 5km easy back to my house. Again, slow and clunky, and trying to keep my HR down as low as possible whilst still making progress. Averaged 5:32 for this which is still a fine Easy pace. I did get my maths a little wrong, so when I hit the 28km point, I was still 350m from home. Oh well, just a little extra for the weekly tally.
Week cumulative distance: 110.7km
So there we have it. Blow by blow, my first ever 100km week. Three great sessions, two run commutes and plenty of easy running. Thanks for reading folks.
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ptr_red nose runner
I've been a runner for as long as I can remember. I was a 100m sprint specialist during my school years, before moving to long distance running around 2014 when I decided I wanted to run a 50k. Have completed 8 marathons and 3 ultras since then, and only plan on doing more!Profile | Blog | Other Blogs