Speed Build: Week 2
After a weekend of back to back sessions (which is rarely a wise idea) I took Monday 6th May as a 10km recovery run at 5:30 per k with an avg HR of 128. Tuesday was more of the same.
I’m feeling good at the moment - no doubt the result of taking time to recover from the marathon and then building mileage back up slowly. I’ve had to learn most things in life the hard way, and returning to training in an appropriate manner has been no different. For those of you who absolutely cannot wait to return to high mileage weeks, just remember how you feel during a marathon build - “A tired, useless zombie” as Luke Keogh so eloquently put it on a recent episode of the Sweat Elite podcast.
This week will likely top out at 48-ish miles, up from 42 last week and 30 the week prior. There’s no real mileage goal for the next few months, but I imagine I’ll climb into the low 70’s come August.
Wednesday was session day. 8x4 mins at threshold (3:53 per k ) off 1 min jog recovery. 2 mile warm up, 2 mile cooldown for 10 total miles. I ran in the Metaspeed Sky Paris which I’m totally obsessed with ATM. It’s far easier for me to crank up cadence in these shoes (in comparison to the Edge). My avg spm was 188 including the jog recoveries. Hr avg 158, getting up to 166 during the reps.
I’m almost afraid to tell Holly when she asks how my session was, usually attempting (and often failing) to downplay just how fit and orthopaedically healthy I feel at the moment, but at the same time being mindful to make statements like this in hushed tones. I remain in permanent fear of something/anything coming along to shove a hot poker up my ass. Regardless of strength training, good recovery, eating well etc. we are all going to deal with injury at some point, and at my ripe old age of 43, I am certainly more susceptible than those half my age. In terms of getting fitter and faster though, I still refuse to acknowledge age as any kind of limiting factor. I am going under 2:40 at some point in future years, so there. I also like being this light. I weighed myself after Wednesdays session and I bottomed out at a low that I haven’t hit since my twenties - 86kg. Feeling fit and healthy (for me at least) beats out big, bloated and lethargic. ‘Big’ at my age = health problems. There’s a reason you don’t see many big, jacked dudes from 50 years old and up; yes, I’m sure there are those of you who know someone, but ‘big’ is a relative term. There are some incredibly lean, muscular individuals out there who are 10kg+ lighter than I am. That’s not ‘big’ that’s ‘ripped’. For context, let’s use a 55 year old guy of average height who is fairly lean and weighs somewhere north of 105kg. Chances are their health markers probably aren’t anywhere near what they should be and are far more likely to be pretty damned awful. YES, I’m sure anomalies with sound ecg’s and bloodwork exist too, but never try to use the exception that tests the rule to satisfy your confirmation bias. The fact is, you can’t fight time. Even with anabolic assistance, everyone declines fairly rapidly from half a century - fight to live big, risk dying young.
Thursday: Easy 8 miles on the Treadmill. Surprisingly boring - give me a session any day of the week over a slow run indoors.
We left for Hay-on-Wye Thursday evening for an ASICS FrontRunner event. Friday morning was a recce of a 4 mile easy run which I was to take team out on, again, later that evening. So a double day of what was supposed to be 8 miles, but ended up being 9 because I can’t seem to navigate my way out of a wet paper bag. Also, the first of the really warm days - 22 degrees.
The rest of the weekend involved filming, photography and lots of short bursts of climbing and running back and forth. On Sunday morning I went for an 8 mile easy run over 200m of elevation with an avg pace of 4:59 and avg HR of 140. Much better than I had expected.
Monday: Time to start pushing the mileage up a little. Last week was 48 miles. This week looks like it could be closer to 55-57 miles. I began the week with an 8 mile easy run over the flattest course we have in Frome (only 87m of gain). With an avg pace of 4:50 and the same HR as Sunday, it was one of the better general aerobic runs I’ve had. Strength training is consistently 4 days per week - Chest/Back/Legs & Core/Shoulders. Tuesday was 4 miles of recovery.
Wednesday - Session day. 2 mile warm up with what you might consider a ‘warm up pb’: 2 miles at 4:53 with an avg HR of 134. Drills and strides were followed by 12x3 mins @ 4 mins per k and a 1 min jog recovery. 2 mile cooldown. Felt great. My cadence has shot up as of late. Considering I was averaging in the 150’s for tempo-type work last September, todays average cadence, including jog recoveries, was 187. During the reps it stayed in the low to mid 190’s. They say that logging miles, consistently over years, is the way to improve as a runner. The little nuances you begin to notice when training; shoulders relaxed, arm swing, turnover, pacing, breathing etc all become a little more finely tuned as time goes on, amalgamating into the construct of a fitter, faster, more efficient runner. Body shape changes with purposeful training, eating well (enough but not too much) and with a targeted approach to strength training. I undoubtedly look more like what a decent runner does (to my mind) than I did a year ago. For so long I wanted to resemble a character like Nick Bare, but that has no interest for me now. I’d prefer a look closer to Tommy Rivs (and a beard half as cool), “More Bird, less Bull” is how he described his racing weight a few years ago. I realise by saying this that how I appear to others is still a factor, as much as I tell myself that it isn’t, but it mainly boils down to ‘this look = this level of performance’ and I’m ok with that. The priority is function first, appearance second.
I will say that it becomes harder to affect body composition as we age. I used to believe this was an excuse but I am no exception. I have to be more controlled with how I eat in order to make changes in comparison to my earlier years (it may also be down to how many pain au chocolat’s I eat these days. In fact, I’m quite certain of it..!)
This Saturday brings another shot at ParkRun. My goal is drop under 18:30. I believe I have much faster times in me… let’s find out.