Fatigue aside, I’m about as motivated as I’ve ever been. At the time of writing, we have four weeks until we hit Font Romeu for a month-long altitude training camp. This is also the first week of marathon training. Life is good!
Last week totalled 53 miles but I felt as though I had run in excess of 60 (no doubt the hangover of the Vo2 sessions and races). It was clearly time to switch things up from the lower volume, higher intensity work and begin to gradually introduce more miles and more threshold.
This week started with an easy 6.5 miles on Monday at 5:01 per k avg and a hr avg of 129bpm. I have decided to go back to my regular running haunts and embrace the 150-250m gains, rather than play pretend fitness by attempting to run fast paces with a low HR around the flattest, shortest routes I can find in Frome. Constantly camber surfing, for me, is a sure-fire route to injury. On that particular note, I am incredibly happy to report that the pelvic pain/adductor soreness I’ve dealt with since Jan/Feb has much improved. The thought of entering Marathon training at less than 100% healthy has had me concerned for some time but, physically, I feel pretty good right now.
Tuesday was 8 miles easy on the treadmill. I had to fit this in between clients and, to get it done in time, I was running at 4:47 per k and a 0.5% gradient. Pace and HR felt great, but I hadn’t given my Coros armband a chance to sync with my watch before starting. This resulted in my HR climbing to 165 for long periods of time before dropping to 116bpm and then not even reading. I’ve no idea what my true avg pace was. Holly told me to ‘stop looking at your bloody watch’, which was probably the correct advice. I generally don’t have pace on my watch now, just cadence and HR. I find that, when I’m tired, my cadence tends to drop. I’m making an effort to rectify this as a slower cadence has the potential to make me more susceptible to injury. My thoughts for next week are to turn Tuesday into a double day; 4 miles AM, 4 miles PM.
Wednesday Session: 2 mile w/up, drills + strides then on to the treadmill for 4 x (800 hard/30 sec jog/1 mile in 6:30) 2 mins jog between sets. We ran the 800’s at threshold, which for me was 3:47 per k. The miles were at MRP. Whenever I’m running at MRP I visualise being in a pack. The first rep is about finding a rhythm and establishing HR. The second rep and onward is all about settling in, relaxing and switching off. The final rep is about crossing the line looking strong. I tend to grimace and squint the more fatigued I become, which I hate. Holly never shows pain when she races, which is what I’m now attempting to do. I won’t ever look as cool as her, but at least the shades hide the squinting.
The session went well, HR averaged at 157 for the mile reps, which is my predicted MRP. I have everything to be happy about. I’m so much fitter than I ever have been. My niggle is improving. Everything is good but the tiredness is a killer. All I want to do is lie on the couch all day after running. But that’s the price of training, right? And would I have killed to be in this position seven years ago? You bet. I try to think about about what it’s like to be injured and how it feels watching others who are able to run, without pain. When you’re laid up, you’d give anything to be in the position that I’m in right now - training well and injury free. I listen to people like Rich Roll talking about gratitude and I’m aware I need to practice this more.
As far as feeling fatigued, I think I just I have to acclimatise to the increasing volume and also make sure other factors are taken care of. Am I eating enough? Am I getting enough sleep? Are my easy runs as easy as they should be? I am lifting correctly, with intent? Am I too heavy? Should I drop weight?
I know I’m ‘all in’ but I think I’m also all consumed. I don’t really know any other way. When my purpose is clear, I do what I think I have to do. Some never discover their purpose.
I want to be the fastest man on the planet for my age when I reach fifty.
Is that a totally ludicrous statement? Absolutely. Bonkers. My racing times so far indicate that I’m a very average runner, but when I began lifting, I was horribly weak. I’ve been training for speed for 13 months now - not a huge amount of time. I might be an old athlete but I have a young training age and the belief that I can do anything I truly want to. This time last year I was a 3:36+ marathoner. A year later I’m a 2:59 marathoner, and, in October I will be a 2:4X:XX marathoner.
Anyway, pep talk over.
I wasn’t planning on taking a day off running, but if I go for 7 straight days the quality of my Friday session might be impacted and mileage for the week would be higher than it probably should be currently. So Thursday became my lifting only day, starting with lower body in the AM and upper a few hours later. Since I’m working on fixing the disparity between my abdominal and adductor strength, my workouts look a little different, week on week, as I find out which exercises work best, and in what order.
Here’s todays lifting (bearing in mind I have already lifted on Monday & Tuesday)
Reverse Hyper for 2 warm ups.
Hanging knee raises with roller between knees for 2x10
Side Plank 60 seconds each side.
45 Degree Back Extension Single Leg RDL 1x6 each side.
Abductor/Adductor 2x5 with 40 sec iso hold on each set of adductors.
Single Leg Squat 1x8 each side
Single Leg Leg Press 1x8 each side.
Single Arm Lumbar Lat Row 1x5 each side
Chest Press 1x6
Overhand Pull Up Weighted 1x6
Shoulder Press 1x4
As an aside, I’ve also finally figured out a typical pre-run breakfast. A lot of runners do porridge, which doesn’t work me. I can feel it sit in my stomach as soon as I start moving, leading to belching and acid. Instead, I’ve found these big, fluffy, sourdough ‘protein’ bagels, which taste really damned good. I have them with honey and peanut butter and a banana. Basically the exact same breakfast that 90% of runners have on race day morning. Granted, the protein count is pretty low, but whenever I return from a rep/lt session, I fill a giant bowl with Cinnamon Churros cereal (or another kind that has a ton of carbs and almost no fat), and add 2 scoops of whey. The rest of my meals typically contain a little more fruit, veg and fibre…
Friday Threshold Session… Oh boy.
Admittedly, it was 25 degrees celsius when we took to the flat packed trail path not far from home, but this session really let me know where my fitness is right now. I may have improved my 5k time fairly significantly, but that does not mean I am in any way marathon fit.
After a 2 mile warm up + drills/strides, we began.
8x5 minutes at 3:53 per k off 2 mins jog recovery on an undulating path. Hollys session was slightly different - she had 6x1 mile. We started together and then I peeled off. First rep = 3:52. The second rep had me coming up behind someone running nearly the same pace. It felt a bit weird to creep up on her and then basically run together, so I ran past (I know that makes me sound like a dick, but I genuinely didn’t want her to think I was some kind of psycho and I didn’t want to run behind her as my rep would be slightly too slow). I pushed ahead and ended up with a 3:49, which was too much for the second rep. On the third, I felt the previous rep.
Crap. I still have five 8 minute reps left.
3:53 for rep 3. The fourth, fifth and sixth were all 3:53-3:54 and my HR was around 170bpm. The jog recoveries became walk recoveries. The heat was stifling. As we were going out and back on each rep, the small gradients seemed to become steeper and steeper with each pass.
On my seventh rep, no matter what I did, I couldn’t bring my pace under 4 mins per k. I didn’t feel lactic, just unable to produce any power. I came so close to packing it in. When I hit the recovery, I debated walking the final rep, but there was no way I could - I’d be setting a precedent for all my training to come. Instead, I muttered ‘Fuck this’ and rallied. The final rep actually felt pretty good and I finished with a 3:51. The most important thing, for me, is to show myself that I can rally when things get tough. The learning to kick in the 5k’s and 10k race we did recently. The final push of the Sub 3 marathon. This is something I need to practice and so, despite how hideous todays workout was, I feel really good for having completed it. It’s exciting to know this is an area in which I can make a lot of progress. But I also need to recalibrate my threshold efforts, so I’ll be guided by HR from now on.
Saturday was 9 miles easy followed by a 16 miles Sunday long run at 4:59 per k, 286m elevation and a 138hr. As I’m writing this, all I want to do is sleep. But I’m content.
60 miles for the week. The official 12 week build begins tomorrow.