Week 2 - Knocking on the wall

Week 2 - Knocking on the wall

Short 

Sunday - Slow Paced 10K - 8 laps around my village. Untimed. 
Monday -27.5k - Hilly route out to animal park and back - 2:01.11, average 174 bpm 
Tuesday - 27.5k - Same hilly route - 2:05:07, average 170 bpm average 
Wednesday - 22k - run to hill laps, 8 hill laps, run back to base - 1:45:00 ish (Garmin died) average 157 bpm before death

Thursday - 19k - 9k Warmup, 10 x 1 minute on 30 sec off,  5.5k warm down. Average 168 bpm.

Friday 23.5k – run to hill laps, 10 hill laps, run back to base – 1:53:54. Average 164 bpm

Total 128.83 KM, 9 hours 56 min, Avg 4:38 k Pace

Detailed 

Sunday felt great to be running again although didn't feel particularly good actually running.  No trauma to foot, so was happy about that.

Monday felt better, was quite a fast time for that route.

Tuesday felt good for the first two thirds.  The wind was in my face for the first half and then on my back on the way back.  The last third was hard and I was convinced that walking the last part of it was inevitable.    Just as I got within walking distance it got really hard, 4:30 k's dropped to 4:50, 5:04, 5:27.   I would say that I hit the wall at about 26K,  took absolute determination not to stop and walk.  I'm 90% sure a gel could have got me back on track but I didn't have one and so close to home I should be able to deal with it.  Got home and felt wacked for the next few hours, shivered for a while so several layers got me back on track.   So the positives from this session was that I didn't walk it and the 4 minute difference to the previous day was probably down to not having the energy to push.

Wednesday was my hill session.  This session is a great session, it helps your strength and gets you fit in no time.  I use it as my emergency get fit quick session when I have not been running well or running at all.   This is a good session with company, so met up with my fellow runner and take it easy out to park with a big Hill in it.   The session varies between 6, 8 or 10 laps of the steepest section of the hill with a gradual descent back to start.  I'm a very bad up hill runner and a good downhill runner, so over a lap I'm just about on par with someone of equal fitness.  Not quite sure why I'm so bad at running up hills, might be because I'm heavier/taller/not genetically suited as others.    So on a good day I can average 4:10 ish for each set of  900 metres, I'm averaging about 4:40 today.   The last lap is sometimes an all out effort to set a benchmark time, my record is 3:50, today it was 4:08.  So I know when I'm fit when I can blast the run back to base.  Garmin died after exiting the park, so luckily I don't have the splits of the run back as it wasn't pretty.   Unfortunately I walked a bit when I got within walking distance, then jogged the last few hundred metres, got back to base and raided my Jelly Baby bag.  So overall I'm very happy that I did the session, I probably pushed a bit too hard on the last lap of the hill and paid for it on the way back.  The last two days sessions have ended in fatigue and no energy, this may in part be due to lack of training but may also be to do with a reduced calorie intake to lose that xmas weight.    I'm looking at doing a separate post on weight so look out for that.

Thursday was first interval session of 2010.  I usually get out early to get a few extra k in as the session can vary between 5k and 11k.  I meet up with a group of runners (just an association of competitive runners) and we do one of a variety of set sessions.  This is like a club without the downsides of the expectation that you will always turn up to training, races etc.  There are definitely groupings of ability in this session, you have the A group who I would say are 30-34 minute 10k, B group that is 34 to 38 minute 10K, then C group of 38 to about 42 minute 10k.  If your slower than 42 minute 10k then the challenge might be keeping up on the way out to the interval start along the canal, you get the occasional olympian that turns up to remind you how much bettter they are.  I'm towards the back of the B group, at this time of year there are not that many C groupers so I'm generally last.   Turnout varies between 5 and 25 depending on the time of the year.  Etiquette dictates that the fastest runners dictate the session, so today because of some surrey league event we do 10 x 1minute, 30 seconds rest.   Typically this would involve 5 out and 5 back, but I changed it to 10 out and jog back, so I'm alone for the last 5.   Its always good to benchmark your performance against other runners, although the tricky thing to work out is if your faster or they are slower (or vice versa).  The actual intervals went ok, I average about 3:35 k speed which is ok.  Before and after the intervals I felt good running, so happy that something is coming back – good day running.

Friday was a repeat of Wednesdays hill session with a twist of doing 10 laps today instead of 8, on my own today.  Pushed a bit too fast on the way out, crawled up the hills and paced down them.  The hills went ok, managed to not wipeout the same tiny dog twice on my descents despite its owners best efforts (watch out for a post in the future on dogs and other obstructions to a runner).  The run back to base on the canal was everything it wasn’t supposed to be; slow, hard, tiring.  After my mid week jelly baby raid, I was low on run nutrition today, so I had to ration my two remaining babies.   Typically I pop one or two at the park to help me get back, but that would leave none for emergencies.  So I get about two thirds of the way back and pop one, during a brief walk to get up some steps.  About 2k from home I pop another one and it gives me the energy to run better  back to base.  So overall another session that was satisfying to complete rather than actually do.

Week Summary

I finish the week feeling much fitter than I begin it and hence started to recover some lost speed and strength.  The theme this week is that 3 of my runs have left me feeling very tired and fatigued towards the end (knocking on the wall).  If you don’t blow up occasionally your not trying hard enough, but 3 times in 1 week is above average.  This has been a hard week training so I guess its to be expected, but if i’m feeling this way in March something will have gone wrong. Also my legs have not been complaining that much so another good indication.

Next week

Not sure if a long Sunday run will be beneficial yet.  The weekday runs should include a tempo half marathon, two hill sessions and two intervals.  Maybe a park run too?  Will also have to decide if I race the 10 miler at the end of the month in St Albans.

Happy Training!!