Been feeling v tired since my Sunday run and now I know the reason why. Was getting sick. Today I've had the day off work whilst resting, coughing and spluttering all day. It's really knocked me out so no running today and will take it easy in the hope of resuming on the weekend. The plan for the week is below. Clearly the Wednesday and Thursday sessions will now be missed.
Monday: cross train
Tuesday: 3 mile easy
Wednesday: 6 mile run
Thursday: 3 mile easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 6 miles pace
Sunday: 11 miles
Target for the week 29 miles (will be 20 due to the illness)
Wish me healthy vibes so I can get right back into it!
Wednesday, 30 January 2013
Sunday, 27 January 2013
Races for 2013
Sunday morning and I'm sitting watching the Australian Open tennis final with Andy Murray. I've been meaning to post about my race plan for the year and my ambitious goal to get a pb in each race.
So here it is; the ones in brackets I haven't yet submitted my entry:
17/3 Colchester Half Marathon
23/3 Orion 15
14/4 (East London Half Marathon)
12/5 Halstead and Essex Marathon
26/5 Westminster Mile
27/5 Bupa 10000
9/6 Karrimor Great Trail Challenge (22km)
30/6 (Mersea Island Race) (12.2mile)
17/8 (Race the Train) (14miles)
8/9 (Bacchus Half Marathon)
6/10 Bournemouth Marathon
The Bacchus half is a wine race so I'll forego the pb I that one, as you can see many of these races have odd distances so the pbs are guaranteed- and I've never raced at the mile distance :-)
For the first half of the year all the races are quite local so I can really buckle down and train hard for them, with some travel for the second half of the year
6 miles later today, should be easy now all the snow has melted :-)
So here it is; the ones in brackets I haven't yet submitted my entry:
17/3 Colchester Half Marathon
23/3 Orion 15
14/4 (East London Half Marathon)
12/5 Halstead and Essex Marathon
26/5 Westminster Mile
27/5 Bupa 10000
9/6 Karrimor Great Trail Challenge (22km)
30/6 (Mersea Island Race) (12.2mile)
17/8 (Race the Train) (14miles)
8/9 (Bacchus Half Marathon)
6/10 Bournemouth Marathon
The Bacchus half is a wine race so I'll forego the pb I that one, as you can see many of these races have odd distances so the pbs are guaranteed- and I've never raced at the mile distance :-)
For the first half of the year all the races are quite local so I can really buckle down and train hard for them, with some travel for the second half of the year
6 miles later today, should be easy now all the snow has melted :-)
Saturday, 26 January 2013
5 mile pace run getting faster! :-)
Saturday of week 3 and a 5 mile pace run on the menu. I'd had some issues with my left foot/calf earlier in the week. Seems it was suffering from the lack of support in the trail shoes and residual weakness from having pulled the calf muscle last year. This didn't stop me today!
I went out and actually did a proper warm up- stopped to stretch and every thing, with some dynamic calf stretches :-) and leg swings. I then started out on the 5 miler, definitely started too fast. By 0.2 miles my lap pace was an 8 minute mile, so I slowed up. Other than stopping to walk for a drink at the half way point, and at the apex of the toughest hill, I ran the whole time- it was a traffic light free route, so I could just run 2.5 miles out and 2.5 miles back, and I jumped onto the road where the pavement was too icy.
Managed the following splits:
Mile 1: 8:50
Mile 2: 9:05
Mile 3: 8:48
Mile 4: 8:51
Mile 5: 8:17
This time its miles 2 and 5 that are off the pace, but I think this is ok if it were a race- pushing hard in the last mile, to make up the time lost in mile 2. Now, this is all well above my next marathon pace. I think a realistic goal is 4hr 15, whereas this pacing would suggest 3:50.
Perhaps I can readjust the goal if the training continues to go well, but currently I'm doing the pace runs at half marathon pace as I hope to get a pb in the Colchester half (1:57) - todays pacing would be a 1:50
Feeling great for today's run, and looking forward to the easy 6 miles tomorrow :-)
I went out and actually did a proper warm up- stopped to stretch and every thing, with some dynamic calf stretches :-) and leg swings. I then started out on the 5 miler, definitely started too fast. By 0.2 miles my lap pace was an 8 minute mile, so I slowed up. Other than stopping to walk for a drink at the half way point, and at the apex of the toughest hill, I ran the whole time- it was a traffic light free route, so I could just run 2.5 miles out and 2.5 miles back, and I jumped onto the road where the pavement was too icy.
Managed the following splits:
Mile 1: 8:50
Mile 2: 9:05
Mile 3: 8:48
Mile 4: 8:51
Mile 5: 8:17
This time its miles 2 and 5 that are off the pace, but I think this is ok if it were a race- pushing hard in the last mile, to make up the time lost in mile 2. Now, this is all well above my next marathon pace. I think a realistic goal is 4hr 15, whereas this pacing would suggest 3:50.
Perhaps I can readjust the goal if the training continues to go well, but currently I'm doing the pace runs at half marathon pace as I hope to get a pb in the Colchester half (1:57) - todays pacing would be a 1:50
Feeling great for today's run, and looking forward to the easy 6 miles tomorrow :-)
Wednesday, 23 January 2013
Don't stop me now
So I decided to do my 5-miler at lunchtime today, as I was working from home. I had so much energy that at mile 2 I decided I would do miles 2 and 4 at race pace. This was all fine until I hit the icy patches. I ended up doing a new route and stumbled upon high woods country park. I thought snow had melted by now, but as you can see from the pictures, this wasn't the case.
Just after mile 4, my foot niggle came back. I think this is down to weakness from my pulled calf last year, some calf raises when I got home confirmed this. The left one was considerably weaker than the right, so I'll be adding daily calf raising to try to strengthen it.
I also joined tribesports today, a social network for sports nuts, and I've taken a bunch of challenges. One is 100 push ups... Of course there's an app for that, so it's downloaded, and I did day 1 today... Hopefully this extra strength will help!
So, here's to successful week 3, onwards and upwards!
Just after mile 4, my foot niggle came back. I think this is down to weakness from my pulled calf last year, some calf raises when I got home confirmed this. The left one was considerably weaker than the right, so I'll be adding daily calf raising to try to strengthen it.
I also joined tribesports today, a social network for sports nuts, and I've taken a bunch of challenges. One is 100 push ups... Of course there's an app for that, so it's downloaded, and I did day 1 today... Hopefully this extra strength will help!
So, here's to successful week 3, onwards and upwards!
Monday, 21 January 2013
Planning week 3
Hello!
So, after a snowy week 2, I'm sitting proud in the knowledge I did all my runs. My legs are really feeling the extra effort from the Saturday and Sunday runs though, so I'm here in some compression stockings on my legs to aid the recovery.
Week 3 looks to be a step back week. The total mileage is 22 miles. In reality, the only thing that's stepped back is the Sunday long run, but I'll trust Hal's guidance. I might make an extra effort to go slow on the midweek runs. Hopefully I can be back in my road shoes.
Week 3 Plan:
Monday: Cross train (I'll do P&D Strength and Core sessions - too snowy for a walk or cycle)
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 5 miles pace
Sunday: 6 miles long run
Feeling fairly strong from last week, yet looking forward to consolidating that effort this week.
Lately, I've also been working on my race schedule for the year. I'll post about that later. Ciao for now!
So, after a snowy week 2, I'm sitting proud in the knowledge I did all my runs. My legs are really feeling the extra effort from the Saturday and Sunday runs though, so I'm here in some compression stockings on my legs to aid the recovery.
Week 3 looks to be a step back week. The total mileage is 22 miles. In reality, the only thing that's stepped back is the Sunday long run, but I'll trust Hal's guidance. I might make an extra effort to go slow on the midweek runs. Hopefully I can be back in my road shoes.
Week 3 Plan:
Monday: Cross train (I'll do P&D Strength and Core sessions - too snowy for a walk or cycle)
Tuesday: 3 miles easy
Wednesday: 5 miles
Thursday: 3 miles easy
Friday: Rest
Saturday: 5 miles pace
Sunday: 6 miles long run
Feeling fairly strong from last week, yet looking forward to consolidating that effort this week.
Lately, I've also been working on my race schedule for the year. I'll post about that later. Ciao for now!
Sunday, 20 January 2013
Ok, this snow has become a regular feature
It's Sunday evening, the end of week 2 of the Hal higdon plan. It started snowing on Tuesday, and today it's been snowing non- stop since this morning. This has meant a great opportunity to sample my trail shoes, and now they're well and truly worn in, as I've done most of this week's mileage in them.
Saturday was 5 miles in the evening, it was still a bit icy underfoot and I did go over on my ankle, but otherwise a fairly uneventful run.
Sunday and I went for my 9 miles. It had already started snowing before I set off, and I thought it would be fun to run in the snow. I now know I should have worn sunglasses as the small snow drops in my eyes was quite irritating. I decided to go the trusted route of the Wivenhoe trail, hopefully this would mean running on snow rather than ice and for the most part this was true. As I went through the lower part of castle park, the usual lake where the ducks swim had frozen over, so the ducks were stuck in the small part that remained unfrozen, though there were many other birds on the "lake"
Around mile four, I heard a squeaking sound and wondered what it was, I looked to see a small bird flying. It reminded me of the baby skimmer birds I'd seen on Africa earlier this week (pic 3)
On the way back home, I saw a snow man :-)
I'd read a lot online about how a snow run is much like running in the sand. I have to say when I was out there running, I didn't understand what the fuss was all about, however, when I got home and thawed out a bit, I realised I had quite sore knees, and my legs definitely feel like they've done a lot more work than usual.
So I'm sitting here feeling rather proud of myself that I did the 25 miles set for this week, despite the weather.
Next week is a step back week, down to 22 miles, so hopefully a good opportunity to rebuild and gain the fitness from the last 2 weeks training.
Saturday was 5 miles in the evening, it was still a bit icy underfoot and I did go over on my ankle, but otherwise a fairly uneventful run.
Sunday and I went for my 9 miles. It had already started snowing before I set off, and I thought it would be fun to run in the snow. I now know I should have worn sunglasses as the small snow drops in my eyes was quite irritating. I decided to go the trusted route of the Wivenhoe trail, hopefully this would mean running on snow rather than ice and for the most part this was true. As I went through the lower part of castle park, the usual lake where the ducks swim had frozen over, so the ducks were stuck in the small part that remained unfrozen, though there were many other birds on the "lake"
Around mile four, I heard a squeaking sound and wondered what it was, I looked to see a small bird flying. It reminded me of the baby skimmer birds I'd seen on Africa earlier this week (pic 3)
On the way back home, I saw a snow man :-)
I'd read a lot online about how a snow run is much like running in the sand. I have to say when I was out there running, I didn't understand what the fuss was all about, however, when I got home and thawed out a bit, I realised I had quite sore knees, and my legs definitely feel like they've done a lot more work than usual.
So I'm sitting here feeling rather proud of myself that I did the 25 miles set for this week, despite the weather.
Next week is a step back week, down to 22 miles, so hopefully a good opportunity to rebuild and gain the fitness from the last 2 weeks training.
Friday, 18 January 2013
Past Races and what I've learned
This week I've been looking over my past race performances, and trying to understand what factors contributed to good or bad times.
My best 10k was in 2008 and was my first serious race where I'd trained to run, rather than just showing up for a fun run. All other distances have improved on 2nd attempts, however, I've never managed to improve on the first 10k time, which was 52:50. This was run in cold rainy conditions, and I ran the whole race with my sister, after she'd been on Gladiators, so she was in peak fitness. The competition here clearly helped my pace. In 2010, I did the 10k distance again and achieved 53:26 and one other in that area which I can't quite remember. In 2011 I did it in 54:14 but I did the first half slow with friends. It was a month after my first marathon, and I did the 2nd half in 24:45, so potentially if I had raced the whole way, this could have been sub 50.
My best 5k was in 2011, again benefiting from marathon fitness, at 24:01. I also raced a trail race at that distance that year in 26:26 - this was the second fastest women's time, and I did this after getting home around midnight the night before having been to a cocktail bar- I was hungover for the race!
For the Half, I set a sub 2 hour target in 2010 before building up for my marathons and I achieved 1:59:03, yet last year, I did 2 half marathons both in 2:06 and 2:05
Marathons were London and Berlin in 2011 in 4:38 and 4:33 respectively. Here, the major issue wiht London was pacing- my mins per mile ranged from 9:07 to 12:40. It was a hot day, and I definitely hit the wall, but I'm sure I could have managed 10:00 the whole way and saved myself 15-20 minutes.
What caused slower times? Lack of consistent training, which lead to injury. Too regularly consuming alcohol, leading to less training. Slightly overweight, leading to slower race times. And in the longer races, the big problem is pacing!
On a Runner's World Forum, Steve Smythe, who's one of the marathon coaches has suggested I need to do the following in order to qualify for Boston:
The speed has to be improved and then you have to do much harder marathon training with the improved speed being utilised
My best 10k was in 2008 and was my first serious race where I'd trained to run, rather than just showing up for a fun run. All other distances have improved on 2nd attempts, however, I've never managed to improve on the first 10k time, which was 52:50. This was run in cold rainy conditions, and I ran the whole race with my sister, after she'd been on Gladiators, so she was in peak fitness. The competition here clearly helped my pace. In 2010, I did the 10k distance again and achieved 53:26 and one other in that area which I can't quite remember. In 2011 I did it in 54:14 but I did the first half slow with friends. It was a month after my first marathon, and I did the 2nd half in 24:45, so potentially if I had raced the whole way, this could have been sub 50.
My best 5k was in 2011, again benefiting from marathon fitness, at 24:01. I also raced a trail race at that distance that year in 26:26 - this was the second fastest women's time, and I did this after getting home around midnight the night before having been to a cocktail bar- I was hungover for the race!
For the Half, I set a sub 2 hour target in 2010 before building up for my marathons and I achieved 1:59:03, yet last year, I did 2 half marathons both in 2:06 and 2:05
Marathons were London and Berlin in 2011 in 4:38 and 4:33 respectively. Here, the major issue wiht London was pacing- my mins per mile ranged from 9:07 to 12:40. It was a hot day, and I definitely hit the wall, but I'm sure I could have managed 10:00 the whole way and saved myself 15-20 minutes.
What caused slower times? Lack of consistent training, which lead to injury. Too regularly consuming alcohol, leading to less training. Slightly overweight, leading to slower race times. And in the longer races, the big problem is pacing!
On a Runner's World Forum, Steve Smythe, who's one of the marathon coaches has suggested I need to do the following in order to qualify for Boston:
The speed has to be improved and then you have to do much harder marathon training with the improved speed being utilised
To run around 3:35 you probably need to get that 5k time down to around 22, the 10k down to close to 45 and the HM to 1:38 and that not going to happen straight away..
You probably need to work on the speed through the summer and then aim to get the marathon down to 4:00 in the autumn and then take it from there.
So, I need to get faster. I'm going to build the endurance for this marathon, not worrying too much about speed. And I have signed up for the first Bournemouth Marathon in October, to go for the sub 4 hours.
Has anyone else had experience of taking their marathon time down by an hour? Can you tell me how you did it?
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