Road to Brighton Marathon: Week 3
I'm writing this on Tuesday, so I made it exactly two weeks before falling behind. Week 3 was another increase in mileage, and thanks to domestics getting in the way, I had to swap a couple of runs around to my detriment. More on that below!
The most frustrating thing about doing this two days late is this doesn't say "This week" as I screenshot last week's build in mileage.
The week in running:
Workouts - 6(↑1) | Distance - 73.65km (↑5.73) | Time 6h32m(↑36m) | Elevation Gain 594m (↑310m)
The plan:
Monday - Intervals
Tuesday - 16km with 25 minute LT Pickup
Wednesday Hills
Thursday - 15km Easy
Friday - Rest Day
Saturday - 8km Recovery
Sunday - 26km with 10km at MP
Monday
CANCELLED - Due to work carrying over and being another 15 hour day, I didn't get home until gone 9pm and felt WAY too tired to run. The problem with having such a busy plan of running for the week is that it gives you very limited opportunities to make it up. Ah well, onto the next!
Tuesday
Distance: 16.17km | Time: 1:22:10 | Pace: 5:05/km | Avg. HR 146bpm | Effort: Hard
The Run: Joined by Pete who decided he fancied the session after hitting intervals hard the night before, it was 16km total split into 5km warmup, 25 minute LT and 4.something km cooldown. Donning matching jackets and headtorches, we decided to hit a local country park for a change of scenery.
The Outfit: We all know this is the exact kind of session The Velocity jacket is made for so lets not pretend I was going to wear anything else. Layered with The Split Tee underneath, The Enduro Tights and a Z2 Technical cap (I don't like the feeling of a headtorch on my bare skin)
The Shoes: Slight chance of trails and soft ground in the dark? Only ever going to wear my Hoka Tecton X2s.
The Verdict: Hard pickup. I expected to feel relatively fresh considering I didn't run the day before, but honestly the fatigue was still lingering. I'm glad I had Pete to urge me on, but it proved similar company as the intense interval session from the day before caught up with him too. I managed 5/7km at the top end of the target pace, with the first one I missed being due to having to make a couple of tight turns around gates to get into the park. (I've yet to come up with an excuse for why I missed the target in the following KM.) Good session.
Pete looks well impressed (Not).
Wednesday
Distance: 12.16km | Time: 1:08:12 | Pace: 5:36/km | Avg. HR 148bpm | Effort: Moderate
The Run: Me and Pete took it back to last year, running up and down a hill that we visited about 10 times in the training block for London (/Manchester for Pete). 2 Mile warmup, 30 minutes of running up and down a hill, 2 mile cooldown (running up an even bigger hill!).
The Outfit: Velocity Jacket, The Ascent QZ,, combined with one of my favourite pairs of shorts at the moment that will be coming with the spring drop, with white Vantage Socks to match my shoes. Started out wearing a buff, and decided that we needed to start producing our own as I utilised them so much.
The Shoes: New Balance Rebel V4s in White. Using these for most of my standard, non-tempo runs at the moment, and I'm going to have to get a new pair soon as the mileage is clocking up.
The Verdict: I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did have the dreaded ankle pain come back with a vengance, but I really enjoyed getting back to a run where you can absolutely feel the benefit during and after. Not that you appreciate it at the time of course, plus as we could actually talk during this session, we got a chance to talk strategy for Z2.
Look at that absolute monster of a hill at the end! Brutal.
Thursday
Distance: 19.23km | Time: 1:50:33 | Pace: 5:45/km | Avg. HR 157bpm | Effort:Easy
The Run: This was supposed to be 17km easy, but it turns out a friend of mine, Shellie, had a 19km long run to do this week (easy pace) so I thought I'd join. I'm glad I had the company because it was a wet and miserable evening and the thought of slogging out the best part of a half marathon solo wasn't overly appealing.
The Outfit: I'm very glad we have launched a waterproof jacket in the Pathfinder Quarter-zip because it came in very useful. Layered with The Glide Longsleeve tee for a bit of warmth and combined with The Traverse shorts as I hoped the microfibre would keep some of the water out (it did.) Combined with a technical cap to keep the rain out of my eyes and a pair of prototype gloves we'll be releasing soon. This run was one of those where the outfit DID matter.
The Shoes: I wore my Rebels again and regretted it hugely, not because the shoe lacked in any way, but I think I lost the last element of them actually being white.
The Verdict: Turns out I forgot to eat before this run (that we did at 5pm) so after an accidental day of fasting it was actually pretty tough at times. I couldn't figure out why my heartrate was so high despite taking it easy, and it was probably because of the whole not fuelling thing. Luckily Shellie offered me a sweet, which I regretted as it was all I could taste the rest of the way.
I was wet, and Shellie looked vaguely like a condom (her words, not mine).
Friday
Following on from a sobering appointment with my physio who told me I wasn't helping my surgery recovery by neglecting my strength training (and it wouldn't help with my newly diagnosed Posterior Tibialis Tendinopathy either) I decided to hit the gym and get some leg training in, specifically on my afflicted leg, as well as doing some impact based plyometrics. I would come to regret this in the morning.
Saturday
Distance: 26.07km | Time: 2:11:39 | Pace: 5:03/km | Avg. HR 157bpm | Effort: Hard
The Run: Moving my long run from Sunday to Saturday to suit my domestics felt like a good idea at the time, but combining the extra days loss of recovery time, the fact that I'd hit the gym the night before, and the fact I woke up late with somewhere to be (we can't miss parkrun now can we?) I had a pretty miserable time. The run was 26km, including 10km at MP (4:15/km), encompassing 5km of that as parkrun too.
The Outfit: Velocity Jacket. Combined it with a Sunshine Tee, hoping it would give me the pick me up I needed (It didn't), and the enduro tights for all my long run essentials (like the gel I ignored the whole time). It was chilly out, but not chilly enough for a beanie, so I wore a thermal performance headband which we'll be dropping later this week.
The Shoes: I grabbed my Adidas Boston 12s for this run, not for any real reason other than they were near the door and didn't clash with the Orange Z2 socks I had on, but I figured they would help with the pickup too.
The Verdict: I don't know if it was running late, feeling fatigued from the mounting miles in the week, having a full belly or a mix of everything, but I left the house and my heartrate was immediately high, like 162BPM high. For reference, during the hills part of my hills session, it was generally mid 150s, so even my "easy" warm up pace was causing my ticker to only go a couple of beats slower than it was for my 25 minute lactate threshold tempo session.
While I wasn't necessarily focussing on that, it did translate into the run feeling HARD. I wasn't looking forward to the pickup, and worked out I needed to start it at KM 11, which would get me to parkrun exactly as it was starting, I could complete parkrun and then have a 5km cool down. I really did try too when I got to 11km, upping my pace, so you can only imagine my dismay when I hit the km mark and the pace flashed up at 4:25/km, followed by 4:27, 4:31, 4:39. I wasn't putting any less effort in, but my body just wasn't responding. I told myself I'd not given up, putting the graft in for 5km, despite not hitting the goal, but clearly my body wasn't feeling it and continuing to push hard could lead to injury.
I met Luke and Caitling at parkrun as planned and had a chatty run with Luke, eliciting several grunts and one word answers from Luke, as I talked at him the whole way round. It may be the basis of a lot of our friendship, that he's usually too out of breath to tell me to shut up. Huh. Either way, I appreciated the company, instead of having to put the effort in the whole way round. The 5km cool down afterwards felt at least three times as long as parkrun, but such is often the case towards the end of parkrun. Interesting day to say in the least.
Sunday
I was 4km short of where I wanted to be for the week, but honestly after the day I had the day before, I decided to take a rest day from running, and hit some strength training in the gym instead.
Weekly Summary
I'd like to come up with some positive things to say about this week, but it's tough. I haven't let it affect my disposition, because if we're honest these things happen in life and in running. Next week (this week as I write this) is my first of two adaptation weeks in the plan, with plenty of easy aerobic running allowing my body to recover.
It will be the following week which is an indicator of how well my body is responding to the training plan, after a little bit of rest, am I ready to keep pushing and hit hard for another month? Only one way to find out. I'm definitely feeling fitter than when I started 3 weeks ago. I did a parkrun maximum effort two days before starting this plan and just managed to squeeze under 20 minutes. I'm confident if I were to do the same thing now, I'd be 15-20 seconds under that. Hopefully, by time we hit the end of the plan we can be closer to the 18:30 mark and look at setting a new 5k PB.
I'll also enjoy the lesser mileage next week before there's a huge jump in mileage. The only question is if I can handle it? Keep reading to find out!