Speeding

Today is my first rest day in a fortnight, and boy do I need it! I've never run 13 days in a row before, so there's a first, but I really have to be careful as I've thrown too many ingredients into the pot in recent weeks.

Here's the main reason I feel tired:

Yes, speedwork! The first proper speed session for well over a year. Up till now I've been base training, keeping it strictly aerobic, working on aerobic capacity and running economy. With a 5mile race next weekend, and a 10k race the following weekend, I've been doing a little sharpening work to try to give my best in those two races. At the same time I've been building back up to 50miles/week in readiness to start the training plan for Cardiff in 18 weeks time. Yesterday I did 15 miles, 2 days after the above session, and felt a bit tired.

You can't have it all! If I'd already been doing 50 miles/week and was then adding in the speed, I'm sure I'd cope. However, I've only just built back up to the high mileage after London, and I know I have to be careful. My legs are OK, but I know I'm close to what they can take, with some tight muscles. I have another massage tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see what the physio thinks - I don't think she was too impressed last time!

Next week, I'm supposed to be starting my marathon schedule, but with the two races, I'll be following it in spirit rather than to the letter, at least for the first few weeks. I'll post more on the schedule later. It seems quite challenging, with some long mid-week runs, but I'm sure that will make the weekend long runs easier. I've always found the weekends tough, when done as part of a high mileage schedule. With the mileage spread more evenly throughout the week, I hope it will be easier, provided I can find the time for all the runs.

18 weeks to Cardiff, but my focus next week is very much the Purbrook Ladies 5. I really want to do a good time on what is quite a tricky course. Fingers crossed!

A technical note regarding the speed session. I did 8 600m reps with a 75sec recovery. My pace was between 6:45/mile and 7:00/mile, which is roughly 3k-5k pace. I have no doubt that this was anaerobic speedwork - it felt like it - but in fact my heart rate never went over my lactate threshold of 155bpm. I point this out to illustrate the problems of using heart rate monitors for interval work - you can't! They're only useful for monitoring lactate levels in steady running. It is important not to run interval sessions too quickly as it becomes counter productive. Using a heart rate monitor to pace your intervals will mean you go off too quickly then slow down. Far better is to use feel and a stop watch. The best advice I've seen is to finish strongly as if you could easily manage a few more reps, but what pace will achieve this? 'Experience' is an easy answer, but easier is to use a GPS unit, such as the Garmin Forerunner, and a pace table. I've found the following link very helpful in this respect: Greg McMillan's running calculator. I find the times it gives correspond very well with my race times and what I find 'feels right'. Hope you find it as useful as I do.