First up, on Tuesday, I did my second mega session, designed to push the boundaries of my training a little. This involved first running the usual Tuesday club run, this time as a tempo run, accelerating for the first 4 miles reaching 7:00/mile on the 4th mile and then jogging the last 2. That would be a perfectly good session on any other day, but I then added a speed session on at the end: 10*400m at faster than 5k pace, generally running faster than 6:30/mile. I thought it was going to be tough but I felt great, no doubt helped by the fact that I had taken the fortnight as holiday and could rest well between sessions.
Ah, rest! I could take lunchtime naps when I needed, and boy did I need them! This was a big mileage week - the life of a pro athlete.
After 14 miles on Wednesday split 4/10 across the now usual double, the next hard session was Thursday and the club 'short' handicap race. I did the 3.65 miles, over bridges across fields and through gates, in 26 minutes: a PB by 30 seconds. It felt like I was pushing hard, but in fact my heart rate was a beat below what it was last time. Good news!
Friday was a relatively easy day running-wise. The 7.5 mile recovery run was followed by a drive up to London to watch the athletics at Crystal Palace. My ankle is still a bit sore though from riding the clutch for an hour round the M25.
I stayed overnight with my athletics coach friend, and joined in her hill session in Greenwich park the following morning. The precursor to the session itself was a 651m hill time trial. Ouch! My legs were fine, but my lungs hurt. It felt like I'd been punched in the chest, my throat was raw and I couldn't stop coughing! I gather this is normal, but it was a little disconcerting. I had a few minutes to recover before we hit the hills again for 12 minutes of short steepish hills followed by 12 minutes of longer gentler hills. Now that's a hill session!
The following morning was a 20.2-mile run around the sights of southeast London: Greenwich, Charlton, Thames Flood Barrier, The Millennium Dome, Antony Gormley's brilliant Quantum Cloud sculpture, Royal Naval College, Greenwich Park, Blackheath Common and round again for a second lap. We were doing 8:00/mile on the flat; there are a surprising number of hills - I thought that area was flat. What a great long run - makes a big change to my local scenery.
81.4 miles
Now that's a week of hard training.
It's back down to earth with a return to work this week, but I'm going to have an easier week anyway - there's no way I could keep up that volume and intensity of training for too long!
| Monday | 10 miles | am: 6miles easy pm: 4 miles easy | |
| Tuesday | 13 miles | am: 4 miles easy pm: 9 miles mega-session: tempo run followed by 10*400m | tempo run: 7:51 117bpm 7:30 129bpm 7:11 141bpm 7:01 141bpm 1.6mls jog, then 10*400m 1min jog recover: 100s 97s 96s 98s 97s 96s 97s 96s 97s 92s - running on feel not Garmin |
| Wednesday | 13.9 miles | am: 4 miles easy pm: 9.9 miles easy 107bpm 9:11/mile | |
| Thursday | 5.8 miles | Club 3.65 mile handicap race plus warmup/down | PB by 30s but felt tough despite HR being lower than previously: 143bpm |
| Friday | 7.5 miles | easy run | |
| Saturday | 8 miles | Greenwich park hill session | 651m hill time trial in 2:54, followed by 12mins short steep reps + 12mins long reps |
| Sunday | 23.2 miles | am: 20.2 miles 8:20/mile 122bpm 71%MHR pm: 3 miles easy | Greenwich-Thames Flood barrier-Dome-Blackheath, repeat. last 5 splits 8:00 7:52 7:47 8:05 8:04 |
| Total | 81.4 miles |
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