The target for the 5 miles was 31:30, actual 31:36. So the target was ok, but the way I achieved it was not great.
I set the watch for a 6:20 pace. The first mile was 5:55, more like a 5k pace. I got carried away and cursed myself, I knew I would pay for it later. By mile 3 I was 41 seconds ahead, and once we hit the hill section I started to struggle. Mile 4 was tough, and I had little left for the last mile. This was in stark contrast to how I had run the last few races, sticking to the pace and finishing strong.
I am starting to feel stronger overall, and hopefully I can start upping the pace in time for some key races. So far I have ran the day before every race, knowing that I am no where near pace shape, so it really doesn't matter whether I am 10 seconds or two minutes away from it.
Today I did 13 slow miles. I didn't set a pace, or target one, average 7:32. It was warm when I set out near lunchtime, and the biggest problem I faced was feeling really thirsty from about 8 miles.
This gave me 39 miles for the week. It is nowhere near marathon miles, and pretty much where I would like to stay mileage wise.
Sunday 28 June 2015
Thursday 25 June 2015
Boring update alert
Having neglected to keep this log updated, I realised the other day that when I want to look back at what I was doing at this point after the London marathon, I would have no record of it.
We had a fantastic holiday on our cruise, the best of my life I would say by far. The gym on the ship was fantastic. I had only been doing about three days of running per week after London up to this point, I suppose about 25 miles per week. That was fine with me, I just wanted to keep the legs turning over, and hopefully not lose too much fitness. I also needed a mental rest from the winter training. On the ship, there was a running deck and plenty of treadmills. I incorporated some weights from day one, with a 10k each day. The 10k was typically two mile warmup, 3 miles hard, with a cooldown after.
Typical, on the Wednesday I got really ill. Headaches, sore throat, ears, temperature, weak. If I was at home I would have stayed in bed for a few days. I rarely get sick, once or twice a year max. I was really hacked off.
When we got home I still wasn't recovered, and started doing a few short runs of about 4 miles just to keep going. As I had pretty much neglected much speedwork coming up to the marathon, I decided that I would try and increase the pace on the shorter runs. I was still only doing 3 or 4 runs for the week, so the milage wasn't great, and I inevitably started to put on some weight.
I am not all that worried about it. I am doing plenty of core exercises at the moment, body weight resistance, and short runs. I decided to run a local. 5k two weeks ago. It was a trail race over some hilly terrain. I wasn't all that confident of a sub 20, but surprised myself with 19:30.
The following week, 7 days later, with four short runs for the week between, I ran another local 5k at a hard, but not max effort, in 18:58, a good improvement in a week I felt.
The next day, I couldn't resist running the dunsaughlin 10k where I previously ran my PB. I again wasn't expecting a great performance having run the 5k the night before, but again surprised myself with 39:13. I didn't expect anywhere near a sub 40, so I think the short stuff is working well for me at the moment and I am enjoying it. The thoughts of a 20 miler right now fills me with dread!
I went out yesterday for 8 at a 7:20 average, the effort was easy enough. I probably need to bring the weekly milage up now towards at least 40 to keep the weight down. I feel like I have had a good break now, so it's 8 weeks this weekend since London.
I am thinking towards Dublin, but for the next 6 weeks or so I will work on some speed, then start towards the half marathon.
I signed up for the entire dublin race series which is always a good motivator.
We had a fantastic holiday on our cruise, the best of my life I would say by far. The gym on the ship was fantastic. I had only been doing about three days of running per week after London up to this point, I suppose about 25 miles per week. That was fine with me, I just wanted to keep the legs turning over, and hopefully not lose too much fitness. I also needed a mental rest from the winter training. On the ship, there was a running deck and plenty of treadmills. I incorporated some weights from day one, with a 10k each day. The 10k was typically two mile warmup, 3 miles hard, with a cooldown after.
Typical, on the Wednesday I got really ill. Headaches, sore throat, ears, temperature, weak. If I was at home I would have stayed in bed for a few days. I rarely get sick, once or twice a year max. I was really hacked off.
When we got home I still wasn't recovered, and started doing a few short runs of about 4 miles just to keep going. As I had pretty much neglected much speedwork coming up to the marathon, I decided that I would try and increase the pace on the shorter runs. I was still only doing 3 or 4 runs for the week, so the milage wasn't great, and I inevitably started to put on some weight.
I am not all that worried about it. I am doing plenty of core exercises at the moment, body weight resistance, and short runs. I decided to run a local. 5k two weeks ago. It was a trail race over some hilly terrain. I wasn't all that confident of a sub 20, but surprised myself with 19:30.
The following week, 7 days later, with four short runs for the week between, I ran another local 5k at a hard, but not max effort, in 18:58, a good improvement in a week I felt.
The next day, I couldn't resist running the dunsaughlin 10k where I previously ran my PB. I again wasn't expecting a great performance having run the 5k the night before, but again surprised myself with 39:13. I didn't expect anywhere near a sub 40, so I think the short stuff is working well for me at the moment and I am enjoying it. The thoughts of a 20 miler right now fills me with dread!
I went out yesterday for 8 at a 7:20 average, the effort was easy enough. I probably need to bring the weekly milage up now towards at least 40 to keep the weight down. I feel like I have had a good break now, so it's 8 weeks this weekend since London.
I am thinking towards Dublin, but for the next 6 weeks or so I will work on some speed, then start towards the half marathon.
I signed up for the entire dublin race series which is always a good motivator.
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