Monday 24 August 2009

work in progress

the end of week one (of ten).

here's what i did
w/c 17aug
m - 4.5m
t - 4 m incl 26mins kh's
w - rest
t- 4 x 800's (3)
f - 4m am, 4m pm
s - 9 m pace
s - 12m

here's how it felt
- great but tough going. having done mainly ultras now the last two years or so, my running economy is great but a lack of any real consistent speed training has a penalty to pay when it comes to trying to run more quickly.
due to various things i ended up bunching together 4 toughish days with no rest. the 9m race pace session felt easier the longer it went on. i seemed to be getting into a good rhythm. the route, straight out of my door over to swythamley is all road ( :o ) and mimicks snowdon perfectly re ups and downs. but thats the longest i've consistently run (without any walking) since snowdon last year.



next day, the following 12m road/trail hilly session went fairly well too, though i struggled a while through mile ten but then got going for the last two.

here's what i've been reminded of
- marathon training is tough but rewarding
- in fact, i find it a lot harder and more demanding than my ultra bimbling
- i have to concentrate on maintaining pace rather than on where i'm going

and here's where improvements can be made
- my weight (work in progress)
- better nutrition and hydration (linked to weight)
- giving the beer/wine and salty snacks a wide berth for a while
- missing out the daily bacon bagel that kick starts many days (the sacrifices we make!)

so, that's it. a good start with hopefully lots of improvements to come.

in the meantime, back to dreaming of ultra running :)

3 comments:

kate said...

i think you might be on to something! not having done any proper running for months i've been missing something but not sure what. i'm taking a leaf out of your blog-but i'm going to struggle on the bacon aspect ;)

sbrt said...

Your taking it seriously then.

Giving up beer/wine could be unwise. I have heard beer is better than SIS and wine is now considered part of your 5 a day.

ultra collie said...

kate - i reckon you're constantly doing secret training up in the lakes ;)

sbrt - lol! but you have two very valid, scientifically proven points. think i should review plan!