2nd week of this marathon block in the books and as I type this Blog late on Sunday night I can definitely say that my legs know that they’re in marathon training. Legs are very heavy and tired I have to say but I also know that the last week of training whilst not spectacular has been really solid and left me quite satisfied with where I’m at. However not going to get too carried away with it. Have learned over the years never too get too excited about an unbelievable training session or week and in the same vein never to get too annoyed with a bad session or training week. Its all relative and one week or training session doesn’t make or break you!
Weekly Recap:
Monday: 7 miles – 54.00
Tuesday: 2 miles WU – 10k Progression in 34.45 – 2 miles CD
Wednesday: 6.05 miles – 47.27
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: 6 miles – 47.37
Saturday: 18 miles – 1.56.29
Sunday: 6.44 miles – 51.20
So as you can See above I had 2 really key sessions for the week. First up was a 10k progression run in searing heat as was every run this week. Target was to go out steady and increase the pace slightly each mile which resulted in the following mile splits:
· 5.47
· 5.44
· 5.37
· 5.35
· 5.30
· 5.21
· 5.20 pace for the last 400m
Really happy with this run averaging out at 5.35 mile pace for the 10k distance. Won’t get too carried away with this as want to average slightly faster than this for 26.2 miles in 10 weeks time!
Second key session was an 18 mile run down for Saturday morning. Mentally this was an important run for me as it was the longest run I would be tackling since the end of February 2020 as I was getting ready for the Rotterdam Marathon which was then cancelled 2 weeks after this. To be able to handle the longer runs coming in this build up I needed to able to deal with this 18 mile effort in a relatively good fashion. Only got the chance to start this at 11.30am and by that stage the heat was really intense but I know being able to handle runs like this will stand to me further down the line. For the first 7 miles or so kept the pace steady at 6.40 – 7.00 pace before picking it up and knocking off some decent splits from 5.55 – 6.20 before easing back off for the last mile averaging out at 6.28 pace for the 18 miles. Will take that, thought I would struggle with the distance more. But I know paces will need to get faster but for now it’s a decent session in the bank. One Thing that was important for this run was practicing drinks and gels during the run. Not everything went to plan but it was good practice and something I need to continue to practice over the next 10 weeks. If you are currently getting ready for a marathon I would strongly advise to practice taking on gels and water during your long runs!
I wanted to touch on one more thing this week that I think is really really important. On three of the runs this week my average mile pace was somewhere between 7.50 – 8.00 mile pace. Now some might argue that’s too slow for someone who is looking to run 5.30 pace for 26.2 miles but I would disagree. I always keep in mind that I need to run my easy days easy to allow me to run my fast days fast. I hadn’t planned to go out at 7.50 – 8.00 pace on these runs but essentially that’s all that my body allowed and what it needed to both recover from the key sessions and get ready for the next one. I don’t need to be fast every day I need to be fast on the days that count!
Have a great week and cheers for reading folks 😊
Noel
Comments