For most of last week definitely felt like I was in the throes of marathon training. Felt very heavy legged and quite fatigued all week! Having said that still happy with the weeks training hitting what I wanted to hit and the positive aspect of this is that it was all done on very tired and heavy legs! For anyone out there getting ready for a marathon 3 – 5 weeks out from a marathon is where I find the hard training can have an affect on you and its about getting the quality work in before tapering off in the last few weeks. As I’ve mentioned on this Blog before don’t read too much into a session where you haven’t necessarily hit your targets and in the same vein don’t over react to a session where you’ve absolutely smashed it. Remember you’re doing most of this when you’re not exactly fresh 😊
Weekly Recap:
Monday: 5.05 miles - 38.07
Tuesday: 7 miles – 52.50
Wednesday: 2 miles easy – 4 miles @ marathon effort 22.52 (5.43 avg) – 2 miles easy
Thursday: 6 miles – 45.28
Friday: 21.10 miles – 2.09.37 (6.09 avg)
Saturday: 6 miles – 48.32
Sunday: Rest Day
The midweek session this week wasn’t anything too intense or long as I had to complete the long run on Friday. 4 miles @ marathon effort on Wednesday actually felt like a struggle but I like to think sub consciously I was holding back in order to be ready for a tough long run 48 hours later. I don’t know if this happens to anyone else? I feel like sometimes before big sessions or races i end up going a lot slower not really on purpose and that I sometimes struggle to hit paces the previous week I might have no issue with. The body works in mysterious ways 😉 Again its important to not overreact either way!
So the long run on Friday was a step up from anything I’ve attempted to date during this marathon block. The session was 5 x 2 mile @ Marathon effort with 1 mile @ about 40 secs below marathon effort. You’ll have noticed I’ve stated marathon effort and not marathon pace. Its important to remember that effort can be a better way to judge these sessions as you are generally doing these on tired legs and maybe on difficult routes so trying to hit your desired marathon paces might actually be too fast and detrimental. Gauging it by effort means you get the desired benefits and adaptations without going overboard. Completed 4 miles warm up and 2 mile cool down to bring me up to just over 21 miles for the run. Hit the following 2 miles splits:
· 11.45
· 11.27
· 11.25
· 11.27
· 11.41
The first and last 2 mile efforts probably weren’t where I wanted them or needed to be but the middle 3 reps were quite strong so happy with that. Ended up with 6.09 average mile pace for 21.1 miles and got good practice with gels and water again so all in all a satisfying session. The only negative is that my right glute medius got quite tight towards the end of the run so felt as though that hindered me again. Working on this with Dara my physio and we’ll have it right for marathon day!
So another positive week and have 2 big sessions planned this week so need to look after the little areas such as nutrition, hydration, sleep, recovery, flexibility, mobility, strength etc. These little factors can make a big difference so don’t neglect them.
Have a great week folks and thanks for reading 😊
Noel
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