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Day 78–On Course

A key day in the training schedule. An easy paced morning run followed by a ten mile marathon paced run in the evening. Marathon paced runs have become the new intervals – something I generally dread all through the day then, when they are over and done, generally feel much better for it – if a little stiff in the legs for a few hours after.

The morning run first – the sun shining and cool, but rising, temperatures, after the first half mile or so this became a very straightforward, trouble free run. Using the Dysart Park and back route – which is a little longer than usual for my AM Tuesday double run, the pace stuck at around seven minute miles and felt as though I could easily pick up the pace if I wanted to. Whether I could pick the pace up by a minute a mile was another question however.

Split Summary
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1) 1m – 7:31(7:31/m) 134/148bpm 94cal
2) 1m – 7:17(7:17/m) 145/150bpm 102cal
3) 1m – 7:14(7:14/m) 146/153bpm 99cal
4) 1m – 7:10(7:10/m) 143/149bpm 91cal
5) 1m – 7:00(7:00/m) 147/152bpm 93cal
6) 1m – 7:03(7:03/m) 149/156bpm 95cal
7) 0.21m – 1:27(6:54/m) 149/155bpm 19cal

The legs didn’t feel too great for the rest of the morning but by mid-afternoon they felt much better. Leaving the house wafting with smells of pancakes served up to my daughters, it took plenty of willpower not to leave the house on an empty stomach and not tanked up on batter.

Clear skies meant temperatures were dropping rapidly and the first mile or two was a real struggle for the lungs trying to catch my breath. What’s more, there was no warm-up or gradual increase in pace – it was pretty much full on (marathon heart rate) effort from the off. Whilst it felt pretty hard going at times, at least the legs were feeling responsive. The worst bits were, unsurprisingly, the hills, which were a real drag this evening. At least once I cleared the crest of any climb, the lactic like feeling soon left the legs and I was back up to pace.

At six miles I had to decide whether to follow the path of previous marathon paced runs or whether to head out on the A607, then up to the Meres and then the A52. I decided on the latter and pushed on again. The slowest mile (apart from the first) came at mile eight, but this was slightly uphill pretty much all the way. The toughest hill of the climb was to come – thankfully by now I was in full spring and made fairly light work of it, pushing on harder once the hill was tackled.

Onto the A52 by the Muddle and I knew it was pretty much downhill or at worst flat all the way home. I pushed on but relaxed and was pleased to see that the legs were able to knock out the quickest miles of the run. I stopped, as planned, at ten miles, but felt I could have gone on further. The average of 6:09 per mile was better than the past marathon paced runs this year, so showed that training is progressing well.

Split Summary
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1) 1m – 6:24(6:24/m) 146/159bpm 91cal
2) 1m – 6:08(6:08/m) 158/163bpm 95cal
3) 1m – 6:06(6:05/m) 162/168bpm 94cal
4) 1m – 6:07(6:07/m) 164/168bpm 97cal
5) 1m – 6:13(6:13/m) 163/166bpm 96cal
6) 1m – 6:03(6:03/m) 158/164bpm 90cal
7) 1m – 6:08(6:08/m) 161/165bpm 94cal
8) 1m – 6:20(6:20/m) 162/165bpm 97cal
9) 1m – 6:08(6:08/m) 158/167bpm 87cal
10) 1m – 5:52(5:52/m) 160/165bpm 86cal
11) 0.13m – 54(6:52/m) 159/163bpm 13cal

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Day 64–Back To The Old Routine

The legs are in no state to be doing any speed work but they are fit for a Tuesday double – similar in distance to what I used to run back in Coventry / Kenilworth. Both runs saw the debut for the turquoise pair of the Nike Air Pegasus 29. As they were replacing identical trainers, except the old pair were red, there were no unexpected surprises with these trainers – just the abundance of more cushioning with a pair that were 520 odd miles fresher than the pair they replaced.

The morning run was just a typical out and back to Dysart Park and back affair. The only highlight was seeing the queue for the cinema I visited yesterday morning. The queue was about 3 deep then; today it came out of the cinema, onto the street and snaked around the corner. That made me feel highly relieved I went when I did. Pace was fine – a little slower than yesterday, but I was determined to put in as little effort as possible.

For the evening run I put a message out on the Grantham RC Facebook page to see if anyone would be interested in joining me for a few easy miles. Scott replied and said he was up for it, but wanted to run in daylight if at all possible. That seemed fine to me so we headed out at around 4:30pm for an easy 8.5 miles or so. Being in daylight we were able to run up the canal for a bit before heading into Harrowby, which included a cheeky little hill which served a reminder to the legs that the efforts of Sunday were still very much present.

That hill tackled and it was pretty much all the way downhill back into town. The pace was spot on – the legs tired at the end but not unbearably so. What the run did tell me was that although I think they’ll handle high mileage for the rest of the week, anything at pace is going to be a struggle. That puts into doubt my participation in the National Cross Country Championships on Saturday, although the F1 test in Bahrain and a change in time difference between us and then may well have put paid to any hopes of making it to Nottingham in time anyway.