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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 50 – There May Be Trouble Ahead

Day 49 was a rest day, although rest is something of a fluid term as it involved seven and a half miles of walking kids to and from school and a trip to the supermarkets. I ended the day perhaps more tired than had I just done an easy six in the morning.

Tuesday and the plan had an easy six in the morning followed by eleven at marathon pace in the evening. The wife is totally snowed with work at the moment so I decided to switch, doing the marathon paced run when the baby was napping and then doing the six later in the evening once I’d put the kids to bed.

The morning walk to and from school was a lethargic affair – not pained, just slow. I had to work myself up to get out and running especially as it was to be at a fair pace from the off. At least the skies were blue outside, although the stiff breeze that has numbed the face for the past few days was a persistent feature of the day.

The opening miles of the run were routine enough; I was swift out of the box and pain free, knocking out the first mile in a sprightly 6:24 – quicker than I plan to run the opening mile come marathon day. The second mile was harder, but faster, as it was mostly into a head wind, and the third mile was mostly uphill and into a headwind, which made it the slowest of the run. I had a warning sign with a twinge in the right hamstring approaching four miles, the pain subsided soon enough so I carried on. Miles five and six were spot on marathon pace despite being partly uphill.

After a pit stop at the sports centre I continued sprightly and keen to knock out the final few miles. Things though got tough on the way to Barrowby and leaving the village the twinge in the right hamstring and in the inner thigh increased in intensity. It didn’t slow me too much in the final couple of miles, partly as they were mostly downhill, but they knocked the impetus out of the run – it felt as if something could go at any moment.

I made it home without too much distress; after a stretch I went to play with the massage tools – looking for signs of trouble. There was plenty to be found: from the hip to the knee, quadricep and hamstring – there were sore points everywhere. I massaged for around twenty minutes, then after lunch walked to collect my daughter from school. The hamstring ached for much of the walk near the knee. There and then I abandoned any notion of running again in the evening – hoping that an evening of massage and sleep can alleviate the symptoms.

This pain first struck last Tuesday at the mile reps – something on the right hand side doesn’t like running at pace. Hopefully I can find the problem soon before Project Sub 2:45 begins to potentially derail.