Imagine my surprise then, when I simply could not hit the pace today. I felt perfectly fine at Tuesday's intervals, and I would have run additional repeats if I'd had the time. Today, however, I was repeatedly reminded how long a mile can be. True, the legs didn't feel brilliant when I left home, but they never do these days; the previous workouts always leave me with heavy legs for the first mile or two, and I start feeling much better once I'm warmed up properly. It's not that I felt any worse today, I just could not move the legs quickly enough. The paces I managed to hit were 6:16, 6:19 and 6:21, which incidentally is pretty much my 10k pace from the Ballydavid race 3 weeks ago, so if I had not busted my gut in Killarney a week later I would have been totally happy with my times.
However, the paces do not compare favourably with the mile repeats I did a week before the Cork City marathon, when I averaged 6:05. Now that's interesting. My quarter mile repeats 2 days ago were the fastest I've ever done, but my mile repeats are slow. I'm sure I have not recovered from Tuesday's session yet, but that doesn't explain all of it. I think my speed has come along the last few weeks, but the stamina is poor. Well, there is still a lot of time until the marathon to work on that, and it might assuage my worries about peaking too early. As long as there are systems that are in dire need of improvement, I'm not peaking yet - at least that's what I think.
There might be a 4-mile race tomorrow evening in Kilgobnet, only a couple of miles from us. I got the race flyer in Ballydavid, but haven't heard anything else about it, so I'm not sure where exactly it will be, or even if it will be on at all. I had considered skipping today's mile repeats for the race, but the uncertainty led me to go ahead anyway, even though it probably messed up any chances of a good race.
The best development recently has been the fact that Maia has started sleeping through the night. That makes life so much easier, as all parents will be able to testify. Today I gave her a bottle as I got up in the morning, and Niamh managed to sleep all the way until 8:10am. What untold luxury!
- 30 Jul
- 8 miles, 1:04:00, 8:00 pace, HR 141
- 31 Jul
- 8.1 miles, 1:01:57, 7:39 pace, HR 157
3x1 mile @ 616, 6:19, 6:21
Monthly Mileage: 277
I always thought miles are tougher than quoters, and recently read it means I am a track person, not long distnace, and have more fast-twitch muscle inme. Huh??? That's ood to say the least:)
ReplyDeleteAnd raw food diet? Man, I am way too lazy for that:)
HI THOMAS,
ReplyDeletethought I'd give you a few tips on how to trick your brain into running faster mile reps1
first mark out a mile loop,or route into 1/4 miles, When running your mile efforts focus 100% on hitting your split times for the first 1/4 then as soon as you reach it think about the next 1/4 and so on, this way you trick your mind into running a little faster, its a bit like splitting the marathon into miles, thinking about each mile split time instead of thinking about running the whole 26 miles in one go, which is to much for the mind to handle and will make you slow down.
{ find using a loop course is better than using a straight road for your miles, if you follow the above tips I reckon you will run 5- 10 secs faster for each mile, hope this helps make your longest mile seem shorter!
P>S> I read once that Micheal Johnson used this technic when running his 400m races splitting the 400m into 100m section and concentrating on each 100m, I think he still holds the 40m world record to this day!
oops! I meant to say 400m world record!
ReplyDeleteP>P>S> getting some really good info out of reading the brain training book; last night i was running 2x 5k tempo intervals, towards the end of the efforts i was starting to slip of my mate Robs pace, so I thought about what I'd read in the book, i told myself "BRING IT ON, I CAN HANDLE THIS1 [ the pain that is] and picked up the pace, I pulled up along side rob with a grin on my face instead of a grimace, the pain seemed to ease as i excepted the pain of running fast, i have a 4 mile race next week so am excited to use the things i've learned from the book.
i looked through the training program for the marathon, and think with a speed session , tempo intervals and alternating steady long run and shorter marathon pace workout each week the program is well balanced if a little short on base mileage.i think because you put in such a big base of miles in before you started this program it will work very well for you. i think i will follow this training for the London marathon next year but add some extra base mileage.
That is a bit odd. Perhaps it was nothing more than an "off day" - if in fact it was a mile and not a long mile. The 400s were good!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement re the anerobic running. I've never done "full Lydiard", so I'm not sure what to expect after the different phases.
Congrats on your anniversary - that's a delicious looking cake! Good luck in the race if you do it.
Thomas, I always found the thursday long(er) speed workouts harder than tuesdays short(er) reps. You'll notice that the active recovery time are reversed though (longer on tuesday and shorter on thursday)
ReplyDeleteI've moved into the next 4 week phase with 4.5 to 5.5 mile tempo runs at 10k pace and am coming in well below target (even slower than I was last March).
YEA THE 5 MILE TEMPO RUNS AT 10K PACE LOOK HARD TO NAIL DOWN TO THE RIGHT SPEED!
ReplyDeletehavin tried this sort of session in the past I know I'd be a good 20 secs per mile slow due to having no race adrenaline to help me on my way!
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I figure it will be a great time to do some races and at the same time get ot know other ppl who hand transplants.
Well your 10k pace is still FAST! Maybe temperature also played a role…?
ReplyDeleteKeep up the interesting posts! Cheers, luke