Like The 63 From Peckham

It’s Sunday afternoon, I'm knackered and I am left in no doubt that, yes, I am training for a marathon. For the first time since starting my training under the coach’s guidance I was doing marathon pace runs, and under MC’s training they are like the London buses I used to take into work, many years ago: you are left waiting forever and then they turn up in pairs.

The storm had stopped blowing around 5 am, to be replaced by the predicted heavy rain. I decided that was fine by me, I prefer rain to wind, even heavy rain.

The instructions for Saturday were clear enough, do whatever you need for warm/up and cool/down and run 7 miles at your present marathon pace, not goal pace, which the coach estimated at 6:57-6:43, basically 6:50 with 7 seconds up or down (6:50 being the estimated present marathon pace). That would be a little bit faster than the evaluations at a HR of about 163-164. Since it was the first one, I could expect it to be tough and I was told not to take too much notice of the numbers.

All that sounded fine and well, but less than half a mile into the supposed MP effort I was left with a dilemma, should I follow the pace or the HR recommendations, because they did not match. I was going a bit faster than 6:20 pace (!!!) with a HR in the high 150s, but it was slightly downhill so I did not take too much notice of the pace. It eventually became clear that I had gone out a bit too hard as the pace did not feel sustainable for 26 miles. I slowed down, only a little bit, which soon started feeling much more comfortable but of course still below the HR the coach had set me. I did not check the HR monitor too often, but every time I looked it seemed to be in the high 150s, only going over 160 on a few climbs. When looking at the chart afterwards I saw that it was a bit higher than I thought. Still, I did the prescribed 7 miles at 6:35 pace, at least 10 seconds per mile faster than would I would have thought of as best-case scenario and with a HR that was lower than the one set by the coach.

But I knew perfectly well that I might have set myself up for a complete disaster on Sunday. That second brief was to start with 10 miles at relaxed pace, 7:30-7:45 (I like that sort of pace being called relaxed, it makes me feel like a half-decent runner), and then 4-5 miles at the same pace as yesterday, with the HR not too much above 167. Considering he does not like to give out numbers, this was a precise as the coach was ever going to be.

The rain wasn’t as heavy as on Saturday but the wind had picked up once more. I decided to run 3 out-and-back loops to Ard-na-Sidhe of 5 miles each. It’s not the most exciting way to get the miles done but it’s my standard route when the wind is too strong. As soon as I set off I knew this would not be easy, yesterday’s fast miles had left their mark. I had my doubts if I would get even close to yesterday’s pace. Despite the sore legs I kept frustrating myself by running too fast, around 7:00 pace, every time I lost concentration. Time and time again I had to put on the brakes and slow down. This only stopped during the second loop when fatigue must have started to creep in. In the end I did the first 10 miles at an average pace of 7:25.

When I passed our driveway for the second time, things got serious and I increased the effort. For three miles, this was tough but do-able. I reckon this was more like the last 5 miles of a marathon than any training I have ever done, and once I passed the 4-mile mark, I was toast. I probably should have left it at that, instead I went on to torture myself for one more mile, almost certainly violating the golden “train, don’t strain” rule, but at the time I wasn’t thinking straight and only thinking about getting this done, no matter what. I averaged a HR of 168 over each of the last 2 miles; if you’re generous you could argue that I did not get “too much above 167”. Looking at the 5 mile segment in one block I ran 6:42 pace with an average HR of 165.

I would have bitten your hand off had you offered me that kind of pace beforehand. Now I’m a bit worried the coach will give me hell for running too hard, but to be honest, I’m feeling rather good about this. Sub-3 in Vienna looks very much achievable all of a sudden.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I woke at 6 am on both mornings and since I had nothing better to do, ate some porridge so that I would have energy for the training runs later on. Normally I run on an empty stomach and it may explain why I ran faster than expected. Maybe.

And if you haven't done so yet, I still highly recommend catching up on the coach's explanation of the evaluation runs, here and here.

5 Feb

10 miles, 1:07:39, 6:46 pace, HR 158
   incl. 7+ miles @ 6:35 pace, HR 162

6 Feb

15 miles, 1:47:37, 7:10 pace, HR 155
   incl. 5 miles @ 6:42 pace, HR 165

Weekly Mileage: 73