After the very tough back-to-back workouts last weekend, it took quite some time for the legs to feel recovered again, which probably was not helped by the hill workouts on Tuesday and Wednesday. I did 10 relaxed miles on Thursday and could finally feel some bounce returning, something that carried into yet another hill workout on Friday. Luckily there was no major storm to battle against this time and the downhill strides actually felt like downhill strides.
This set me up for another weekend, but thankfully not one featuring another back-to-back workout. This shows the value of introducing things gradually; another such training would have most likely pushed me over the edge. Instead, I managed to keep hanging on.
Saturday was actually very similar to last week, 7 miles at present marathon pace and the coach gave me 3 major points to keep in mind at all times: 1) run relaxed, 2) run relaxed and 3) run relaxed. There were also 2 minor points about HR and pace but the point was made, these were not to be my priorities. He also advised me to imagine those miles to be the ones from mile 8 to 15. Since I don’t know the Vienna course, I imagined myself running in Dublin.
As I started, I visualised myself leaving Phoenix Park, later on Dolphin’s Barn and then Crumlin Road, which was easy to imagine because I was running slightly uphill and against a headwind, exactly the conditions you experience year for year on that blasted stretch of road just before half way. Using those visualisations made it easier to run at a much more relaxed effort than last week, and in fact after a couple of miles I started running on autopilot but still keeping on pace. After going a little bit fast in the early miles, the headwind during the second half made sure the pace stayed realistic and I finished just over 7 miles in 47:09, 6:43 pace with an average HR of 162. While that’s slower than last week at the same average HR I can vouch for the fact that I stuck to the task like glue and ran relaxed at all times. The HR once again was under the threshold the coach had set (162-166) while the pace was inside the set parameters of 6:35-6:45, a bit on the slow side, but as he had stated that was the minor target. On my last miles, on the cool down, I still averaged a pace of 6:50. After 7 faster miles, this felt like jogging along slowly. I did not notice I was going that fast or I would have slowed down a lot more.
The weather forecast for Sunday made timing the run a bit tricky, trying to hit a window after the storm but before the next rain shower. It turned out to be a stunningly beautiful morning when I left at 8 o’clock, blue sky and hardly a breeze. Since there was no back-to-back this week, it was all about time on feet for 2-and-a-half hours. I ran my usual loop around the lake, across the hills, over Blackstones Bridge and back home, and then another out-and-back section past the school to make up the miles. I was flying early on and had to put the brakes on at times. I felt great until about 16 miles when things started dragging a bit, but I made it back home still feeling good, if happy to be done. Looking at the average HR of 150 I think I ran a bit harder than I should have, but, again, I found this pace very relaxing. I also managed to time it right - less than a hour after coming home, it was hail stoning I was glad to be snuck inside.
- 10 Feb
- 10 miles, 1:17:77, 7:47 pace, HR 141
- 11 Feb
- 9 miles, 1:13:07, 8:07 pace, HR 146
4x30 sec; high knees; downhill strides - 12 Feb
- 10 miles, 1:08:00, 6:48 pace, HR 159
incl. 7+ miles @ 6:43, HR 162 - 13 Feb
- 20 miles, 2:31:13, 7:34 pace, HR 150
Weekly Mileage: 74
looking forward to seeing where this takes you once you start doing the anearobic work. so far so good, the results speak for themselves
ReplyDeleteGreetings from my corner of the web. To answer your question, I thought that too initially, but apparently it's not - it's a specific issue related to that tendon that runs down to the toe.
ReplyDeleteI'm thoroughly enjoying keeping up with your journey, it makes for a great insight into the application of a tough programme - keep up the good work, it appears to be heading in the right direction. Great stuff
Good to have a coach Thomas, you can blame him!
ReplyDelete"You Never Told Me They Would Hurt So Much!" is always good after a tough interval session.
Sometimes I wonder what coaches mean when they say run relaxed?
ReplyDeleteDo they mean run like a jelly fish or a giant blamange squelching down the road?
or maybe one should be so relaxed that it's impossible to get out of the sofa in the first place :]
Rick,
ReplyDeleteThe relax part had to do with mindset not muscle or body tension. I break the marathon into 3 mental parts; the first 15 you're on autopilot dishing out mental energy at a low level (this is what Thomas was practicing during that 7 mile MP run), the next 7-8 miles will need as much mental energy as the first 15 just to maintain pace and we all know how much mental energy is needed for the last 3-4 of a marathon (Thomas started practicing that on the second day of the first back to back).
So relax in my book is low or very low mental effort (as a side note the use of low mental effort during Lydiard's base phase is why it is effective, too many runners burn themselves out pushing too hard during the build)
Thanks MC for for clearing things up, cheers.
ReplyDeleteGreat news, "low mental effort" or "very low mental effort" is something I can do.
ReplyDeleteBeen practicing all my life!
I too have a very low mental effort when sitting on the sofa - especially when watching those Japanese game shows ;)
ReplyDeleteThomas, I like the bit where you ran 6:50s after the harder part and didn't realise how fast you were going. Looking good.