Friday saw me back on the hills. After the customary first set, 4x30 seconds sprints, I added three more drills. First high knees, which I found really tough. I managed to keep going for 2 minutes. The next drill were ankles, like last time round; they felt much easier and I did them for 4 minutes. I left "driving with the thighs" for last, probably the toughest drill or maybe it's just the fact that I did them last, on already tired legs. I managed only one minute, so I walked back down the hill for another minute. My heart rate shot up to 177 and was still over 170 after walking halfway down the hill.
When I checked the training program, I wasn't overly pleased to see yet another hill workout for Saturday. Isn't there supposed to be some time for recovery? Anyway, this time, after the initial sprints, I did thighs, followed by high knees and finally a set of downhill strides. Unfortunately, the downhill stretch I picked wasn't very downhill at all, so it ended up being half a mile at fast pace, not a hill workout. I'll choose a different road next time, the one I used last year. Unfortunately it's not near the hill I like to use for the "uphill" drills, requiring a compromise.
Adding up the miles for this week already gave me more than 60 miles up to Saturday, so I ran a shorter long run, just one lap around the lake. I started dragging halfway through the loop; the legs were becoming increasingly weary, which can undoubtedly be attributed to the successive hill workouts. Not that I had much choice - on a loop course, all you can do is continue on until you're home. I'm pretty sure I ran too fast, the last few miles were all faster than 7:30. I guess I just wanted this to be over. When I checked my logs I found that I had done exactly the same last year on the identical workout.
This better be worth it - it's pretty damn hard work.
Niamh and the kids are back in Kerry - my monkish existence has come to an abrupt end. Now I have to get used again to all the screaming, fighting, and shouting (that's the kids I'm talking about, not me. Honestly.)
- 6 Jan
- 10.5 miles, 1:37:14, 9:15 pace, HR 141
Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, high knees (2 mins), ankles (4 mins), thighs (2x1 min) - 7 Jan
- 10 miles, 1:21:24, 8:08 pace, HR 151
Hill drills: 4x30 sec sprints, high knees (2 mins), thigh drive (2x1 min), downhill strides - 8 Jan
- 15 miles, 1:55:25, 7:42 pace, HR 152
Weekly Mileage: 76.5
Just signed up for Connemara this week but am light years behind you in training. The last time I went over 70 miles for a week was when I ran 62 of them on a Saturday in Portumna last June.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should continue with the low volume/intensity work and we can compare notes in April ;-)
Great hill training! Not envious one bit.
ReplyDeleteGood vid Thomas. Beats the ones Rick's been posting lately ;)
ReplyDeleteThomas, perhapes you could try throwing some Back to Back Long runs together... maybe that might be better suited to the conditioning required for Donadea & Connemara than some of the faster Marathon type efforts.
ReplyDeletegrellan's comment is interesting. how many max weekly miles does one need to do for a marathon- say for a sub 3.30?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, how long is a piece of string?
ReplyDeleteGrellan doesn't need any training to run a sub-3:30 marathon any more. He has done the necessary base training over the last few years.
Sub 3:30 isn't an overly fast marathon though.
ReplyDeleteI know; it was you who mentioned 3:30.
ReplyDeleteNo matter the target time, the training required is still very much dependant on the individual. Some runners thrive on higher intensity and lower mileage, others by the complete opposite.
John Kynaston wrote a blog entry last months, comparing mine and John McL's PB. They are nearly identical even though our respective training is totally different. Interesting stuff.