Today's Training

[Travs]

Club night. 8 x 800metres with 90secs rest.

Was a bit apprehensive about even participating tonight, given the weekend's exertions. But went better than expected.

Knocked the reps out consistently around 5:40/mile pace, give or take a couple of seconds either way. Which is quite encouraging for me as this time last year i'd be struggling at that pace when fresh, and today managed to maintain it on legs that weren't entirely happy to be pushed hard!

A solid day with a run this morning too, giving a total of 13 miles.

[Fellbeast]

Gragareth yesterday evening from just below Tow Scar, as you come up the lane into Kingsdale from Ingleton. One of my favourite 7 mile running routes in the Dales and a toughy too. A steady 1 mile climb up the fell side straight off the bat, a couple of miles of flat grassy running along the Turbary Road (think quad bike track) followed by a one mile rip snorter of a climb to the trig (the same climb as in the Fellsman) and then, the grand finalé, a really fantastic and fast three mile descent all the way back.

I really pushed it and got strata pb's all the way round. 7 miles and circa 1,300 feet of ascent in 1 hour and ten

[Llani Boy]

Didn't run myself last night with the 8 runners on the weekly RATRun from The Lathkil Hotel. The Leg it Round the Lathkill fell race route, 7 miles and 1'000feet, was run in two groups at the required distance. A lovely evening for it with the rising Hunters Moon a spectacular sight.
Watching from the pub I could see their headtorches shining through the trees on the final descent into the dale. I find there is something mesmerising about seeing the movement of headtorches which I find similar to watching the lit carriages of a train speeding through the night. I just wish I was there!

Back at the pub, on two pre-booked tables, cheesy chips were washed down with Farmers Blonde and Bosley Cloud.
Jars of my Raspberry, Gooseberry and Blackcurrant Jams were presented as prizes!

One interesting footnote from the evening was that speaking to two members of staff, both in their twenties, they were complaining that the batteries on their phones were draining during an evenings work due to the track and trace app.

Apparently the movement of themselves and customers was causing bluetooth to be constantly searching. If this is happening in a small, quiet country pub it must be a lot worse in busier settings.

Poor things, having to do without their phones.

[PeteS]

So Tuesday saw a return to Warley Woods with another sprint hill rep session book-ended by 2 x 3 km.

A foul afternoon here meant I wasn't really looking forward to my now customary Friday after work run up on the Clent Hills. After about 10 minutes of heavy rain, the wind abated and for a while it was actually quite pleasant made even more so by the lack of any other people for the entire duration of my run - just me a few squirrels and a couple of startled deer.
The break in the weather didn't last - the last climb being into a full on head wind and driving rain. Out for about an hour in all - 10k/400m.

[Travs]

Ran a 10km session on the track this morning. Was the only person on the track on a damp, grey and windy morning.

40:59.... not race pace, but i had hoped to still keep it under 40mins... but started a little too slowly and once the fatigue starts to accumulate, i realised there was little chance of me pulling it back under 40, so just ran it nice and consistent.

i clearly need to do more of this type of session. Love the shorter rep sessions, and get a reasonable amount of long runs in, but this middle range of tempo/threshold type distance/pace i seem to neglect.

[TurboTom]

I'm a big fan of this kind of training - taking it from the Tinman philosophy of the Tinman Tempo which is generally between 20-35 minutes at roughly in and around marathon pace (maybe for me -15s per mile) and then chased up with something like 4*30s hills at the end to get the leg speed going.

I try to do two sessions a week - one intervals and one Tinman Tempo.

The advantage of this for me is that it is some faster running twice a week but it doesn't have the same effort level as doing something at Daniels Tempo pace (which is about 30s per mile faster than my marathon pace).

I used to find doing one session, one long run a week a little insufficient but couldn't step upto two. By taking a little bit of intensity off both sessions (I consider them to be say 0.8-0.9 of a typical Daniels session) I get in my mind 1.6-1.8 sessions in a week rather than 1...and it keeps the ball rolling

[TurboTom]

Did a session of the ilk mentioned above today.

3 mile warm up, 4 miles Tinman Tempo (5.51,5.51,5.41,5.45), 4*30s hills and then a 2.5m jog home.

Felt pretty good in atrocious weather after being ill for much of last weekend so just on the way back into training normally

[Travs]

That's a fair pace there Tom... 5:40 is round about 3km-5km race pace for me!

I use my 2 mile/3km time as a baseline pace, and calculate my other target paces from there.... long run at 60-70%, threshold/tempo 88%, 400mtr rep pace 110-120%....

[TurboTom]

5.40 is just a touch off half marathon pace (5.38) for me so you can see that these are roughly 10-15 seconds slower than MP (the 5.41 was a bit of an outlier).

Generally I run everything off feel but would usually run my interval sessions at between 10mile and 10k effort so the only really fast running is on strides and 30s reps. Everything else is about getting the greatest benefit from the least work - hence why I like the longer slower tempos

[Travs]

Final scores for the week, 51 miles, 7700ft, containing a decent rep session and yesterday's 10km effort.

Next week got a club session midweek, and showing a friend and occasional forumite round the Black Mountains race route next weekend. So probably end up with similar numbers as this week.