Yes I packed a lot in... managed 85 miles and 19350ft. My biggest ever week. Funnily enough I don't feel too bad for it either. Perhaps because I only did one 'hard' road session. Although none of the long days out would be considered easy by any means!
Hopefully a good bank of miles to help with the upcoming ultras... 3 between now and early-April. Then a long challenge type excursion in may.
Well after last weeks escapades, it was back to the bread-and-butter tonight and the main club session of the week.
Tonight's ordeal was 8 x 1km on the road, with 60secs rest.
Felt strong but not particularly speedy (no surprise after last weeks heavy mileage and climb), and never really got below 6min/mile pace for any of the reps. But I more than held my own with the marathon trainers who I believe (based on my limited understanding) are not necessarily flogging themselves to death on the rep sessions, but are consistently knocking out decent reps off limited rest. In fact I finished the session a full minute in front of these guys, who I would expect to be a little bit in front of me if they were really banging the reps out.
Next few weeks are looking particularly difficult to train effectively for... in the next 6 weeks I've got 3 ultras, but in between have two AS Fell races, and the road relays. This week there will be no more particularly hard sessions as I need some freshness in the legs before the Cardingmill Canter on Saturday.
Today's total 9.5 miles.
Club night tonight and a 9 mile jaunt around the streets of south Cov.
One of the roads featuring in one of our routes has been awarded "most polluted road in the West Midlands..." what an honour!
Raised the fashion stakes today, with a ragged old berghaus top, bright yellow/green shorts, garish orange chunky Hokas, and obligatory baseball cap (worn backwards of course). The only thing missing was my old Dark Peak vest, which would surely have elevated me to catwalk status.... the lovely young lady behind the desk at the track certainly looked twice... although I think the Hokas might have clashed with her pink hair...
As to the run... it was supposed to be a steady one, with an AS race Saturday. Managed about 2.5 miles steady before getting bored and flying off the front, getting back to base a full 7mins before the next guys... I'll never learn...
8.5 miles and 3800ft this morning. Brings the weekly total to 38 miles and 10800ft, which is satisfactory after a hard previous week, and training around yesterday's short race.
Next week likely to only contain one hard session, the rest of the week will be easy with the aim of getting to the start line of next Saturdays Haworth Hobble in a fresh state.
I enjoy reading your Todays Training posts Travs. It amuses me no end your forecast's for the following week as being mainly easy, but it almost always isn't. You can't stop yourself! Good on yer, and keep it up as your race results show you must be doing it right.
You might even make it into my FF 2020 team the way you are going!
Last edited by Llani Boy; 04-03-2019 at 12:30 AM.
Visibility good except in Hill Fog
Thanks Llani…!
Although i suspect it will be a cold day in hell before i grace anybody's FF team... If i even manage to get within vague touching-distance of the top 100 at the champs race in a couple of weeks i'll be absolutely ecstatic.
But i'll do my utmost to get the best out of myself and see where i end up.
Perhaps this is why i look to long-distance stuff as where i can do something. Another of my failings (along with my inaccurate weekly training predictions) is claiming each year will be the one where i finally do something worthwhile at real long stuff. usually goes belly-up, but this year there are some concrete plans already in place. Just need to get through the next few weeks of ultras in good shape and it will be all go on that front...
2 x undulating 2 mile reps tonight, with 90secs rest between.
The idea being you run the 2nd rep equal pace or slightly faster.
After going out on the first rep off the front of the group, I thought I may well have overlooked it. 2nd rep felt harder, and when the coach and another guy came belting past me in the final mile, I did think I must have slowed down dramatically. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I'd ran the 2nd rep 5 seconds faster (the two who passed me had obviously severely undercooked their first rep, and sped up massively on the 2nd).
Hard session, but simple. 9.5 miles total tonight, of which 4 were hard effort.
I'd also add that one of my training partners, who I've trained with for over a year, asked me how old i was last night, as he thought i was in my 20's....! (i'm 36!)
Last edited by Travs; 06-03-2019 at 09:21 AM.
That still makes you a baby in fell running terms. I worked out the statistics from the Carding Mill Canter results last weekend: among the men, there were only 20 under-40's; but 25 in the 40-49 age-group, 27 of the 50-59's, and 15 of us 60-69's.Originally Posted by Travs
In his lifetime he suffered from unreality, as do so many Englishmen.
Jorge Luis Borges
Seems to be some good younger runners, particularly for Mercia... Both the first two were early 20's, there was another guy in the top half-dozen or so who was 19. And there's another even younger lad who was doing one of the new year races and he looks like an absolute top talent for the future.
Club night tonight. Given my knee issues at the weekend, I'd intended to just turn up and do a few laps and see how I felt. In the event, everything felt fine and I was able to knock out the session at something approaching full pace (bearing in mind saturday's 25 miles still somewhat in my legs).
Track session. 1km, 4 x 400m, 2km, 8 x 200m.... all off 90secs rest. Having never done this session before, it looked hard enough on paper, and the frequent changes in distance were a challenge...
Interestingly, I was pulled up by one of the other club coaches tonight about being flat-footed on my right leg. This was at the end of the 2km rep so I assume it was fatigue kicking in, as I was certainly running a lot more on the front foot on the shorter reps.
I had noticed that my brief history of (minor) injuries had always involved problems on my right leg.... always assumed this was due to my left leg historically being much stronger (played football for 20 years and was completely left-footed.... and in Muay Thai I was southpaw and very dominant with my left leg)....
However it could well be that it is a technique issue... although that could still be related to strength differences in the right leg. I have been working hard in the gym to bring my right hamstring in particular up to standard, on top of the usual extensive squat regime I put myself through...
Total of 8 miles tonight, of which just under 4 were hard effort...
Last edited by Travs; 12-03-2019 at 10:55 PM.
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