Today's Training

[Travs]

It was such a beautiful morning in Llanberis that i nearly abandoned my plans and considered doing the Moel Elio ridge instead... however after yesterday's efforts i stayed sensible, drove down to Betwys Y Coed for a little road run.

Took the quiet road, alternative to the A470, down the Conwy Valley towards Llanwrst.... queit valley roads sometimes have a few surprises.... often more undulating than expected, and some blind corners and summits, with no path.... but a short out-and-back gave me 5.5 miles and about 350ft.

That wrapped the week up with 79 miles. Considering i've been taking it easy since tuesday, its a decent total... the long run last monday bank hol, session tuesday, my recce on friday, and yesterday's race, coupled with the 5 mile run down off Snowdon, combined to give a decent total.

A fantastic week, yesterday clearly the highlight of anything i've done running... but generally things going well, i was especially happy with tuesday's km session.

Next week the emphasis is on recovering from yesterday.... will hopefully get to thursday's club session on the grass, but won't even attempt to make it on tuesday. Then next weekend hopefully some kind of hill session.

Next race is the Snowdon Uphill in 4 weeks.... this will be more a pointer towards where i am than yesterday was.... being a 50 minute hard runnable climb, rather than yesterdays rough and technical slog.

[Llani Boy]

Last weeks RATRun was from The Church Inn at Chelmorton. Prior to our arrival there had been a cloud burst and the roads were likes streams. It had stopped raining but some very dark clouds were approaching from Buxton so waterproof jackets were donned. By the time the 10 of us had got up the small hill at the back of the pub we were roasting so the waterproofs were off. Fortunately no more rain fell as we crossed the fields to Flagg where we turned right at the school and more saturated fields up to Pomeroy. The Blinder Lane bridleway and a little tarmac back to The Church.

Only 6 miles and 750 feet in a very steady 56 minutes. Back at The Church we were sat in the beer garden as the pub was snided with folk attending an 80th birthday party. Cheesy and non cheesy chips were washed down with an excellent Deception 4.1% from Abbeydale Brewery.

The reason for the bigger turnout was that it was Matt Nichols last run as he was moving to Penrith at the weekend. Sad to see him go as he was one of our founding members. We bought him an Inov8 voucher so he can have no excuses not to get up those bigger hills. He is one of those annoying runners who just seems to float effortlessly over the ground. He has won a few local races but could have won a lot more if he put his mind to it! He completed his Bob Graham last year and had a decent run in this years Fellsman. He tells us he is going to join Eden Runners and he'll be a good asset to them. One word of warning though, he has a penchant to run naked!

[Travs]

The reason for the bigger turnout was that it was Matt Nichols last run as he was moving to Penrith at the weekend. Sad to see him go as he was one of our founding members. We bought him an Inov8 voucher so he can have no excuses not to get up those bigger hills. He is one of those annoying runners who just seems to float effortlessly over the ground. He has won a few local races but could have won a lot more if he put his mind to it! He completed his Bob Graham last year and had a decent run in this years Fellsman. He tells us he is going to join Eden Runners and he'll be a good asset to them. One word of warning though, he has a penchant to run naked!

I was a 2nd claim member at Eden whilst i was up there.

They are slowly putting together a decent fell team which is capable of being competitive at the top end of races. The fell training is very decent.... the midweek runs out go all over the Eastern/Northern lake district fells, and also across into the north pennines.... they'll cover similar distances to your current runs, ie up to 10 miles, but obviously the ascent figures are a bit higher due to the nature of the terrain.

If he goes out with the "quicker" group he'll certainly get a good workout. Its a great bunch at Eden and they'll make him feel very welcome.

On the flat, whilst they are competitive at a local level (only Keswick and Border Harriers are stronger), i thought the flat training left a bit to be desired compared to what i'm used to, there just wasn't the intensity... if he intends to compete on the flat then i'd consider Border Harriers 2nd claim... although i believe they do an "open" midweek track session (which is regularly attended by the great and the good from the Cumbrian fell scene)

[Travs]

After a few days of easy running to recover from the weekend, it was back to the grind this evening, with a grass speed session.

9 x 1 minute reps.... recoveries starting at 2mins and decreasing 15 seconds each time.

This is a deceptively hard session, the final few reps, off 45/30/15 seconds rest, are a real struggle if you keep the session honest and run consistent and hard.

Despite not feeling completely 100% fresh i was fairly pleased with how it went. I can't really use the excuse of not feeling 100% fresh.... its just not something that will occur too often if i'm generally doing 3 sessions a week.... and last time i said i didn't feel fresh i knocked out my best ever km session by a long way.

8 miles, on top of 4 miles AM.

Continuous hill session at the weekend, hoping i can recover from tonight fairly easily and get the session out of the way on saturday.

[Travs]

Due to work commitments i was unable to make the club session tonight on the track, so had to make do with a treadmill session.

The track session was 5 x 500mtrs off 3 minute rests.... so i did similar with 5 x 2 mins, 3mins rest. (i'd be looking for 500mtrs in 90secs, but it was close enough)

7 miles for the session, plus 7.5 miles this morning.

Likely to be another continuous hill session this weekend, not sure whether saturday or sunday yet though.

My long term intention is that when i've done the world masters, i'll return to two club sessions a week, in order to prepare for the XC season, and hopefully Battersea 5 mile in late December.... although i plan to continue the continuous hill session once a week as it seems to be giving me benefits on both the flat and the hills.

Once i have a plan for 2025 then i'll work out what i'm going to do with hill work next year... but if my early plans are anything to go by, might be similar to this year, adding in a 2nd hill session at some point in the new year, depending on my main goal for the year.

[Travs]

Usual weekend treadmill hill session today.

10mins flat hard
40mins 15% gradient max sustainable pace
10mins flat hard.

Got through the session probably as well as i ever have. Still needed a full change of clothes afterwards to continue the rest of my gym session.

10 miles for the session, and 3 easy this evening.

Total for the week 70.5 miles, which is pretty pleasing as i missed a couple of days this week due to work. But i'm feeling really confident at the moment.

Next week will be club tuesday, hill reps thursday and saturday. No continuous hill session this week as i'd like to be absolutely fresh for the Snowdon Uphill a week on friday and a big effort at a pb.

The most interesting thing this week has been looking at the registrations for the World Masters Uphill..... Great Britain now a have full scoring team of three.... obviously i'm one of them and going in to it completely oblivious to what the standard might be.... but the other two are elite level... so there's possibilities of GB competing for a medal... which is definitely spurring me on to do everything i can to be as fit as possible in September (obviously if another decent Brit enters then i'd be a non-counter, but it would still be good to see.

[Travs]

Club session, and a warm and sunny one on the grass.

5 x "mini pyramids"

Each pyramid being 30secs hard, 15secs jog, 1min hard, 15secs jog, 30secs hard.

2mins rest

Despite only being 10 minutes total hard work, they were a lot harder than they sound, and some people found them tricky to pace. Important not to go mental on the first 30secs or you're getting into deep water too early.

For my part i was really pleased with the session, pacing them evenly throughout. I was certainly suffering on the 4th and 5th reps though. At the end i spent some time bent double, but when i looked up there were others either sat down or bent double all over the field.

9.5 miles for the session and 4 easy miles AM.

Thursday will be something like 6 x 3 minute treadmill hill reps at a fairly moderate gradient.
Saturday possibly 5 x 5mins at max gradient.

This will then give me a decent rest before next tuesday's session, and then a further good rest prior to the race on the friday.

[Mike T]

Is there something special about heavy resistance training

https://bmjopensem.bmj.com/content/10/2/e001899

or did the gym group just come to like that sort of training in a commercial gym and therefore kept it up to an extent vs those who did moderate exercise at home.

[Travs]

There certainly seems to be proven benefits to heavy weight work. I'd love to be able to do it.

Unfortunately as a recreational/club runner there's only so much you can do.

Not got the capacity/time to invest in heavy weight work on top of 10-14 runs a week. Even working heavy weights on the upper body is too mentally tiring on top of running/work/life.

I make do with "moderate" weight training for both lower and upper body (although a regular weight trainer would likely term it as "easy" weight training). Although a quick poll of my running club would suggest i do way more than even most good club runners.

If i was to train properly heavy, i.e a recognised strength programme such as 5x5, i think i'd need to take 2 days off running a week.

[Travs]

Whilst most of the country seemed pre-occupied with the England match, our group were out for a track session, and i was going solo on a treadmill hill session in an unusually quiet gym.

6 x 3mins, off 2mins rests. Only 6% gradient, as i was working on decent speed rather than pure uphill strength.

9 miles for the full session, plus 4 easy miles AM.

Saturday the plan is more strength based and 5 x 5mins @ 15% gradient.