Training update

A brief update on training. Last week was a cutback week, which a weekend away and a cold and cough made more pronounced. The highlight of the week was a nineteen mile long slow run on Friday morning. The weather has been excellent in March.
The previous week included my longest marathon pace run; eighteen miles with fourteen miles at marathon pace, which translated as average splits of 06:43. I was tired at the end and wonder about maintaining this pace for an additional twelve miles but I am hoping a few more weeks of training and a taper will provide the required preparation.

Mileage w/c 8 March: 41
Mileage w/c 1 March: 70

LSRs

This week was a comparatively easy week. However, it did end with my longest training run to date, a twenty-two mile long slow run. Reviewing my earlier training I see that I have neglected my LSRs. I red recently that in a marathon training cycle your five longest runs should total 100 miles. This means I will need to slightly alter the schedule for the next few weeks to accommodate a few slightly longer LSRs. Below is a link to this week's LSR.

Mileage w/c 22 February: 58

Garmin Connect - Activity Details for Untitled

Small world

Thought I should provide an update on the training. The last two weeks have gone very well. However the week commencing 1 February was something of a washout. The first two sessions of that week went as scheduled but the end of the week and weekend was spent visiting friends in Barcelona.
More recently, I found myself running up Middle Abbey street on my way home from work and was incorporating my commute from work into my twelve mile run with seven miles at HM pace and I encountered another runner who struck up conversation. After swapping pleasantries and what each other was training for I reckoned there cannot be to many people who run twenty-four hour races on a track or do 100k mountain runs in Australia. He also looked vaguely familiar. When I got home a quick click of a link from this blog revealed that it was indeed John O'Regan I bumped into. John has completed some of the most extreme events in the world and has represented Ireland in international competition.
Back to the run, it was a tough session but all bar one of the seven miles at HM pace were in the 06:30s. It would be good to test myself in a half-marathon race before Boston but the half I had intended doing in Liverpool is proving potentially very expensive as a consequence pricey flights and accommodation.


W/C 15 February:71 (New weekly high)
W/C 8 February: 60
W/C 1 February: 18

Interval recovery duration

Last week brought another new weekly mileage high of sixty-six miles. It was important to register two solid weeks of training after two disrupted weeks. This week's training included a Yasso 800 x6 session. The first two repeats were uphill along Phoenix Park's Chesterfield road and felt brutal; I have not done this kind of session in a few months and it showed. The final four intervals felt better and I registered an average interval time of 02:56. I am not sure how much benefit I get from Yasso sessions and I perhaps need to revise the recovery time of 03:00 to reap more rewards.

Weekly mileage w/c 25 Jan: 66 (New weekly high)

A new departure?

The last couple of weeks since my return from Malaysia have gone well. I am back up to sixty plus miles a week. However, I need to do something about strengthening my quadriceps and hamstrings. This is crucial if I am to handle the hills of Boston. My quads will be especially susceptible to damage and fatigue on the downhill sections. My hamstrings are prone to cramping in the last 10km of marathon, which I am sure is a consequence of muscle inflexibility and weakness rather than electrolyte imbalances.
In addition to helping deal with the hills, cramps and potential for injury, I am hoping the strength training and stretching will make me faster by respectively increasing the muscles' force generation and stride length. I have made a decent start to doing this in the last week. Eleven weeks to Boston should be enough time to see not inconsiderable progress if I am consistent.

Mileage w/c 18 January:65 (New weekly high)
Mileage w/c 11 January:15
Mileage w/c 4 January:36

Disruption

The last two weeks' training have taken a battering from long distance travel and illness. I left for Malaysia on Friday 8 January arriving the following evening Kuala Lumpur time. The following morning I knocked out fourteen miles on the treadmill, bringing me a weekly total of thirty-six miles. The ice was partially to blame for not reaching the weekly schedule of fifty-five miles but does not excuse falling twenty miles short.
The week commencing 11 January started well with a ten mile run with five at tempo on Tuesday. This and the following day's run were on the hotel treadmill. I am sick of the treadmill. The last outdoor run was 3 January. Tuesday's workout felt really hard. I did not enjoy the food in Malaysia and found it difficult to find a meal with the requisite calories for my training. This, the significant number of miles walked around Kuala Lumpur that day, and the heat and humidity, made Tuesday's workout really draining and felt more like 5K or 10k effort than half-marathon.
Since my return to Ireland on Thursday morning I have had the inevitable jet-lag, but I also seem to have picked up a bug. Seems I might have contracted 'Delhi Belly'. Hopefully next week will see a return to the normal routine.

Ice ice baby!

Yesterday the treacherous road conditions forced me indoors to a city council gym to register my mileage. Surprisingly the treadmill was not as excruciatingly boring as I thought it would be.
Today I had twelve miles at aerobic pace scheduled and the even worse state of the roads dictated that I would be hitting the treadmill again. However, the worsening conditions meant that many workplaces closed early to allow people to crawl home before the roads became impassable. Unfortunately this meant the gym was also closed when I got there, not there was any sign or other form of communication stating that this was a consequence of the weather. Between the weather, or rather Dublin City and other councils' complete unpreparedness to deal with not especially extreme weather, and travelling overseas at the weekend for work, I will be lucky to register twenty-five to thirty miles this week!

Mileage w/c 28 December: 64. A new weekly high.