A quick update on training progress as measured by the key quality sessions.
Thursday 17 March: Thirteen miles with nine marathon paced miles at an average mile split of 06:35 and average heart rate of 162bpm for the marathon paced miles.
Friday 25 March: Thirteeen and a half miles with ten marathon paced miles with average splits of 06:34 and an average HR of 162bpm for those miles.
Travel for work to Cyprus this week required me to can the scheduled tempo Tuesday run. However, a nice seven miles along Cyprus's southern Mediterranean coast in the sunshine was a nice alternative!
In other news, I eventually bit the bullet and registered for the Belfast marathon.
This morning's eighteen mile long slow run, incorporating a number of miles along the Royal Canal way was a nice change from the usual route. However, the local savages' impression that setting a cat on fire and leaving the poor creature's petrol stenched remains on the canal side is an appropriate Saturday night activity took a little from the experience; something that living in D7, D15 renders an unsurprising occurrence.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Tempo sessions commence
Last week brought the first of the Tuesday morning tempo runs. The Hanson schedule places the speedwork intervals in the initial weeks of the training plan. I am unsure of the approach's rationale as most plans place the speedwork in the latter half of a plan.
This workout consisted of two a mile warm up, three miles at tempo pace, one mile warm up, followed by another three miles at tempo pace and a two mile cool down. My aim was to achieve an average heart rate greater than 165 for the tempo portions. I ran the six miles at an average heart rate of 166 producing average mile splits of 06:15.
This pace would have its price. I delayed my marathon paced session until Friday and it was a tough session. I ran twelve miles with nine at marathon pace, producing an average marathon mile pace of 06:39 and average heart rate of 164. I felt tired during this run and the perceived effort was higher than recent weeks. I am assuming this is to be expected, especially considering I am now at the training cycle peak. All things considered I remain happy with my training and hope things continue and I can avoid injury.
This workout consisted of two a mile warm up, three miles at tempo pace, one mile warm up, followed by another three miles at tempo pace and a two mile cool down. My aim was to achieve an average heart rate greater than 165 for the tempo portions. I ran the six miles at an average heart rate of 166 producing average mile splits of 06:15.
This pace would have its price. I delayed my marathon paced session until Friday and it was a tough session. I ran twelve miles with nine at marathon pace, producing an average marathon mile pace of 06:39 and average heart rate of 164. I felt tired during this run and the perceived effort was higher than recent weeks. I am assuming this is to be expected, especially considering I am now at the training cycle peak. All things considered I remain happy with my training and hope things continue and I can avoid injury.
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Marathon paced runs and heart rate
The key training runs in the last three weeks have been the marathon paced session on Thursdays. These are the primary benchmark I use and the data emerging is encouraging.
17 February: 11.75 miles, with eight marathon pace miles averaging 06:40 and an average HR (heart rate) of 163 for the PMP (projected marathon pace)miles.
24 February: 11.8 miles, with eight marathon pace miles averaging 06:37 and an average HR of 161 for the PMP miles.
Friday 4 March, 12.56 miles, with nine marathon pace miles averaging 06:36 and an average HR (heart rate)of 162 for the PMP miles.
The plan for the next two weeks is to build the marathon pace runs to include ten miles at PMP, switch the Tuesday sessions from internal to tempo pace and complete a twenty mile long slow run in each of the next two weekends.
In each of these PMP sessions I effectively train by heart rate and anticipate that the average HR I can sustain for 26.2 is between 163 and 166. This is evidenced by my last three marathons, each of which recorded an average HR of 166. The HR is the objective feedback I now monitor in these sessions and which dictate the pace. I also ensure that any recovery runs' average HR does not exceed 140 and aim for closer to 130.
I also feel this approach can identify overtraining or sickness if you are recording slower times for an equal or higher HR than recent workout suggest should be the case. This method should* prevent any silly notions entering a runner's mind about pushing when it would be counterproductive.
* This is subject to the runner not allowing their constant need for self-validation from undermining their objectives - aka self-sabotage'.
17 February: 11.75 miles, with eight marathon pace miles averaging 06:40 and an average HR (heart rate) of 163 for the PMP (projected marathon pace)miles.
24 February: 11.8 miles, with eight marathon pace miles averaging 06:37 and an average HR of 161 for the PMP miles.
Friday 4 March, 12.56 miles, with nine marathon pace miles averaging 06:36 and an average HR (heart rate)of 162 for the PMP miles.
The plan for the next two weeks is to build the marathon pace runs to include ten miles at PMP, switch the Tuesday sessions from internal to tempo pace and complete a twenty mile long slow run in each of the next two weekends.
In each of these PMP sessions I effectively train by heart rate and anticipate that the average HR I can sustain for 26.2 is between 163 and 166. This is evidenced by my last three marathons, each of which recorded an average HR of 166. The HR is the objective feedback I now monitor in these sessions and which dictate the pace. I also ensure that any recovery runs' average HR does not exceed 140 and aim for closer to 130.
I also feel this approach can identify overtraining or sickness if you are recording slower times for an equal or higher HR than recent workout suggest should be the case. This method should* prevent any silly notions entering a runner's mind about pushing when it would be counterproductive.
* This is subject to the runner not allowing their constant need for self-validation from undermining their objectives - aka self-sabotage'.
Monday, 21 February 2011
Cupid's 10k-ish dash 13 February 2011
The week commencing 6 February ended with a 10k road race, which I thought would be a good test of fitness. I did this race back in 2009 and was the first time I broke forty minutes for 10km.
I got to the start line area and began to fear for the competency of the race organisation when they told me they had ran out of timing chips. This immediately made me wonder if they had ordered a finite number of chips and when they 'sold out' decided, 'hey let's take people's money regardless of our ability to deliver the service sold, it's no big deal, "sure it's grand"'; that time honoured Irish phrase oftentimes deployed to trivialise and dismiss legitimate concerns. Furthermore distributing the goody bags at the start/registration made me wonder where they thought people were to store these during the race, which ended one mile away from the start line. Consequently, I decided that was a problem I did not need to handle and decided to forego the good bag, which in the main are simply receptacles for advertising.
Surprisingly the race began on time. However, there was no timing mat at the start, so even those with chips were only ever going to get a gun time rather than a nett time. Quite why they bothered with chips at all was now something of a mystery.
Anyway, I should provide some commentary on running and end the rant.
This year we started with a bit of a drag up Acres road and left onto Chesterfield road. I quickly settled into twelfth place, well off the back of the lead back of about eight. Before the second mile elapsed I moved up to tenth place. However, I think I simply gave the two I passed a bit of a 'gee' up as they slowed for me to pass them and they soon passed me again. I completed the first three miles in 06:16, 06:17 and 06:16 respectively; 'there will be no PB today!'
By now I was in thirteenth place again, and as things transpired it would be where I would finish, largely running on my own with a couple of runners 100 yards behind me and the two I earlier interchanged places with about 200 yards ahead.
From here on the course became especially tough, running up and down hills, but the worst was yet to come; the long hard slog up the Kyber pass. This was very tough and you ran up this hill for two-thirds of a mile before doubling back to the finish. This approach made for interesting 'logistics' when larger numbers were coming up and down the hill simultaneously; this combined with the necessity to weave in and out between pedestrians with baby buggies and dogs (some on leashes, some not) made the finishing stretch more like part obstacle course, part game of 'British bulldog'! I was not sure who I was more frustrated with; people's obvious lack of courtesy and respect for the fact that a sporting event was taking place, or the organisers' completely insouciant attitude to it all.
On reaching the finish line I immediately knew, without ever looking at a GPS, that the course was short by at least 100-200 metres when I saw that I came within three seconds of a PB at 38:45. I finished the second three of six mile in 06:19, 06:26 and 06:31. The short nature of the course provided a re-adjusted time of 39:15. Considering the course's difficulty I was reasonably happy with my performance, however, the same could not be said for the organisers'. All in all, a good excuse for a tough workout but I'll not be back.
I got to the start line area and began to fear for the competency of the race organisation when they told me they had ran out of timing chips. This immediately made me wonder if they had ordered a finite number of chips and when they 'sold out' decided, 'hey let's take people's money regardless of our ability to deliver the service sold, it's no big deal, "sure it's grand"'; that time honoured Irish phrase oftentimes deployed to trivialise and dismiss legitimate concerns. Furthermore distributing the goody bags at the start/registration made me wonder where they thought people were to store these during the race, which ended one mile away from the start line. Consequently, I decided that was a problem I did not need to handle and decided to forego the good bag, which in the main are simply receptacles for advertising.
Surprisingly the race began on time. However, there was no timing mat at the start, so even those with chips were only ever going to get a gun time rather than a nett time. Quite why they bothered with chips at all was now something of a mystery.
Anyway, I should provide some commentary on running and end the rant.
This year we started with a bit of a drag up Acres road and left onto Chesterfield road. I quickly settled into twelfth place, well off the back of the lead back of about eight. Before the second mile elapsed I moved up to tenth place. However, I think I simply gave the two I passed a bit of a 'gee' up as they slowed for me to pass them and they soon passed me again. I completed the first three miles in 06:16, 06:17 and 06:16 respectively; 'there will be no PB today!'
By now I was in thirteenth place again, and as things transpired it would be where I would finish, largely running on my own with a couple of runners 100 yards behind me and the two I earlier interchanged places with about 200 yards ahead.
From here on the course became especially tough, running up and down hills, but the worst was yet to come; the long hard slog up the Kyber pass. This was very tough and you ran up this hill for two-thirds of a mile before doubling back to the finish. This approach made for interesting 'logistics' when larger numbers were coming up and down the hill simultaneously; this combined with the necessity to weave in and out between pedestrians with baby buggies and dogs (some on leashes, some not) made the finishing stretch more like part obstacle course, part game of 'British bulldog'! I was not sure who I was more frustrated with; people's obvious lack of courtesy and respect for the fact that a sporting event was taking place, or the organisers' completely insouciant attitude to it all.
On reaching the finish line I immediately knew, without ever looking at a GPS, that the course was short by at least 100-200 metres when I saw that I came within three seconds of a PB at 38:45. I finished the second three of six mile in 06:19, 06:26 and 06:31. The short nature of the course provided a re-adjusted time of 39:15. Considering the course's difficulty I was reasonably happy with my performance, however, the same could not be said for the organisers'. All in all, a good excuse for a tough workout but I'll not be back.
Friday, 18 February 2011
Week six: complacency and the basics
Not a great week this week - week commencing 6 February. The Tuesday interval session was very hard work and I did not hit what I consider 10k pace-06:05-06:10 min/mile pace. I put this down to a 'bad day the office' - they happen. I was confident the rest day on Wednesday would see me right for the marathon pace session on Thursday morning. I was wrong.
Thursday morning arrived and the high heart rate, into the 150s, on the warm up was the first bad sign. The first marathon pace mile elapsed in 06:55 with a HR of 163 and felt higher; ideally for this pace I would expect the HR not to exceed about 155. I struggled through the next two miles at less than marathon pace in the high 06:50s with an elevating HR. I decided I 'cannot do this for another four to five miles' and cut the run short and hauled my chastened ass home.
On reflection I concluded that the likely cause of my poor workouts was complacency in my approach to hydration. So, the next day I went out, as so many runners do after a confidence knocking workout, irrationally chasing self-validation. However, having properly hydrated with a 'High 5' electrolyte mix before setting off I felt alot better. I completed seven miles with four at marathon pace. This produced average mile splits in the mid 06:30s and an average HR of 161. Crisis of confidence averted but a salutatory lesson in not being complacent about the basics!
Thursday morning arrived and the high heart rate, into the 150s, on the warm up was the first bad sign. The first marathon pace mile elapsed in 06:55 with a HR of 163 and felt higher; ideally for this pace I would expect the HR not to exceed about 155. I struggled through the next two miles at less than marathon pace in the high 06:50s with an elevating HR. I decided I 'cannot do this for another four to five miles' and cut the run short and hauled my chastened ass home.
On reflection I concluded that the likely cause of my poor workouts was complacency in my approach to hydration. So, the next day I went out, as so many runners do after a confidence knocking workout, irrationally chasing self-validation. However, having properly hydrated with a 'High 5' electrolyte mix before setting off I felt alot better. I completed seven miles with four at marathon pace. This produced average mile splits in the mid 06:30s and an average HR of 161. Crisis of confidence averted but a salutatory lesson in not being complacent about the basics!
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Fifth week of Hanson
Fifty-five miles the week beginning 31 January with a nice consistency on previous weeks' efforts. Tuesday's intervals session produced five 1000m repeats at between 06:03 and 06:12 min/mile pace. If can maintain this sort of pace for a full 10k it will produce a new person best.
The wind significantly affected Thursday's marathon pace session. It was blowing a gale but I managed average mile splits of 06:53 and working in accordance with heart rate worked well.
All this training should have a focus but my situation makes it difficult to commit to any particular event. Recently, however, I took a peek at the Belfast marathon site and was attracted to both the comparatively cheap price and the ability to register quite late. I had also considered the inaugural Kildare marathon but despite its proximity to where I live it would actually be significantly cheaper to travel to Belfast. Additionally, Belfast is a well established race and is apparently well organised. So, I still have not registered for a spring marathon but if I do any Belfast will likely be it.
The wind significantly affected Thursday's marathon pace session. It was blowing a gale but I managed average mile splits of 06:53 and working in accordance with heart rate worked well.
All this training should have a focus but my situation makes it difficult to commit to any particular event. Recently, however, I took a peek at the Belfast marathon site and was attracted to both the comparatively cheap price and the ability to register quite late. I had also considered the inaugural Kildare marathon but despite its proximity to where I live it would actually be significantly cheaper to travel to Belfast. Additionally, Belfast is a well established race and is apparently well organised. So, I still have not registered for a spring marathon but if I do any Belfast will likely be it.
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Fourth week of Hanson
Fifty-six miles this week, so building up slowly and nicely. Nothing especially different to report. The 1000m repeat/intervals were a little slower this week, but that's probably a good thing and probably more accurately reflect my 10k pace. The Thursday projected marathon pace run went exceptionally well; eleven miles with eight at marathon pace. The marathon pace miles averaged 06:37 minute/mile and an average heart rate of 163 - these are especially heartening and encouraging statistics. The remainder of the week included a recovery run on Friday, eight miles pretty easy on Friday and fourteen miles on Sunday morning.
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