Last week was a down week. A lighter recovery week with no intensity. A recovery after Northallerton 10k
This block is going to be a wee bit of a hybrid block. The next marathon is 17 weeks so my intention is to work through a 10k-1/2 marathon phase and then crack on to the marathon training with that additional speed in my legs. What does that mean? Training is all about volume (the amount of work you do) and intensity (how hard that work is) and you don’t want to be upping both at the same time. Being able to start the marathon block more comfortable running faster will be advantageous. It will make marathon pace feel easier. That’s the plan anyway!
Yes, I will be keep 1/2 an eye on the marathon and won’t do anything within this block that compromises that because that remains my A goal but after a long period of time where my sole focus has been ultras and marathons I know what to do to get in a good place from an endurance perspective. I just need to get a wee bit faster. So, that’s my thinking. I will be adding my training in weekly. This is purely for you to follow along and for you to have an insight into what I am doing. I hope you find it interesting.
Monday
Monday is my speed session day. I don’t run a “typical week” with a Sunday longrun so my week isn’t the “usual.” My longrun is almost always a Wednesday when the kids are at school & I’m off work and my speed sessions lie on Mondays and usually Fridays.
This week’s session was a warm up and then 6 x 3 minutes at 5k pace off 90 seconds recovery and then a cool down.
Tuesday
I dropped the kids off at school and headed straight out for 5 miles on the trails as a recovery run. Letting the legs turn over and recover after yesterdays intervals. I also realised today that I needed to amend my nutritional strategy a wee bit as I was getting hungry consistently on an evening. I have increased my breakfast and overall intake to accommodate that (it seems to have worked a treat ~ remember that nothings stagnant and we need to adapt and tweak things when the need arises)
Wednesday
Long run day 😍 I do love a long run. Today was a long run workout. I often include a workout now in my long run to keep me engaged & interested. Sometimes I look at my plans and wonder just how optimistic I am when I’m objectively in coach mode and I write the plans (I am going to write a full article about that).
What did I do? 2 mile warm up, 3 miles at marathon pace, 7 x 4 mins at 10mile-1/2 pace off 2 mins then another 3 Miles at marathon pace and then a Cool Down. Just over 15 miles of volume which is the longest long run I have done since Manchester Marathon.
I felt really strong during the session and recovered really well, I think that the increase in nutrition was already on my side!
Thursday
Rest day!!
Gotta love a rest day. I used to despise rest day. I used to worry that rest day knocked my pattern and routine and it would leave me feeling a wee bit angsty.
Now? Bloody love it!
Friday
6 miles of post school run trails.
Just giving the legs a turn over and bringing them back to life after rest day.
Saturday
No parkrun for me today (**sobs**) I’m crewing at Ultra Scotland so my run has to fit around when I need to be at crewing points and in Scotland their parkruns start at 9:30am rather than England’s 9:00am (I could have managed a 9am one 😢).
Instead I ran from the hotel into Dumfries and back, making it a 4.75 miles
Sunday
A wee bit tired after a 4am start yesterday and flying around the Southern Upland Way in my crewing role (~you can read about that here~) . A nice easy trot out of just over 6.5 miles to round off the week
Synopsis
A solid week – 44.5 miles
2 good sessions – one shorter intervals, one within the long run.
Happy trail miles.
Good day crewing!
On to the next week!
