I've just finished the long run of the week which has taken me up to a total of 39.8 miles, and unsurprisingly I'm tired. This week's been tougher than last, which was inevitable, but basically manageable. I started it more tired than last week, I've run farther and done more hard miles. It's also been absolutely bloody freezing for most of the week which has meant I've been over on mileage largely because my harder runs have been preceded by the longer warm ups which I've needed to get moving without risking injury. In retrospect I should probably have knocked a few miles off one of my easier runs to compensate, because the jump in mileage from last week has been a bit much. I think I've got away with it, but it was more than was sensible. Tonight's long run could have been horrid, but fortunately I had company which made it go by pretty quickly. I was very grateful for the company this evening, I'd have struggled on my own.
Overall I'm pretty pleased with the week's training. I've completed all the runs I wanted to, although I did change my interval session with the realisation that on my third day of consecutive training I was too tired and tight to do 1k reps well enough for it to be worthwhile. I substituted a similar length session which was somewhat easier, and actually made a really good go of it and probably got more benefit than I would have done if I'd stuck to my original plan. At the time I felt like I may just be being a bit of a wimp, but in retrospect I think it was the right call.
The real plus for this week was managing to get under 20 minutes again for a 5k. I haven't done a 5k for months and wasn't sure how tired I'd be by the time parkrun came round given the week's mileage, but also felt like I've been running well enough that I could probably do it despite a little fatigue. Saturday morning dawned sub zero and covered in ice. The paths to the park were lethal but the park itself was better underfoot than I expected so other than slowing a little on the turns to avoid my feet going out sideways, and dodging a couple of frozen puddles and a sheet ice kebab vomit slick (classy) it was OK. 2km in as my lungs struggled to cope with the frozen air I remembered how much a big push on a 5km hurts. I do this to myself for fun? Yes, apparently so. Luckily there were ladies around my pace to race against and I wanted the sub 20 finish and wasn't going to give up on first lady if I was able to get it. I finished in 19:47, not my quickest 5k ever but a good solid run and a few seconds in front of the next lady.
It shouldn't really be my target at the moment, it's probably not what I should be burning so much energy on, but being able to run a sub-20 minute 5k has become something of a personal benchmark for me to feel good about how I'm running and I wanted to get one in before the end of the year. I had four goes planned but it did feel good to manage it on the first go. I'd like to try and get quicker before the end of the year, with an acceptance that I'll then need to let that go a little as I get farther into marathon training.
This run then led me on to a couple of points which interest me about statistics. I train with a heart rate monitor and I love the data it gives me. In particular I like to track my ground contact time balance and of course my heart rate.
I find the GCT balance a good indicator to me of running form. I can be lop sided and that has led to a lot of injury issues. Saturday's 5k was 49.9% left to 50.1% right. A few months ago it would have been nearer 53% left to 47% right. I've put a lot of effort into evening that out and building strength in my weaker leg so that I don't end up over-striding on one side to compensate, and I feel like I'm reaping the rewards in terms of being able to up my mileage without my lower legs giving out on me, but this seems to be a good way of tracking it without over-analysing while I'm running.
Monitoring my heart rate led me on to a question that I don't really know the answer to; am I trying hard enough on my toughest runs? If I look at my heart rate towards the end of races and hard training sessions it basically maxes out at 168. I don't have any firm numbers, but this seems low compared to most people my age who are running around my pace. I don't feel like I'm holding anything back, but surely when racing I should be getting my heart rate higher than that. My resting heart rate is also very low, under 50, but from what I've been able to research online this should be unconnected to my maximum heart rate. I should probably do more research on this before I determinedly give myself a heart attack trying to see if I can actually get it any higher, however!
Anyway, next week, more of the same. Probably not more mileage, the weather has warmed, I'll take my warm ups back to their "normal" length, and that should balance out the slight increase in mileage on the actual effort part of my harder runs. This is the last "hard" week before my first cut back week which conveniently falls over Christmas. I should manage to train with others on most of my runs this week which is definitely becoming more and more central to my planning, and I just need to get through to a Christmas Eve long run before I can collapse in a heap of mince pies, mulled wine, presents and over-excited children and have a couple of days off!
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