Week 5 has been and gone, and it's been a bit of a mixed bag. Overall there are a lot more positives than negatives. Predominantly, I ran over 40 miles and I'm still without injury concerns or even little niggles this week. I also got over a large mental barrier in the form of a solo long run.
I mentioned last week that I realised I needed to make some changes as not everything I was doing was working for me.
Firstly, I changed my shoes. I tend to run in very light weight shoes which don't seem to be sufficient for the mileage I'm now doing. I realised that I needed to give myself a little bit more cushioning to reduce the strain on my old lady legs and hips. Especially the hips. I managed to pick up two pairs of bargain shoes in the sales. It cannot be said they are beautiful shoes, in fact, they are quite the opposite, but I am rather pleased with them. The first are Saucony Kinvara 8s which look like silver, yes silver, canal barges on my not so dainty feet but actually feel - and indeed are - very light while still being somewhat more cushioned than the shoes I've been wearing recently. As long as I don't look at my feet they seem to do me well for boinging along on the quicker runs and I'm actually rather impressed with them. The second pair, in a lovely combination of pastel blue and neon yellow and making the first pair look quite tasteful, are another pair of Saucony shoes, Freedom ISOs. These are somewhat heavier than any shoes I've worn before and they feel massive, but also considerably more cushioned. I'm intending to use these for my longer and slower runs, the runs when I'm at my most tired and therefore heavier on my feet, the runs where I want to reduce the impact on my body.
I mentioned last week that I realised I needed to make some changes as not everything I was doing was working for me.
Firstly, I changed my shoes. I tend to run in very light weight shoes which don't seem to be sufficient for the mileage I'm now doing. I realised that I needed to give myself a little bit more cushioning to reduce the strain on my old lady legs and hips. Especially the hips. I managed to pick up two pairs of bargain shoes in the sales. It cannot be said they are beautiful shoes, in fact, they are quite the opposite, but I am rather pleased with them. The first are Saucony Kinvara 8s which look like silver, yes silver, canal barges on my not so dainty feet but actually feel - and indeed are - very light while still being somewhat more cushioned than the shoes I've been wearing recently. As long as I don't look at my feet they seem to do me well for boinging along on the quicker runs and I'm actually rather impressed with them. The second pair, in a lovely combination of pastel blue and neon yellow and making the first pair look quite tasteful, are another pair of Saucony shoes, Freedom ISOs. These are somewhat heavier than any shoes I've worn before and they feel massive, but also considerably more cushioned. I'm intending to use these for my longer and slower runs, the runs when I'm at my most tired and therefore heavier on my feet, the runs where I want to reduce the impact on my body.
I also made some changes to my training plans for the next few weeks. These changes are in part a nod towards the half marathon I'm doing in a month or so, and in part because there were some things missing from my training that I need to work on. In particular practising running at a constant pace which is near the pace I hope to run the marathon at, and getting in a decent interval session when I'm not too tired to do it well; my attempts to do a hard tempo run on the Tuesday, steady miles on Wednesday, then a good interval session on a Thursday have just not been working because I'm not strong enough to do the interval session on the third day of running.
I'm now working loosely on a two week alternating plan. One week I do a hard tempo run at the start of the week with just a very short interval session later in the week, just a bit of a nod towards speed to keep the legs moving. The next week I do a hard long interval session early in the week with a short run later in the week to practice running consistently at the pace I want to run the marathon at. This run falls on my third consecutive day of running and only 12 hours after my mid-week steady longer run. I'm practising running marathon pace while tired, essentially. As I get nearer the marathon and my mileage goes up, there will be more runs at that pace and less really hard stuff. By that point I may also have worked out what I'm hoping marathon pace will be, because at the moment it's still a very rough estimate. Clearly I'm basically making this shit up albeit with a lot of reading and advice and hoping I don't fuck it up too much. At least if I do there's room for improvement if I do another one of these.
The other reason for a tweak this week was the Derbyshire County Cross Country Championships on Saturday; on current form and based on the girls I've been finishing in front of recently I felt I had a reasonable chance of getting a place in the county team if I ran well. I wanted to be fresh because it was going to be a grueller. There came the real kicker of the week, in that I had to miss the race to prioritise a family commitment. I realised part way through the week and to say I was gutted would be an understatement. I have a love hate relationship with cross country, it doesn't play to my strengths as a runner and I find it really hard, but I've been getting better at dealing with the mud and the hills, getting stronger, and I really wanted to do this one. I had to pull out. Instead of racing with the girls from the club I ended up doing a thoroughly half hearted parkrun and being rather down about the whole thing. Saturday was definitely the low point of the week and I was feeling decidedly sorry for myself about the whole thing.
Overall though, from the point of view of the marathon, the week's training has been basically fine. The interval session was acceptable given the wind, I've done better but I'll take it, the mid-week long run was a steady plod, and the supposed marathon pace practice was way, way too fast and all over the place, but thanks to a friend I have an idea on how to improve on that by basing it purely on heart rate next time, and setting my watch to beep at me when I go out the zone I want to be in. I get easily distracted and then speed up or slow down depending on where my mind has wandered to and what I'm thinking of. I like to let my mind wander when I run, but sometimes it doesn't lend itself well to consistent training.
The other reason for a tweak this week was the Derbyshire County Cross Country Championships on Saturday; on current form and based on the girls I've been finishing in front of recently I felt I had a reasonable chance of getting a place in the county team if I ran well. I wanted to be fresh because it was going to be a grueller. There came the real kicker of the week, in that I had to miss the race to prioritise a family commitment. I realised part way through the week and to say I was gutted would be an understatement. I have a love hate relationship with cross country, it doesn't play to my strengths as a runner and I find it really hard, but I've been getting better at dealing with the mud and the hills, getting stronger, and I really wanted to do this one. I had to pull out. Instead of racing with the girls from the club I ended up doing a thoroughly half hearted parkrun and being rather down about the whole thing. Saturday was definitely the low point of the week and I was feeling decidedly sorry for myself about the whole thing.
Overall though, from the point of view of the marathon, the week's training has been basically fine. The interval session was acceptable given the wind, I've done better but I'll take it, the mid-week long run was a steady plod, and the supposed marathon pace practice was way, way too fast and all over the place, but thanks to a friend I have an idea on how to improve on that by basing it purely on heart rate next time, and setting my watch to beep at me when I go out the zone I want to be in. I get easily distracted and then speed up or slow down depending on where my mind has wandered to and what I'm thinking of. I like to let my mind wander when I run, but sometimes it doesn't lend itself well to consistent training.
I then wanted to give myself a tougher long run this week
and decided to do my 16 miles at a slightly quicker pace than the long runs I've done so far. This is really
more with an upcoming half marathon in mind than the marathon, but also a little bit about the marathon. I wanted
to push myself a little over a longer run to reassure myself I wouldn't
just cave. Due to having to change my weekend plans a couple of times I ended up doing the run alone. It's the first solo long run I've done while training for this marathon, and I was a moderately intimated by it. I don't normally mind running alone, all my half marathon training long runs have been alone, but they've maxed out at 15 miles and been off the back of a lot less miles during the rest of the week. The last time I attempted close to this distance solo was when training for a marathon I never ran due to injury. It was probably the worst run of my life. It was horribly hot, I hated every rotten step of it, I knew I shouldn't have been running on the injury I was running on but was in denial, it hurt, and I ran it a lot slower than I'd planned to.
I picked myself a moderately challenging route for this one with several hundred feet of elevation. It involved 4 miles with the wind behind me on the flat, 8 miles of undulation into the wind, then another 4 flat miles which were much more sheltered and with the wind behind me again. I forced myself to carry water and gels. I generally hate carrying any unnecessary weight on runs, and almost everything beyond bra, tights, shoes and a t-shirt falls into the annoying category. I'm easily annoyed. When I set off out wearing considerably more layers than normal due to freezing temperatures and a biting northerly wind, a belt to carry two water bottles with my gels, and a luminous oil tanker on each foot, I felt like an intrepid explorer going on an Arctic expedition rather than a middle aged woman going for a run. I wasn't sure it was an entirely good feeling.
I realised less than a mile in that it was a day where running just felt good. My legs felt fresh, probably as a result of the fairly lack lustre parkrun the day before, I was bouncy, and although I was running easily I was way faster than my target pace of 7:40s. I slowed a little, but basically decided to go with it while the wind was behind me and I didn't feel like I was taking too much out of myself. The first four miles averaged about 7:25s, at which point I turned into the wind and hit the first hill. This was the low point of the run, I suddenly wished I had company, it wasn't going to be an easy run and it was going to be long. I then did what I always do when I feel a little bit worried about dealing with hills on a run, I sped up. I did almost immediately have a word with myself (I think the word was "twat") and slow down again, reduced my effort, and let the pace bleed off as the run got hillier, icier, and windier. Normally I try and keep my mile splits even, but following some good advice from a friend earlier this week, I just accepted that the harder miles I would put in a bit more effort, but not destroy myself to maintain the pace. I had to stop and walk over a very icy bridge which broke my rhythm up a bit, as did a couple of road crossings, but basically I just got on with it and enjoyed running. I didn't stop when I drank, didn't stop to use gels, just ran.
Having made that decision to ease off in the middle section I then got on and enjoyed my run, concentrated on form when I got tired, and when I did get to the easier section at the end I had a lot left in my legs and picked the pace up again. The last four miles were the quickest of the lot, finishing on mile 16 with a 7:10. I am tired and today, the next day, I do ache. But, I didn't destroy myself and I believe could have managed at least 2 or 3 more miles at the average pace of 7:30s. I feel like it's worth the fatigue for the mental boost the run as given me even if it does mean, as I suspect it will, that I'll need to shorten my tempo run from the planned 8 miles down to 5 or 6. I'm less scared by the distance and the pace than I was, the next couple of long runs can be slower and I'll be happy with that.
Week six running starts tomorrow, this weekend it'll be 18 miles which will be another longest run ever moment, but I plan to take them a little steadier and do them on the flat.
I realised less than a mile in that it was a day where running just felt good. My legs felt fresh, probably as a result of the fairly lack lustre parkrun the day before, I was bouncy, and although I was running easily I was way faster than my target pace of 7:40s. I slowed a little, but basically decided to go with it while the wind was behind me and I didn't feel like I was taking too much out of myself. The first four miles averaged about 7:25s, at which point I turned into the wind and hit the first hill. This was the low point of the run, I suddenly wished I had company, it wasn't going to be an easy run and it was going to be long. I then did what I always do when I feel a little bit worried about dealing with hills on a run, I sped up. I did almost immediately have a word with myself (I think the word was "twat") and slow down again, reduced my effort, and let the pace bleed off as the run got hillier, icier, and windier. Normally I try and keep my mile splits even, but following some good advice from a friend earlier this week, I just accepted that the harder miles I would put in a bit more effort, but not destroy myself to maintain the pace. I had to stop and walk over a very icy bridge which broke my rhythm up a bit, as did a couple of road crossings, but basically I just got on with it and enjoyed running. I didn't stop when I drank, didn't stop to use gels, just ran.
Having made that decision to ease off in the middle section I then got on and enjoyed my run, concentrated on form when I got tired, and when I did get to the easier section at the end I had a lot left in my legs and picked the pace up again. The last four miles were the quickest of the lot, finishing on mile 16 with a 7:10. I am tired and today, the next day, I do ache. But, I didn't destroy myself and I believe could have managed at least 2 or 3 more miles at the average pace of 7:30s. I feel like it's worth the fatigue for the mental boost the run as given me even if it does mean, as I suspect it will, that I'll need to shorten my tempo run from the planned 8 miles down to 5 or 6. I'm less scared by the distance and the pace than I was, the next couple of long runs can be slower and I'll be happy with that.
Week six running starts tomorrow, this weekend it'll be 18 miles which will be another longest run ever moment, but I plan to take them a little steadier and do them on the flat.
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