That's more like it / 8 weeks until London

Despite it not being the best week for sleep, as far as my running was concerned, it was spot on.

My two key mid-week sessions this week were 12x400s and a 6 mile tempo run, both of which were expectedly tough. Of the two, I found the 12 reps of 400m simpler to get my head around, in that envisioning yourself having a rest in 400 metres time make it easier to cope, albeit that you're only going to get 1:30 of rest in between.

The 6 miler was particularly tough and having only managed around 6 hours sleep, in the previous two nights combined, didn't help. The run was broken down into a 2 mile warm up, followed by 3 miles pretty much flat out, finished off with 1 mile easy. The mid section was at such a pace that I cleared 4.8km in 19:30, just shy of my 5km PB! But that's the thing with running, you never know quite what you can achieve until you really push it and you're often surprising yourself with what you can do.

9 weeks to London Marathon / My plan

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, so a bit of an update on what's gone on in between.

First off, some background on how I try to plan out my week. I start my weeks on a Monday and culminate them on the weekend, trying to get my long run out of the way on the Saturday so I can relax on Sunday and recover before Monday's interval training kicks the cycle off again.

Broadly, I'm following the 3plus2 training plan, which I've mentioned in a previous post. The quick summary is that it involves 3 intense running sessions and a couple of cross-training sessions. For me, this equates to the following being my typical week:

Monday - Intervals (45 mins) e.g. 6x800m with 1:30 Recovery Interval
Tuesday - 20 mile cycle (1h20 commute to and from work)
Wednesday - Tempo run (45-60 mins); 20 min swim drills
Thursday - REST
Friday - 20 min swim drills
Saturday - Long run (18-20 miles; 13 mile on easy week)
Sunday -  REST

Yes, perhaps this should be the 3plus3 plan, but given my weedy 20 min swim efforts and the fact that I'm claiming a commute to work as cross-training, I'm not counting them as proper workouts and just hoping my 3 non-running sessions actually add up to 2 proper ones.

Here's how the week commencing Mon 6th Feb looked.

We'd had a little snow that week which made for a stunning long run on Sunday. The air temperature had remained cool preserving much of the snow in the woods where the sun couldn't quite reach it. In fact, that Saturday run has to go down as one of my favourites. I took in several woodland areas, including chancing upon a superb cross-country race course 30 minutes or so from starting, and was on such a high that I decided it fine to throw in some extra hills midway round, just to take in the scenery and give myself a few more slopes to bound down in the snow. I kept going for the full 20 miles, without having to stop and, despite the hilly terrain I'd chosen, managed to maintain the target pace of 8:08 min/mile. Very happy at the end of that one.

The following week saw me tackle the longest tempo run of the schedule so far, which I had to put in after a long day in the office and not much sleep the night before, due to unsettled children!

It was an 8 miler, with 6 of those at 7:05 min/mile pace. It's pretty much having to knock out a 43:30 10k in the middle of an 13k run. Considering the thought of breaking 45 minutes for a 10k was a pipe dream, little more than 3 years ago, you could say this felt like a reasonable challenge. I got through it, just, but couldn't wait for it to finish and collapsed into our porch way at the finish.

The high I'd been on the previous Saturday had seemingly ebbed away. I noticed this, even more so, when I had to tackle my shortest long run to date, a 13 miler, and had to pull up 4 or 5 times just to summon up the energy to finish it.

Sometimes it's like that. I've had an unsettled week sleep-wise, which is never going to help, and my meal the night before the long run was pizza. To top it off, the first 4 miles of my chosen route were into a headwind and uphill. Nevertheless, I'd hoped for more and it's knocked my confidence a little.

Here's my summary for the week:

Mon - 6x800m in 2:55 (1:30 RI)
Tue - 20 mile cycle commute
Wed - 6 mile @ 7:05 min/mile, 1 mile warm up/down; 20 min swim (intervals)
Thu - REST
Fri - REST
Sat - 13 miles @ 7:40 min/mile
Sun - 26 mile cycle, moderate hills

Totals: 52 miles; 6h30m

Sub-zero training

It had been a fairly bitter ride home on the scooter the night before, so I'd been expecting a nippy start to the Saturday. Sure enough, the low morning sun exposed the deep frost which had bitten the garden and my watch's thermometer revealed that the air temperature was a refreshing -4.9℃. It was most definitely a tights day.

A few years back, I wouldn't have been seen dead in tights, or lycra of any description but, since then, I've clearly become less image conscious and more rational and a sucker for comfort. They're eminently sensible for training in this sort of weather, especially for the pre-dawn and post-dusk hours, when you don't even get the mild benefit of the winter sun. Admittedly, your body can warm itself up quite quickly, but if you're only out for 30-45 minutes and intend on training relatively intensely throughout, you've got to give your muscles a chance to make it through the session in one piece. For the longer runs, you could argue that full tights aren't necessary and, despite Saturday's temperatures, I did feel, at times, a little too warm. That said, had I been forced to stop for any period of time, in the middle of nowhere and, let's face it, when you head out for a 2.5-3 hour run, anything could happen, I would have been glad not to have been facing being stuck in just my shorts.

Other items I pulled on for warmth yesterday included a long sleeve thermal icebreaker top, an additional running t-shirt, a Buff, to wear around my neck, a pair of running shorts over my tights, thickish smartwool running socks, cotton gloves and a fleecy running hat.

I always carry a lightweight backpack with me on long runs, to carry my water, a phone, some money, gels and cereal bars. There was a stark contrast between the temperature when running into a chilly Easterly in the shade, versus being sheltered from the wind and in full sun. Having the backpack to hand, meant I could remove, or put back on, hat, gloves, buff as required to regulate my temperature, keeping them within easy reach in the elasticated side pockets.

Saturday's run was an 18 miler at MP (target marathon pace) plus 45 seconds [per mile], it took me around 2h25m. I didn't find the pace too tough, although I had taken it a bit easier during the week, due to a slight injury (banging my knee on a kitchen unit!), so my energy levels were probably slightly higher than what they would have been. Nevertheless, 18 miles is still a long way and I was suitably exhausted at the end of my uphill finish and struggled to keep up with my children who'd come to meet me at the finish and were demanding piggy back rides and tree climbing! I think it's called a warm down...