FLM Training: Wardi

A good session and day's training after the speedwork.

Did you feel comfortable at that pace over the last 3 miles?

Thanks Steve.. best summary would be 'working a bit but always in control'.

Blisters.. I am a bit of a novice with HRM's. I use mine primarily to make sure I run slow enough on the recovery runs (max 70% of MHR). Being an old man my peak HR appears to be 172, my RHR is around 41-47 depending on recent activities.

Steve.. was there an eventual consensus on which pacing run/race was suitable for most of the Dreamteam?

Wardi, I know that Granny Denny and I are doing the Kingston run on 30th March and I have a feeling that I've seen Rich mention that on his thread.  Are you able to come down for that?

yes I think its Kingston that Daniel wanted everyone down for. I'm sure he'll be in touch about it.

Legs a little tired from the Mon/Tues stuff but squeezed in 12.4 miles at av.7.55 pace tonight. I moved this forward from tomorrow in view of the wind borne torrent expected in the morning.

I had promised my OH a birthday treat (big 50!) on the weekend of the 30th so Kingston might be tricky. However, if I could persuade her to run it as part of her FLM preparations, a visit to Hampton Court etc.. {O:

Travel enquiry.. arriving at Kings Cross, which station would one use to get to Kingston?

It depends what time you are arriving Wardi.  But as an example you would get Tube (Piccadilly Line) to Picadilly Circus then Bakerloo line to Waterloo and thn get train to Kingston.  Probably take an hour or so.  There are other routes. 

Wardi: your HR zones appear to be very similar to mine. Max recorded in a sprint finish was also 174 I think, but there's a singular spike reading from one race that went to 180. I can only think that was a bit of a misfire. Resting is also about 47.

Regarding your trip to Kingston, I'd check which one they were on about first. There's you thinking about Hull, and they are thinking about Richmond, when actually it's in Jamaica.

[b]www.tfl.gov.uk[/b] 

Kings cross BR - Victoria line to Vauxhall - South West Trains to Kingston Rail station. 47 minutes shortest expected journey time. Good stuff this interweb.

that was a good run yesterday after the two hard days and wise to move forward as the weather has been awful today.

11 miles trotted out at 7:45 pace. Bobbing along, but not as sprightly as sometimes. I wonder why?

Wall to wall gales today with the odd wave of sleet & rain thrown in for good measure. Is there no end to these storm conditions? At the moment I feel like hibernating until the weather has calmed down! {O:

Apparently tomorrow is going to be even windier!

6.8 miles steady tonight.

Blisters.. not a bad pootle this close post marathon.

Many thanks for the travel tips, now I just have to practice my long unused charm offensive!

Wardi, even better reason to come down south - the weather here is lovely

Good sales pitch Sezz, you make it sound like a warm weather training camp! Today it has been windy, wet and raw up here.

Steve.. I have just enjoyed reading your end of term reports on the Dreamteam, even though I do feel a bit like the slightly mischevious pupil. Your observation '..Wardi has been flirting from a distance with the schedule' made me smile. Allow me to explain from my side of the goldfish bowl.

I have trained for my last two marathons using the popular schedules in the Pfitzinger & Douglas book 'Advanced Marathoning'. Getting up to an average of 65-70mpw has borne fruit. Their schedules tend to emphasise tempo runs rather than speedwork in the early weeks, introducing the fast interval stuff later in the schedule. The last time I tried a reduced mileage/more quality approach was the Berlin marathon in 2005. My average was about 50-55mpw. It was a warm day similar to FLM 2007 but it still felt like a battle just to finish in a modest 3:13. I went back to the higher volume approach for FLM 2006 (3:08) and FLM 2007 (3:06). I hope this goes some way to explain why I am reluctant to entirely cast aside an approach which has given me tangible rewards. Generally speaking the more miles I have done, the better my marathon time.

Having said all of that, it still hasn't got me a sub 3. One of the reasons I was delighted to get this Dreamteam opportunity was to get an alternative approach from someone who has been there and done it. With the withering of age I thought that a slight drop in average mileage this time would help my legs recover sufficiently to take on the faster stuff in the schedule. In other words I am combining the two approaches wherever possible & by 'feel'. My last 2 weeks have totalled 54 & 56 miles which is positively lazy by my normal standards!

Next weeks schedule from P&D 70mpw+.. read it & weep!

Mon.. 6 + 4m recovery
Tues. 6 + 4m recovery
Weds. 15m medium long run.
Thurs. 6 + 4m recovery
Fri. 12m inc 6m @ tempo pace
Sat. 8m recovery
Sun. 22m long run

I did manage something like this on a couple of weeks in Feb/March 2007 but there is no way I could sustain this sort of thing long term.

I have the Dewsbury 10k coming up on Sunday, it looks like another windy forecast up here so I'm not sure if it will tell me much. I see it as a good opportunity for an all out fast run so I will go along and give it my best shot. Early 9am start though, I will have to be up by about 7am to get there!

5 miles easy tonight with a few 100-200m strides.

Nice to see Rich, Sezz & Granny progressing well - good luck to you all & stay injury free.

Wardi

it would be boring if everyone followed the schedule exactly.

What you have done has worked pretty well before so i don't blame for you for wanting to at least retain part of what has worked before.

The schedule Garmin's recommend looks sound but isn't what I would do myself and  I probably also would try and augment it with extra training.

Sometimes difficult to judge a schedule's worth by one run as maybe if you'd even done 100mpw, you may have had a bad run at that Berlin, because of the heat.

 Dewsbury 10k won't be a fast time then but the important thing is to come out of with a good even paced run (depending on wind) and feel you would have run a good time if the conditions were better.

Good luck.

14 miles this morning for me. Steady, but with the tail being a bit of a plod. Part of my "Call it a plan" is to just do a 2 hour run the week after a long one. Hopefully I'm allowed that.

You must be recovering fairly well Blisters. After a marathon I normally rest & eat buns for a week or so before I try to run again.

An easy 4 miles before work this morning. Lifted my sprits no end - light winds, blue & red sky, frosty. Mind you it was snowing 5 minutes after I got back!

Thanks for the good wishes Steve.

Hiya Wardi!

 just dropped in to wish you the very best in this adventure, haven't been around much, missed the Brass Monkey and I'm on a real downer, struggling with tendonitis at the moment.

Anyway this is about you, keep yourself fit and we're all behind you, you hope!      All the best.

Thanks Rhymer, sorry to hear you are bench bound. Hope to see you back on the local race scene in the not too distant future.

Dewsbury 10k for me today, a 9am start meant a 6:30 alarm call at which point I was questioning the wisdom of it all!

Still, a healthy field of 1000+, the only downer was a strong gusty SW wind which unfortunately we would be running straight into from the turn around point at 5k. A very similar out and back (two opposite carriageways) course to the Leeds Abbey Dash. I decided not to go like hell in the wind assisted first 5k in order to preserve energy for the wind blighted 2nd half ( forecast 25mph with 50-60 mph gusts). Based on recent races and the wind I decided to aim for as close to 40mins as I could get. It went like this..

1k.. 3:55 flat
2k.. 3:56 ditto
3k.. 3:57 a very slight incline to 5k from here
4k.. 4:03
5k.. 4:03 half way in 19:54, around the bollards we went..
6k.. 3:55 the slight downhill compensates for the wind
7k.. 3:59
8k.. 4:01 very pleased to be hanging onto the pace
9k.. 4:09 the wind really picks up here & I lose a bit of time
10k. 3:55 the wind still a problem but I can still sniff a sub 40.

A sprint up the 40 metre rise to the finish and I am home in 39:53.

Delighted with that, I felt more 'in control' than other recent races. Most of the guys I spoke to after the race were about a minute outside their expected time so this maybe hints at 39:00-ish on a calm day.

Positives.. a decent confidence booster and a fast even paced run in difficult conditions. I did feel that the recent intervals and sustained pace club sessions really helped today, progress made perhaps.

Still some work to do but at least I seem to be heading in the right direction.

Had a brief snack and rest at home after the race then ran 11 miles at an easy 8:22 pace. I haven't done a proper long run since 13th Jan so I thought this would add a bit to my endurance. No races or interruptions next week so a long run is definitely on the cards.

Dominic Bannister won today's race in 31:02.

Great run Wardi. I agree this was definitely progress

Good, controlled effort in the conditions and shows your speed endurance and pacing are improving.

Well done Wardi!

Well done - it was a hard day for a sub-40.  It also takes a strong will to get out and do an 11 later in the day, with the race still in your legs.

[as for the 6:30 alarm call- at that time I was already over an hour into my long run]