Overdone it?

Mid Week Update

Monday – 5.5miles in 8:18 miles steady pace – felt quite hard at times, stiffness never quite left my legs from Sunday’s 13 miles – however no recovery time needed so was still an easy run. Also I think when I go out and run 5 miles at 8+min/mile I’m always expecting it to be like a stroll in the park so psychologically I’m always a bit surprised when it starts feeling like a bit of an effort!

Wednesday morning - woke up with sore throat, runny nose and a general weak feeling (even more than normal!) - my wife has been in bed with it for 4 days (days 2 and 3 seemed worst) and before her one of my daughters was ill so this is not a running related virus just an unavoidable irritation of living with 4 other people. (It would help if it wasn't so flipping wet and cold!!)

Wife getting better now so I'm thinking just miss out the training till I pick up and aim for starting week 2 again on day one of week 3 - or sooner obviously if I feel better sooner.

Agree?

how you feeling pal?

yep, certainly don't try and train through illness mate, no good in that at all.

And yes we're early on, so just take week 2's schedule for week 3.

ps, if you ever are expecting a schedule or session update from me, and i haven't posted...just drop me a PM (personal message) and i'll get on it...make sure i don't miss posting this way

Much better than I did last Thursday and Friday where felt like I had proper flu but was up and about again by Saturday so not that bad. Stil left with nasty cough and breathing irritation but will see how it goes.

Ran a 5.5 last night in 8:16/mile and wasn't that hard but felt like it would be a struggle to go much faster. Doesn't seem to have made me any worse.

I'm going to see how I feel come Wednesday - if I feel slightly better I will go for week 2 schedule - if not then I'll go easy 5.5 on Wednesday and Friday and do Wednesday's Quality Run on Sunday instead of the LSR.

Will report back Sunday/Monday

Cheers

PS Scary photo!

 I wondered how long i could get away with this one before someone said that!! The guyson my own thread haven't noticed yet!

If you're not feeling good this week...but still want to run, then just tick over with easy running instead.

you can pick up properly again next week...although geting the long run in on sunday would be very useful.

Okay - felt not too bad on Wednesday so decided to go for it.

So full week report as follows.

Monday night 5.5 easy(8:16/mile)

Wednesday night - 3 mile easy warm up 8:30/mile

First 2 mile interval 14 minutes - 7 mins, 7 mins

Second two mile interval 14 mins 10 secs - 7 mins, 7 mins 10 secs

Third two mile interval 14 mins 30 secs - about 7:15 per mile but missed the mile split.

No rest after third interval but jogged back in about 9 mins 20 secs.

Found it hard, particularly third session but never done this training before so may have been that, or perhaps simply went too fast first two miles - nevertheless a little disappointed that third interval performance tailed off.

Friday - easy 5.5 miles - about 8:16 secs

Sunday 13.1 miles in 1hour 53 mins - 8:36/mile.

Feel a little weary tonight but looking forward to learning next week's schedule!

Going camping next Friday afternoon till Sunday afternoon so may need to mess around with the Mon, Wed, Fri, Sunday sessions - may go Monday, Wed, Thursday and do LSR Sunday night but will have to see.

Cheers

Hi Skinny,

looks a decent week. I think you learnt on Wednesday that keeping to pace is essential on these calculated sessions, as if you go too fast early on, you'll suffer later.

We'll keep things fairly similar intensity wise, a slightly extended version of week 1's Wednesday session to see where you are with that. And slightly tweaked days with your trip

M             6m easy
W            10.5m, with 3m easy to steady warm up || 6.5miles MP || 1m cool down
Th            6m easy
Su           13m easy

I was going to add some strides (short relaxed sprints), but won't this week, as you're running on the Thursday not the Friday.

Thanks - re the pace main problem is my Garmin is all over the place - I feel like I'm running at same pace and one minute its showing 7:20 the next minute its showing 6:40 and if I go under some trees I can go out to 8mins plus which makes finding a steady 7:10 pace a bit hit and miss - I think the first mile I actually ran 0.95 miles in about 6:45 pace then jogged the last 0.05!!

Nevertheless you are right - I learnt a lot about the third session v the first session and next week I will be aiming to hit on all 3.

Anyhow this looks like a nice week and I have the added excitement that it will be my first ever 35-40 mile training session week!

Thanks again and I'll report back Monday. Cheers, Skinny.

Skinny, any prospect you can find a track to do such sessions on? That way you can pace yourself per lap as well...

Otherwise, learning to "feel" a certain pace is something that comes with time..

We'll see how this 35mile week comes out, and how you feel. We can make tweaks accordingly on your feedback.

I won't necessarily give you the same sesion every other week, as keeping things fresh is key as well.

Monday – 6.2 miles in 8:25 miles steady pace – felt okay

Wednesday – 3 miles in 8:28 steady pace. 6.5 miles in 48:01. 1 mile in 8:47.

6.5 Mile splits 7:32, 7:28, 7:10, 7:15, 7:24, 7:27,Last 0.5 in 3:45.

The 7:10 was a result of going  up quite a steep hill and working on maintaining my pace then letting myself run down the other side freely which I think also increased my general speed once back on flat. After that each mile was a deliberate slow down to try and get back to 7:30 pace, not because I was tired.

Friday Morning (6am!!! – unheard of for me) 6.1 miles at 8:31 – mother in law fell down escalator in M&S on Thursday so spent Thursday night staring at her leg in a plaster cast at the hospital when should have been out running!

My Achilles (which was my original reason for starting this thread) is still bothering me a little – not sure if it’s a niggle or an ache but when I did my stretching over the stairs this morning on the upward stretch got quite a sharp pain – not running now till Sunday evening so hopefully that’s two nights sleep and nearly three days for recovery.

Sunday – 13.14 miles in 8:43/mile – same Achilles problem when stretching when finished but no real issue when running – got the frozen peas on it for 10 mins and seems to have eased today.

Total Miles for Week 35.9 (a new record for me)

Re this week training plan – I am going to the Olympic athletics on Saturday night (very excited - lifetime ambition and looks like being a cracking night) so Sunday will be spent getting up and driving home from London – as the tickets cost me a lot of money (our money) I won’t be getting home and telling my wife that I’m off out for a 2 hour run; so ideally need a schedule where Sunday’s run is only an easy effort this week.

Cheers, Skinny

Skinny, sounds a good week, but a few increasing warnings about the achilles. Make sure you do the 3 or 4 stretches for both achilles and calves, the 2 are intertwined. Make sure you do these throughout the day, not just after runs. I can only go from your feedback, so you'll need to be ready to judge when to back off and rest at times.

In light of the achilles, and also because of your sunday date, let's tweak things a bit this week.

This introduces the term "steady", which I figure is 7.45-8.15zone for you. This is distinctive from your 8.30+ pace which is "easy"

M   6.5m easy
W  12m  including 2miles easy, 8miles steady, 2miles easy
F   6.5m easy
Su  8-10m easy (dependent on time available)

Total  33-35.

Lower intensity but slightly more distance on the Wednesday run. You have license to run the 8mile part anywhere in between 7.45 and 8.15 pace.

Do you have access to a track by the way? As along the line it'll be useful to get you running at paces quicker than HM pace.

That should work - re the achilles I understand that it is totally up to me, just needed to make you aware in case it affected the plan.

I do have access to a track (8 lane good quality) - about 1.25 miles from house - although have to pay to use so wouldn't want to be training there all the time. Also currently I have no idea of when available for public use but I'll ring them at lunch time to find out.

One thing I meant to say in my review of week is that I think one effect of running more but at a slower pace is that the 7:30 pace on Wednesday felt harder (or perhaps faster would be more correct) than it used to when I was training at a quicker pace. So some running at in excess of HM pace would seem to help deal with that issue.

Of course my achilles seems to be telling me that the training I am doing is about the limit my body can take at moment!

I'll report back next Monday - cheers.

Sorry - I have one other question about the Achilles - you may know answer - if it gets worse is it likely to be just a gradual getting worse where it becomes too sore to run = rest a while; or could it simply rupture = the end?

Unless you have an incredibly weak achilles, are doing way too intense training or are very unlucky, I'd say you don't have to worry about a rupture, it's a fairly extreme injury.

The stretching is essential, as is not doing any explosive or fast running without a good warm up. That's why we always include the 2-3mile easy pace warm up before your 1 quality session.

As a rule of thumb is something hurts or aches to walk, don't run.

Backing off and stretching a lot, got me through achilles tendonitis myself. Very key for you to monitor though...

In an ideal training plan, you'd have your tempo session a week, as you've been doing, and also a speed reps session. In your circumstances, you don't have enough mileage to play with to add a second quality session.

However, i think we can acheive that syub 1hr 35 goal from the weekly tempo and long run. Those are key.

Your old paces got you used to working too hard each run, meaning you were never fresh, probably a reason why the achilles is sore these days.

I'd envisage that that will start to ease down, and the new plan will work you out at the right levels, yet also keep you fresh to improve.

Thanks.

Running track is £2.40 to use for as long as you want (or season ticket £66/year but closes at dusk so chuff all use to me for 6 months of year). Not available for general use Tuesdays and Thursdays as used by local athletics clubs (when they do put floodlights on). 

Will report back next Monday as usual. Cheers, Skinny.

PS I realise this thread is a very one way conversation (all about me!) and appreciate that - I know you have your own thread and therefore don't show any interest in you simply to save you having to post any more than you already are - thanks again for your help and advice - it is not only helping me plan my weeks running but the whole reporting back thing is very motivational.

We'll bear the track in mind, but will probably be able to work without one to be honest.

No worries Skinny, i'll do my best to help you hit that target. Just need to bear with me as I'm not by any means a proper coach, but from experience should be able to point you along the right direction, as per so far!

I waffle about my own running enough, so it's good to make this thread your own..no problems at all with that.

Hi Coach - things went a bit off schedule last night - worked late, had more work to do at home and wife had PMT (a heady cocktail!).

So went out for less than an hour but I was ready for a bit more than an easy run (did 6.5miles easy Tuesday morning).

So did 6.5 miles but after 2 miles I did 0.5 miles fast (well for me) three times with a mile recovery in between (about 8:45 to 9 mins/mile)

My 3 splits were 3:03, 3:08 and 3:07 - was aiming for 3:05 (about a minute faster than my target HM pace).

No ill effects afterwards or this morning (iced and stretched achilles again when finished).

So I'm thinking I'll try and run 10 miles easy on Friday and do the Quality session on Sunday even though I said I wouldn't - by Sunday my wife will be angelic!

If I manage to do this it would mean that the 6.5m easy in the original session would have become 6.5m with three fast 0.5m thrown in.

Is ths okay?

You've done 3x0.5m at 3k ish, so shouldn't be too harmful.

If you could do the light quality session 10miles with 8miles steady (7.45-8.15pace) on Friday, that'll be better for your recovery, and then 8-10miles easy on sunday. Best to keep the structure.

Being a steady paced session makes it quite light quality this week, quality is generally MP and above.

Holy sh1t - so I'm supposed to be able to run at that pace for the whole of a 3k race!

Thanks for prompt reply - will report back Monday.

Cheers

Your 3k would probably be a little slower than that in fairness.

If your 10k is 6.52, 5k would at fastest be between 6.38-6.40 ish, so 3k probably in the 6.20 range So yeah, 6.06-6.16 is a notch up from 3k pace, which in fairness is why we wouldn't set you running at that pace!

A better bet, which we'll introduce next week, is having you doing strides, 5x75m at relaxed sprint type effort, within an easy paced run.

Full Week Report

Tuesday morning – 6.5 miles in 8:32 pace. Achilles less sore, frozen peas again

Wednesday – 6.5 miles including 3x0.5miles at 6:10 pace with 1 mile recoveries

Friday – 10.5miles 1.25WU, 8 miles in 62:20 (7:47/mile), 1.25 WD

Sunday – didn’t get back till after 8pm and wife had made a chicken dinner so never got out for a run at all. As a penance I got up this morning at 5.30am and ran 13.25 miles in 8:15/mile average which was mainly an LSR at 8:30/mile with a little bit of a stretch of my legs for about 5 miles in the middle (7:45/mile).

This week on Sunday I am doing Cross Bay Challenge which is a HM across Morecambe Bay (tidal bay) including a waist deep wade across a river at about half way. My plan is to run first 8 miles at about 9m/m and enjoy being in the Bay then run last 5 at about 8m/m to have the race fun of passing people without really making it any more than an LSR.

So I’m looking for a Tuesday night easy run and a Friday morning Quality run please then we can focus on the plan for last 8 weeks to get me down to 1:34 for the HM.

Cheers, Skinny