
Week 9 – Another 8/10 week
4 full weeks of 100k – getting a little creaky / cranky from time to time, but as always with running consistency is what makes the best inroads into fitness/ pace and performance.
Monday 6/11: Rest, very welcome after the long run the day before. Rest day = Cyclic hyper-ventilation day. 4 rounds of 40 breaths, followed by progressive holds.
Tues 7/11 (A) Got up at 6am and ran, as knew had a coaching call at 4, so decided to double ot make the evening run shorter. Creaky and slow to start with. Ran to Margate with the wind, against it on the way back. All worth while to watch the sunrise. 12k / 1h 2m
(P): Second part of chasing sunrise / sunset. All nasal as the AM. Ran to watch the sunset beyond Minnis Bay. By 5k had slipped into a really nice rhythm, that saw my pace drop down to current marathon effort. A good sign of consistent running. Ran in the dark, felt great, controlled & relaxed. 12k / 58m
Weds 8/11: (P) WHAT FUN. 1.6k hard / 2mins walk / 5k tempo / 4 mins walk, then a jog across Bishopstone park to get to Reculver Towers. Then rinse and repeat. Forgot my headphones, so blared drum and bass out of my pocket. A good gauge of pace, where I want to be. Caffeine gel at the towers. Misty, damp cloud that turned into torrential driving sea rain. Funny and got soaked. Left calf tight at the end of the first set. Held up for second.
WU – 2km nasal, then 500m 5 step breath holds / 500m 10 step breathholds, 5 x GO breath holds
Set 1: 1.6k – 3’43/km 5k 3’57/km
Easy 2k across to Towers
Set 2: 1.6k – 3’42/km 5k 3’56/km Total 19.29km / 1h31m
Thurs 9/11: (P) No running to let legs ease. Wanted to mix up strength session as was feeling mentally bored. Also missing lifting heavy at the moment. Took a Jay Dicharry workout and adjusted:
Twisted Warrior x10 / thread the needle 12 each side / TRX sling row 2 x 10 reps
Main: 4 x 6 x Goblet squat / 8 x deadlift / 20 lateral hurdle hops off 90secs rest
3 x 30secs each arm waiters carry off 60 secs rest
3 x 8 x landmine SL deadlift / 10 x kettlebell swing / 5 press ups unto claps off 90 secs rest
10 each way round kettle bell round the world
3 x 12 SL soleous seated lift
Fri 10/11: (P) All nasal recovery run. Slight tightness in calf, relaxed and in the dark. 14.11km / 1h 13m
Sat 11/11: (A) Slow and relaxed. All nasal, calf still a little tight, so taking it easy. 10k / 52m
Sun 12/11: (A) Long run – Duplicated last week, with shift in paces and completing the last long part. Ran over the Ramsgate and back. 3k easy / 3k marathon effort / 5k easy / 5k marathon / 10k easy / 10k marathon effort. First 3k consciously holding back. Second 5k a lot more hilly as started top of big hill in Broadstairs than up / down though to Ramsgate. Last 10k undulating until the end and best thing about this was holding pace (mentally) and pushing on at end. Wasn’t something I felt I could do last week.
3k: 4’19 / 5k: 4’17 / 10k: 4’15 avg paces. I suspect if I ran marathon today would be around 3:05 for whole thing which I see as possibly getting close to 3 on the day, if not around 3:02 more viable.
(P): 20 mins of cadence breathing to try and settle my nervous system down.
Positives – Long run on the Sunday definite move forwards
To learn – Sharpen up pace, comfortable in the longer distance at the paces
Time for week: 9h 13m
Distance: 103km
Split Over / under pace of 4:22/km 70%/30%
Long run = 35% of distance
Total stress points – (which for me is rate of perceived effort X time as a simplistic metric to look at) 2297.