Thursday, April 05, 2007
Training Update
It's been an awful long time since I last posted but I'm happy to say that the training has gone well and I'm looking forward to the race in 17 days time!
Since I last posted at New Year, I've run a total of 416 miles. I ran 109 in Jan, 155 in Feb and 127 in March. My training has generally been a split of ~8 mile runs at lunctime and 5 20+ mile runs at the weekends. Overall, I've not done quite as much mileage as I'd hoped but probably more than I expected so I'm fairly happy. My only concern is the lack of 10-18 mile runs which I had been doing before Xmas. I was finding running in the dark evenings really tedious and that's why I have done virtually all my training in daylight this year.
Review of Long Runs
3rd Feb
I ran from Milngavie train station to Drymen and back on the WHW with Michelle McCormick. This is about 24 miles and I ran to and from the train station which is about another 1 & 1/2 miles. We took it fairly easy running about 9m20s per mile pace and walked most of the steep uphill sections. Michelle is running the WHW race this year and this was her first training run on this section of the route. She's done quite a bit of hill running and has a Marathon PB of 3.30 so it was good to run with someone of similar ability. After the run I felt pretty tired but a few hours later I felt really knackered.
18th Feb
On a sunny Sunday morning, I ran a similar route from my house in Jordanhill to the Beach Tree Inn on the WHW. This was 22.7 miles and I ran it at my target M-pace of 8mins/mile. I stopped a few times for drinks but ran at a consistent pace throughout. After the run I felt better than the previous run.
11th March
19.8 miles around the West End of Glasgow. I ran at M-pace again but it was a bit of a struggle as I'd been ill a couple of days before.
24th March
I went back to my original 3 mile loop which I used to run around the West End when I started running 3 years ago. The weather was sunny and fairly warm, potentially similar to actual race conditions. I ran 7 loops in total in 2hrs 40mins so averaging 7m 45s per mile pace. Last lap was the fastest as I pushed quite hard in the last mile. After the run I felt tired but generally OK. This run has given me lots of confidence for the race knowing that I can maintain sub 8min pace for 20 miles plus. Another positive aspect of all my long runs is that at no time have my legs "gone" or I feel that I've hit the wall. I've also felt much better after the more recent runs. When I did 20 miles at the end of December I felt as if I had been run over by a bus.
I'm planning to run 16 miles tomorrow morning which will be my last longish run and then really take it easy for the last 2 weeks before race day. Maybe 3 runs each week of 5-8 miles.
I still need to decide on race strategy and won't finalise that until the morning of the race when weather conditions will influence my pace. My biggest fear is an unusually warm day, say >18C, which will take me into unkown territory. At the moment and if the conditions are good, my current plan is to target around 3.28, turning in around 1.44. I'll run the first few miles at 8,00 and then settle down to 7,55 pace. This pace should feel a bit slow from miles 5-15 but will leave plenty in the tank for 20+. I think my absolute best case time in my current condition is about 3.25 but targetting that is probably not advisable.
Since I last posted at New Year, I've run a total of 416 miles. I ran 109 in Jan, 155 in Feb and 127 in March. My training has generally been a split of ~8 mile runs at lunctime and 5 20+ mile runs at the weekends. Overall, I've not done quite as much mileage as I'd hoped but probably more than I expected so I'm fairly happy. My only concern is the lack of 10-18 mile runs which I had been doing before Xmas. I was finding running in the dark evenings really tedious and that's why I have done virtually all my training in daylight this year.
Review of Long Runs
3rd Feb
I ran from Milngavie train station to Drymen and back on the WHW with Michelle McCormick. This is about 24 miles and I ran to and from the train station which is about another 1 & 1/2 miles. We took it fairly easy running about 9m20s per mile pace and walked most of the steep uphill sections. Michelle is running the WHW race this year and this was her first training run on this section of the route. She's done quite a bit of hill running and has a Marathon PB of 3.30 so it was good to run with someone of similar ability. After the run I felt pretty tired but a few hours later I felt really knackered.
18th Feb
On a sunny Sunday morning, I ran a similar route from my house in Jordanhill to the Beach Tree Inn on the WHW. This was 22.7 miles and I ran it at my target M-pace of 8mins/mile. I stopped a few times for drinks but ran at a consistent pace throughout. After the run I felt better than the previous run.
11th March
19.8 miles around the West End of Glasgow. I ran at M-pace again but it was a bit of a struggle as I'd been ill a couple of days before.
24th March
I went back to my original 3 mile loop which I used to run around the West End when I started running 3 years ago. The weather was sunny and fairly warm, potentially similar to actual race conditions. I ran 7 loops in total in 2hrs 40mins so averaging 7m 45s per mile pace. Last lap was the fastest as I pushed quite hard in the last mile. After the run I felt tired but generally OK. This run has given me lots of confidence for the race knowing that I can maintain sub 8min pace for 20 miles plus. Another positive aspect of all my long runs is that at no time have my legs "gone" or I feel that I've hit the wall. I've also felt much better after the more recent runs. When I did 20 miles at the end of December I felt as if I had been run over by a bus.
I'm planning to run 16 miles tomorrow morning which will be my last longish run and then really take it easy for the last 2 weeks before race day. Maybe 3 runs each week of 5-8 miles.
I still need to decide on race strategy and won't finalise that until the morning of the race when weather conditions will influence my pace. My biggest fear is an unusually warm day, say >18C, which will take me into unkown territory. At the moment and if the conditions are good, my current plan is to target around 3.28, turning in around 1.44. I'll run the first few miles at 8,00 and then settle down to 7,55 pace. This pace should feel a bit slow from miles 5-15 but will leave plenty in the tank for 20+. I think my absolute best case time in my current condition is about 3.25 but targetting that is probably not advisable.
# posted by Andy @
11:04 am 
