Training Log Archive: Badger

Thames path/Bushy Park. 4km easy, 13km at Marathon Pace, 3km warm-down. Another very disappointing run - felt like I had nothing in the legs by half way round, and the MP section was much slower than I'd hoped.

I managed to hold just over 4:00/km's for the first 4km (16:05), but then slowed right down to average around 4:15/km's for the next 5km stretch (21:11) from the SE to NW corner of Bushy - this was into a slight headwind, but it really shouldn't have been that bad. I was really struggling here and nearly jacked it in. But I did manage to really pick up again as soon as I changed direction to running with the wind behind me, doing the final 4km in 4:02/km's (16:08) so pretty much the same pace that I'd started at.

But a very disappointing session overall (4:07/km's in total for the "MP" section), particularly after a rest day yesterday. I know I'm in peak mileage phase at the moment, but I feel I was running much better at this stage in the build up last year for both Manchester and Abingdon. My mileage has been about 15% more this time around, but I'd hoped that would lead to increased fitness and speed, whereas I currently feel more tired, fatigued and slower than last year, and all recent hard efforts (races and MP sessions) have been a bit below target.

A sub-2:50 target (4:01/km's) is definitely out of the question - it just doesn't look realistic with the paces I've been running recently and there's no point aiming far too high and having a horrible race. But I'd still like to think I can knock a decent chunk off the 2:53:54 PB with all the training and effort I've put in this time. I'm currently thinking that 2:52 (around 4:04/km's) is probably a sensible aim, with the intention of running even splits. So a first half target in 1:26, and then see what happens in the second half - if I feel good I might just manage a negative split and sneak slightly under 2:52, if I feel bad I can do the second half up to 2 mins slower and still get a PB.

There's not much more I can do for the fitness now after tomorrow's final really long run, so just need to taper down gradually over the next few weeks, retain the fitness as best I can and get myself in the best position I can ready for race day.

Hyde Park. Think the knee benefited from a day off - still a slight niggling feeling there at times, but much reduced from the last few days. Should be ok to push on with planned last big sessions this weekend.

Bushy Park/Thames path/Hampton Court Park. This was an early-morning struggle after the race the day before - shouldn't have tried to maintain the usual progression paces, I was really flagging in the second half and decided to do the last 4km at an easy/recovery pace rather than the much faster pace planned. I suppose I should never underestimate the effort required for an 18-mile run, particularly on the back of heavy recent mileage and a 10km race the day before!

Olympic Park - Civil Service AA 10k race.

First time I'd done the annual Civil Service 10k champs, with a 6-strong team from work (4 to count towards team results). Felt like a very tough race from my perspective, it didn't go well, especially as I'd been hoping for a decent fast race to give me a confidence booster ahead of the marathon - this did the opposite. There was a fairly strong northerly wind which made it very tough running into it, and it was a 4-lap course (FOUR laps!) which was tough mentally, especially with the repeated windy sections and a few nasty little climbs (not sure why GPS says only 5m, I reckon about 50m in total).

I started a bit too quick again (as I always seem to do on 10k races) and by half way into the 2nd lap felt like I was struggling. Went through half-way in a disappointing 19:45, and proceeded to get slower - it soon became a case of trying to hang on to whatever pace I could manage, trying to get to the end as best I could. Eventually finished in 39:56 (so second half only around 2% slower in 20:11) and the splits showed I actually speeded up a bit in the last 2km as I desperately tried to make sure I got under 40 mins. I came 3rd out of the 6 of us from GAD (and it was good to overtake one of the others at the 7km point!).

But still, this was the tenth 10km race I've done (all in the last 4 years) and I managed to set a significant Personal Worst time (previous slowest 39:26), so really not a good day at the office. I can put in the usual excuses - heavy recent training load (average 70 miles/week in last 4 weeks), this not being the main target race, somewhat tough conditions, the course measuring a bit long on the Garmin (10.2km) - but it's still a bit of a confidence knock, to only finish in what I've been training at as "marathon pace" at 4 min/km's, 90 seconds slower than the 10km race I did last month, and a minute slower than the 10km split I did in the half marathon a few weeks ago! Still I've done bad 5/10km races in marathon build-ups before and things have come good for the marathon, so must just put this behind me and forget about it and have faith in the process and the marathon taper to come.

Results - 28th out of 182

Regent's Park

Hyde Park