Training Log Archive: Whitesheep

London to Brighton
Our team of 4 became fragmented pretty early. Two guys held up by a puncture just at the same time as I started nailing it to try and catch our other guy in a case of mistaken identity. After 20 mins hard effort I caught him at some lights and realised I had the wrong guy. The right one was just behind wondering what on earth I was up to.
The upshot was we were two groups at least 45 mins apart so we just cracked on. Had a good time, I was stronger in the hills and the other Tom more powerful on flats so we got each other round. Went ok up ditchling beacon despite lack of cycling legs.

Tom actually set a fair pace over to Clapham from his place and I started to wonder if I was in for a tough day. Turned out he felt it was a pretty keen "warm up" too.

Easy along lea valley taking lil to see a horse and a slow worm. Started to feel a bit of a spring in my step.

weights

Easy over cooters hill

I've a plan for Valencia in the autumn...

A goal - 2:50. This is about the fastest that i can't rule out. From times in training i'd say i'm in or around my best ever shape over 5k. That would equate to low 2:50s if i could extend my fitness out to the marathon distance. But it would have been nice to have had a good race in the last few weeks to confirm this.
B goal - improve pb from 2:58. This one should be achievable as my 5k time on a bad day equates to around 2:57-58. So even if i've been optimistic about what shape i'm in, this should still just be a case of building stamina.
C goal - BQ or GFA. Even if training doesn't go so well i'd consider it worthwhile to get in for another jaunt round london or trip to boston.

A few weeks ago when i thought i was running well, i mainly had a good feeling over short reps. I think i am plenty quick enough over these short distances to have a crack at 2:50. Where i'm coming up short is stamina and longer sustained efforts. I've been reading a bit of canova's approach and he is big on time spent close to marathon pace, and sessions that mix up small changes in pace. This is the polar opposite of what i do now - plenty of slow running and hard intervals with rests/walking recoveries - and so there is a good chance it will fix some of my deficiencies.

So the plan is roughly:
next 7 weeks on pat leave - take the chance to build up volume at low intensity with long buggy runs.
august/september/october - a 14 week plan with the focus on long tempo efforts, long reps with "recoveries" near to marathon pace, and a handful of really tough days. Epically tough. Like canova's 2x10km in the morning and 2x10km in the afternoon (adjusted down a bit to my level)

Annoyingly felt a bit under the weather yesterday evening. Better today but was v careful to keep this v easy, hr under 130 for most. Lovely late afternoon.

Sore legs from yesterday but this was a nice loosener