Coming into August

Friday 1^st August

Time flies over the summer. I noticed that for the month of July I ran 199 miles. A mile short of 200 miles for the month. Had I ventured yesterday for even 8 minutes I would have hit the 2 ton mark but it wasn’t possible yesterday as I had a few social and family calls to make yesterday. Anyway I also wanted the days rest before I ventured out for my long run today, 15 miles. Neverthe less my mileage this month is the highest I have run in nearly 12 months so I am happy with that. The last couple of weeks have seen me hit close to or slightly over the 50 mile mark.  I will try to return to that kind of mileage when I get back from the holidays later next week but so far so good. I was also happy I managed to a long run of 20 miles, midweek runs of close to 12 miles and a few races of 5 mile distance as well. As Grellan pointed out “My endurance base is building nicely”. What I do need to work on though is running at marathon goal pace. I feel if i don’t work on that in particular over August and September I will struggle to achieve a decent time in Amsterdam. I want to be able to do more than run a efficient marathon at 8.30 pace.

As a result I have scheduled in a number of marathon pace long runs over the next 11 weeks. There isn’t a need to schedule in too many – one every 3 to 4 weeks is plenty but they are important. Along with tempos, midweek runs, recovery runs and tempo runs they play a important in giving me a idea of where I am going. It’s easier to schedule them in as a part of races so I was thinking the Clonmel half marathon in mid August and the Cork Cobh 15 mile race at the end of September are ideal times to incorporate these. I might also try to fit one in in mid September. I have also entered the Charleville half marathon in September but I hope to be in decent shape to race it. My attempt at running a marathon portion run was mixed enough today. I had planned to run a hour easy (7.16 miles in 62 minutes) and then run 10 miles at marathon pace. I was thinking around 7.50 marathon pace/garmin time. I was doing fine up to mile 8 running at average pace of 7.39 but tellingly I had run the 6^th and 7^th miles at 7.23 each which meant I was suffering at mile 8. The turnaround at the railway proved too much mentally and I stopped. Hr was 158 for the MP portion which was obviously too high. I finished up with a 2 mile walk home. A mixed result.

This week I have had to fit in as many miles this week between Monday to Friday. I do hope to get a small bit of running in during the break but as I am in unfamiliar surroundings I don’t know where, when or how much mileage I can get done. I suppose just enough running to keep the legs fresh is enough of a plan. There will enough weeks left to tire myself out in August and September.

I threw myself up on the scales last week in the local chemist. I weighed myself on June 4^th on the same scales coming in at 13stone 7.8 pounds. Therefore I made a few changes on the diet front – namely no sugar in the tea, no biscuits in the weekly shop (i was getting through a packet a week), no chocolate (I was doing well up to last week) little to no beer  and a few more veggie dinners (salads and stirfrys). Anyway I dropped the 7.8 pounds and stood at 13 stone. While there is bound to be a increase over the next few weeks (German and Danish food !!!!)hopefully the rate of improvement will be maintained over the next number of months. 

I was worried on Monday how I would react to the unexpected 20 miler on the Sunday but as it was only a recovery jog I was able to take it as I pleased. Tuesday was a tougher session 2 mile warm up in 17 minutes and a 5 mile tempo at 7.15 pace followed by a 1 mile cooldown. The splits were even enough – 7.16,7.14,7.22,7.07, 7.14 and the Hr while climbing to 167 for the last mile evened out to 157 overall. I felt reasonably untroubled during the run but was glad to be finished. Wednesday was a tougher business – a 95 minute run with the last 4 miles at a faster pace. In all I covered 11.7 miles walking the last minute as a cooldown. I ran the first 7 miles at 8.15 pace pushing on for the last 4.5 miles at around 7.40 pace. There was no real reason for me to run the last portion so fast it was just a case of wanting too. A lot of literature recommends running these runs at a pace similar to your long runs certainly not forcing it at race pace. I probably was anxious to do so as i was overly bothered about not getting any running done over the weekend. Anyway it was a bad idea as the legs were heavy enough by Thursday forcing me to take a rest day. Lesson learned (for now).

I also noticed that sleeping is becoming a important factor in my training over the last 6 weeks. In other words I can’t get enough of it. Taking a 60 minute nap in the afternoon on top of my normal 9 hours during the night is becoming a vital part of my recovery. Of course I won’t have that luxury when I am back teaching in September but that will be easily dealt with too, it just means getting to bed a hour earlier the night before.

Monday 4 mile recovery @ 10.15 pace with 126 HR, Tuesday 8 miles with 5 mile tempo at 7.15 pace with 157 HR, Wednesday 11.7 miles at 8.01 pace, Thursday nada, Friday 15.5 miles with 8 miles at 7.39 pace with 158 HR and a 2 mile walk home.