And so, armed with my trusty calculator and the stores of articles I have been putting off reading for the last 10 weeks, I started on the task of 'getting serious'. First thing was the pace - this week marked the start of sessions which included the words 'faster than race pace', 'at race pace' and 'slower than race pace', so now was the time to finally decide on what that race pace was going to be! Since my last blog about pace, I have been giving a lot more thought on the speed I want to/ will be physically capable of running at for a full 26.2 miles, and I had vaguely decided to settle for 10 min/ miles until at least the halfway point - then if I feel good, I can go a bit faster. This would mean I complete the marathon in around 4.30 hours, a time that seems more realistic for my first marathon.
Now, given that my average pace for each run was 8.30 min/ miles (yes I'm not good at varying it!!), the 'faster than race pace' parts don't seem to be a problem. This covered all of the sessions from Monday - Saturday, so I happily did:
Monday: Rest (I am very good at this....!!)
Tuesday: 40 mins steady followed by 4 x 100m strides (got my maths wrong, so this was actually 40mins steady, 4 x 161m strides.. oops). Loved the strides as like ending a session feeling like I have really pushed myself!
Wednesday: Body conditioning class - full of squats, lunges and sit-ups which made me suitable sore the next day!
Thursday: This was meant to be a 50min steady run, however I have just joined a running club (more on that later..), so did the club session which was half an hour of Paarlauf (basically like a relay, so speed work with a short recovery in between).
Friday: 30 minutes of squats, lunges, sit ups, push ups and the plank (ugh) - at home as couldn't make it to the gym, so all without weights this time.
Saturday: 40 minute hill run. This was tough (still not liking those hills!) but again, really makes me feel like I have achieved something at the end so secretly do enjoy it! Was very, very muddy though (as you can see from my shoes!) - I was covered in mud from head to toe by the end!
So, that was all the 'fast' sessions done.. and then there was Sunday - the day of the long run! After last weeks attempt, I was feeling a little nervous about this. I was scheduled to run 12 miles - and last time I had failed to do 9! So, wanting to make it a little easier on myself (I figured it was important to get the miles in and have a good run than massively push myself and potentially not make it!), I chose to go along the Cuckoo Trail - a nice, flat, tarmac (mud free!) path. Now, according to all the information I had read, I needed to be doing the long run at about 30 - 45 seconds slower than my marathon pace, so for me, that would be between 10.30 and 10.45 min/ miles. So, I plugged all the distance/ pace details into my garmin, filled up my water bottle, and off I went... at 8.30 min/miles!
Quickly realising my error, after the first mile I forced myself to slow to an easy jog (weird how hard it is to go slow! Or, slower than I am used to anyway..). Even a slow jog however only got me to 9.20 min/ miles - and I simply couldn't make myself go any slower! Giving up on the 10.30 min/mile plan, I decided to go for consistency - and this, I found, I could do! Every mile from then on was between 9.20 and 9.24 - and it all felt comfortable! All giving me confidence in my training plan - I had just completed the longest run I have ever done (only ever run 10 miles before, and that was in a race. Longest training run was 8 miles...) and I felt... fine!
Well, I say fine... my water ran out at mile 9 (need a bigger bottle!), and by mile 10 I felt STARVING! So, next time... more water, and something to snack on or give me a bit on energy - I am tempted to start trying out the gels, but I have to admit, I am putting it off as I just can't imagine them tasting very nice! But, in term of my legs coping... I was feeling great :-) All in all... a good week of running!
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