The training plan for the week looked like this:
As a result of that my training ended up as:
So not at all bad really.
Overall on the week I felt OK. Started with a stiff left knee so dropped Monday training. Through in a hard treadmill session on Saturday rather than a recovery session which I enjoyed. And the week ended with a 20Km amble around South Oxfordshire towards Abingdon-on-Thames.
Monday – So felt unsure if my knee was just being a bit off or was a real problem. So played it safe and skipped my recovery run. Applied a bit of compression on the day and took things easy – still had to cycle commute to the station and back for work, and spend a day in the office, but otherwise fairly light on the feet.
Tuesday – Foundation Run – 42 minutes in Heart Rate Zone 1 and 2. A gentle run and a good 8+Km. achieved which is normal for me on this run. Good warmup for the week.
Wednesday – Tempo – with 25 minutes in Heart Rate Zone 3, sandwiched between warmup and cool down. I like this, but it’s not overly fast. Its an easily achievable higher effort run as its not flat out and its a shortish duration.
Thursday – Rest Day
Friday – Long Intervals – this. was 5 minute at high effort with 3 minute recovery, repeated 3 times. Again its warmup and cool down. This is much more my kind of run. I like the higher effort runs. In this particular run I got some good Strava segments and some good personal achievements according to Garmin.
Saturday – bit of piste for me. Decided to follow a session plan recommended in the book ‘Running up that hill’ by Vassos Alexander. He quoted that when trying to get a sub 3 marathon he used to run a treadmill session for an hour. This session was 5 minutes at target marathon pace, then 1 minute flat out! For me I targeted 4:17 min.km for half marathon pace and then flat out for me on my treadmill is 16kph (that’s the highest setting I have!).
As for the result of that, I thought it was great. Hard but great. I. got a years best 5K and 10K as well as 1 mile time.
Sunday – Routine long run. Took a route north form home today, bit. of road, then grass followed by gravel path, road again then Thames Footpath. Finally back on tarmac/concrete to the finish. Best part of 20Km distance, 2Hrs and bloody cold!!! First tun with the long sleeves and gloves. When I started it was between 1 and 4C so some extra layers were very much the order of the day!
I also had the pleasure of watching an early morning balloon flight start in Abingdon, some beautiful sunrise over the horizon and some beautifully misty sections of the Thames river.
Next week I’ve not settled exactly on the plan. Probably similar to week 7 before starting to wind in before the Half Marathons. Couple of effort runs and then the final long run on the 15th.
Keep up the good running and training and stay motivated as the Autumn starts to take a hold of the mornings!
RR
Ridgeway Runner 