Half Marathon Training – Week 5

Last week training plan consisted of:

If you watch the video you’ll hear me talk about how the week went. Having been unwell I skipped a Tuesday session, moving it to Wednesday (hence why the plan above appears to have back to back tempo sessions!

I also felt this week was a real struggle with motivation. I’m usually pretty good at getting up and out the door early. Whether it was the post holiday blues or. maybe a lingering illness I simply found it harder to get out, putting many sessions at risk of being cut short to ensure I was ready for work on time.

Monday: Recover, Heart Rate Zone 1. Nice simple easy and gentle.

Tuesday: Rest day felt rough so didn’t go out. Probably the right decision!

Wednesday: Tempo run. Pushed Zone 4 for the main part of the run. Enjoyable, felt good.

Thursday: Foundation – Easy/Fairly easy (Zones 1 and 2). Good run between effort runs on Wednesday and Friday

Friday: Long intervals. Really enjoyed this, got some good sub 4min/km long intervals in. Even pushed my second fastest 5Km into the bargain.

Saturday: Split session, 20min easy treadmill in the morning, then 20 min on the treadmill in the evening with 12% incline. Trying to include more hills into training and the treadmill offers this too – good hard effort between jobs at home and looking after the little ones!

Sunday: Long run with 10 x intervals of 0.25mile and 0.75mile recovery. Felt good and strong. Averaged of 5:13min/Km over 22.6Km not bad for a training session with a bit of elevation too (OK not much but its some!)

Overall felt OK with he obvious exception of the Tuesday. Pace is looking good when put to the test, just need to make sure I get the longevity. I feel that the training is going well and that it’s putting me in a good position for the trio of half’s in a few weeks.

Next week looks like this:

How to Improve Your Running With Cross-Training

A decent little article giving some good cross training suggestions to improve your running.

— Read on www.google.co.uk/amp/s/lifehacker.com/how-to-improve-your-running-with-cross-training-1786578652/amp

Half Marathon Training – Week 4

So this week was family holiday time, and running took a bit of a back seat. The training plan was just o see how it goes, but the main advantage I had was that the routes I had obviously available to me were the South West Coastal Path around North Cornwall. This was going to provide me with some excellent hill training, but a bit of an unknown quantity.

I had planned a long run fo around 30miles which I hoped to do and then anything on top of that was going to be a bonus.

The running:

Sunday (last week) was a run to the North of Crackington Haven and then back into the woodland called East Wood. Just over 7Km with a good elevation for such a short run of 344m !

Monday was long run attempt, but ultimately, as you cans ee from the above, this fell sort. The weather at times was awful, torrential rain and strong winds. This made the coastal path a real slip hazard – a lot of it is slate underfoot!. So because the run was taking longer than hoped I called it short, so as to not eat up the whole day away from the family – it was holiday after all! feral!

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Wednesday was then another trip out in the rain, really wet and I took to the woodland trails this. time, some great trails, only 1.5ish miles into the woods, but. I ran an out and back and then repeated it. Still a good deal of undulation, and to be honest, my legs were moaning over the 1041m of elevation from Monday! Took my time, tried to run it out of my legs, it sort of worked.

That was it for the week, though as is customary when on a family holiday, a lot of time was spent walking the sights of Cornwall, between rain showers!!

There was a great walk to a beautiful waterfall near Tintagel, and at the start of the area called the Rocky Valley.

St Nectans Glen

The plan for Week 5 is below. This is the half way point on the half marathon training plan. Things are going well I feel, but lets see how a full week of training after a quiet break in Cornwall goes!!

Half Marathon Training – Week 3

This weeks training was planned as this:

However, with the family holiday starting on Saturday things were open to a bit of adjustment, as it was we got a pretty good week.

Monday and Wednesday both gentle 40/45 minute Heart Rate Zone 1 runs. easy and simple paced.

Tuesday a tempo run with 25 minutes in Zone 3. Pretty pleased with the outcome with a good tempo pace:

Thursday was a another repeat of the weekly hills session. That’s three weeks now with good progress across each week as is shown on this:

Friday, given that the holiday kicks off on Saturday was a longer than usual run. my routine 10 mile route. Absolutely chucked it down, but thats good test running for the rain. Need to get used to is as you can never be sure a planned race will be dry! Rain running is easy but it helps to be comfortable and used to it!

Saturday was a rest day – if driving 300 miles can be!!!!

Sunday – managed to get out for a recce in Cornwall. Not far but some big hills and some amazing environment to run in:

Next week, well I’m leaving it to flow as it goes. Holiday comes first. But I have a 50Km coastal path run planned and this is looking promising to achieve. I might try to do a couple more short woodland runs too as these are so nice and the woodland here is so close by. Then a Sunday run post holiday if I can! Lets see how we go!

Some of the best running books for that summer holiday reading

This came up today on Facebook.

Normally Facebook sponsored links are irrelevant and annoying. But this one is actually perfectly aligned with thinking about books for that late summer holiday 👍

www.facebook.com/440137179477111/posts/1376901852467301

What to carry for long trail runs

I came across this article which is a useful starting point and guide for thinking about the kit you might want to take with you if you decide to head to the hills, the fella or just of into yonder great outdoors for a long run. It’s only ideas and suggestions and you have to make your own choices but there are a few good pointers worth thinking about. Just make sure you have enough fuel, or plot routes to pick it up as you go, and make sure you stay safe 👍

The hills and trails offer beautiful, scenic and exhilarating running. But as this often takes us to remote and exposed places, we need to be mindful
— Read on www.runandbecome.com/running-product-advice/what-to-carry-for-hill-trail-fell-running

South west coasts path June 2018 – Porthcurno to Sennen – via Lands End

Half Marathon week 2

This weeks training plan was:

In summary:

Monday – Recovery – approximately 45 minutes at low effort. (Heart Rate Zone 1)

Tuesday – Fast finish – which means you progressively increase pace from each to moderate pace during the session. This session ended with a period at Heart Rate Zone 3 – medium effort – for 12 minutes.

Wednesday – Easy effort

Thursday – Easy to moderate effort

Friday – Hills. – 8 reps of 1min uphill at pace, 2 minutes low effort cool down.

I compared this to last week and got some good comparisons. This looks encouraging, a real difference from last week. This is just likely to be me finding my level at this, but if around 4min/Km is my mark on hill repeats, then I’m happy with that, and hopefully it builds some endurance and strength, as well as just improving the ability to run hills.

hills-week-1-and-2-comparisonDownload

Saturday – Easy effort, treadmill as usual

Sunday – Long run

Next weeks training has some adaptations due to Family holiday plans starting on Saturday but the plan will end up something like this, I hope :). There are two long runs – partly as im not sure the Sunday long run will happen, but if it does then bonus. I’ll only put about 3 runs in between Saturday 10th and 17th so they will all be longer runs and hilly. A good workout week!

It’s all about the Trails

I am a runner happy on roads and trails. most of my training runs are road based – convenience with fitting around the other demands of life, whilst I walks try and get those longs runs off out onto the trails that I can reach from home.

Many of my races have been road too, but a good few, and my longest have been trails.

Anyway, a runs is a run – right? Well yes and no. Running involves the same basic biomechanics of feet in front of feet repeatedly … However trail running demands a few technique differences that are not immediately obvious to those that just run roads. The other thing is that not all trails are the same and some are very different from others, whereas roads do tend to have a certain amount of consistency.

This article below is a good one about how you can look at training techniques that help improve your general running strength and form, but has a leaning towards trail running in particular.

Worth a look …

https://www.sportsshoes.com/trail/trail-running/trail-runs/workouts-to-improve-your-trail-running/?fbclid=IwAR2A2Ki4vPvapL9Qs_mEFB9I4IYkNWCPv6-TL6omLHxP3KVcvZwg0UjH7Zs

Short training sessions for Ultra Training

I saw this posted online somewhere and thought it was a nice article about how some specific short sessions can really help build strength and endurance for ultra running. Worth a go! Short sessions for longer running 🤷‍♂️

www.jamesrunsfar.com/blog/shorter-training-sessions-for-ultra-runners