Training

LSR (8 miles @ marathon effort)

16.0 miles 2:09:58 8:07/mi

What a terrible running week! Totally lost my mojo at the start of the week, and struggled to summon the effort to get out for my eight miler. Then developed an achilles niggle which I used as an excuse to skip the next couple of days. A Christmas party ensured Friday’s run was a no-go, and on Saturday I still couldn’t be bothered to get out there.

Knuckled down today though for the main session of the week – a 16 mile long run with 8 miles at marathon pace. At this stage I’m not 100% sure what my marathon pace is so ran to feel instead. Pace might have been a little higher, and heart rate might have been a little lower, but it was quite windy down on the Severn and overall just pleased I got out there and completed the run.

Hoping for a much better week next week!!

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Tempo run (4 mi @ ~7:29 pace)

9.0 miles 1:14:59 8:18/mi

Day one of marathon training! I will be following the Pete Pfitzinger 18 week, 55-70 mile per week plan from Advanced Marathoning. Six runs per week, and >50 miles per week for the next 16 weeks – bring it on!

It certainly throws you in at the deep end – first run is four miles at tempo. Didn’t go particularly well unfortunately. I was running in to the wind, and of course my usual route home is net uphill, but my heart rate was also high compared to how the effort felt. Even during the warm up it shot up much higher than usual, and the pace was very disappointing. The air was very cold and my breathing felt a little short, so perhaps that did it.

Strange as I felt fine in myself beforehand. I decided to just stick with an effort that felt sustainable, and I’m just going to write it off as “one of those runs”. Not the best start to my marathon campaign, but plenty more runs to make up for it…

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