1 gnarly diagnosis and 6 months of falling off the map later and I’ve finally signed up for a race. Half marathon in 10 weeks. Aiming for a conservative 1:25, which is a ways off what I’d shoot for normally but hopefully still a bit of a carrot. Not chasing performance particularly aggressively, just building back and seeing how things go, but I’m pretty excited to get back on a plan and put some work in. Big goal is just to gather some data/results because I’ve been terribly inconsistent and haven’t so much as looked at a running watch in months, just been running recreationally a bit for the old brain.
Also club beer run is back soon so I gotta get it together
Managed 4 short runs this week for a bit over 30km, all pain free and w/out any post-run consequences. I’m continuing w/my trips to the PT as well as prescribed abdominal and back exercises. Things are looking up
I feeling a bit down to be honest, got the worst cold I have had in years.
Missed all High intensity rep sessions during the last three weeks, last one I did was 8x 800m at 5km pace.
Missed two long runs in the last 3 weeks, including todays, did 18 miles 29km last weekend
The only decent sessions I managed to get done are Marathon paced sessions, 14 miles and MP and 10 miles at MP.
Only one run in the last 7 days and that was the MP session, which was a mistake, as because I was fresh it seemed okay but I have not been able to recovery from it.
Tomorrow should be the start of my taper but to be honest apart from a long run and a two MP runs I’ve done F all for the best part of 14 days, so to taper seems weird
Would you start the taper and do one last long run (this weeks) next weekend when hopefully recovered, leaving a proper 2 week taper instead of a three week taper (that worked really well last year but I didn’t miss a single session in the build)???
@Bbt67 You’ve been sick and your build up has mostly (?) gone as planned. As you already know, you can’t make up the training w/a fixed race date so close. That said, I’d trust your gut feeling. If your gut is telling you that doing the long run w/ a 2wk taper will work, go for it. BUT, if that’s you trying to squeeze in some make-up training, don’t do it. It’s always better to go in a bit undercooked than even the tiniest bit over.
Thanks, yes you are right, I will stick to original plan / taper. It seems odd tapering when I’ve done so little in the last two weeks but it is the correct thing to do and the first week of the taper is still pretty hard anyway, just less time.
Number one focus it to get this weeks sessions done with the minimum fuss (and ensure I fully recover from my current illness, a work colleague suffered for 14 days with it, hoping I can get on top of it sooner than that, in hindsight I realise I’ve had it since last Wednesday)
Alright. Been doing z2 since … jan!?
Reached my volume goal just before going on vacation.
So i did one of those garmin threshold tests and according to it ive gotten faster since my october half marathon.
So now i begin to add intensity once a week in my barryP style training. And i’ll add a “end with race pace” run as well
3 short days of running easy
1 day of intervals at threshold
1 day of easy until the last 10-15 minutes of the run at race pace
1 long easy run that i’m increase up to about 18km by 3rd week of april.
(theres some cycling and swimming on top of that obviously)
I have been feeling great following my own (heavily modified) version of barryP style training. My top end speed is increasing and my steady pace is getting faster at the same heart rate. My weekly schedule is:
2 transition/brick runs off of bike rides. I am limiting them to 10 minutes max. These are typically hard runs in the same vein as the bike ride. If the bike is threshold, the run off the bike is threshold; if the bike is sprints, the run off the bike is sprints. Again, limiting these runs to 10 minutes max. 2 easy runs, max 10 minutes 2 easy medium length runs. These are fairly easy (Z1/Z2). One is the day after a hard bike, hard run and hard swim and the other is the same day as my long bike ride. 1 longer run
I’ve been following this for several months as I build to my goal volume. I will probably follow it for another month or two before switching to more specific triathlon training.
On a gradual decline my heart rate will drop significantly so I’ll up the pace with deliberate form and it’ll still be ten beats down so I’m getting Cv respite.
Steep decline and I’m more concerned about saving my knees
Uphill - when I’m training it’s usually about steady effort so like a tri bike ride I’ll go up to a threshold effort but no harder. If it’s race day, then again like cycling I’ll be thinking about how many matches I can burn and still sprint to the finish line.
If it’s an easy training run I’ll walk uphill whenever I feel like it - it’s counterproductive to run hard when you’ve planned an easy run.
Running hills in a race is different than training. The way you approach hills is going to be dependent on the grade, duration and the length of the race. You want to get up the hill as fast as possible and are going to need to put in more effort. In races like XC or a 5k or 10k road race you want to push the uphill but not redline it. Longer races you stretch out that effort but are still putting in more effort. No matter what race you are doing you want to be able to push over the top of the crest of the hill and keep up the speed. On steeper downhill grades during a race you let go and let gravity pull you down trying to recover as much as possible. In training you keep it consistent and as many have said above on the downs you try to save the knees and ankles.
Lumps/hills/mountains? Can you see the top, depends on length/distance/incline and mainly what is the most efficient way of getting to the top for long races. Power walking or running with short strides and quick cadence. Stryd for me comes in handy here to ensure I’m not overdoing effort.
Downhill vary, if it’s steep short, I do the spinning a log method, back pedalling type stuff. Hard to explain but great for downhill, do the action of being on that log, spinning the log forward as you descend downhill… Terrain that isn’t too steep, take advantage of gravity, open strides, but don’t kill your legs with impact.
I started doing some trail running to supplement my cycling over the cold/wet UK winter and ended up entering a road half marathon last weekend and took 30mins off my PB from the last time I ran the same race in 2016.
I did a 1:28:06 which I’m super chuffed with. My quads are still killing me 3 days later - I assume because all my “training” was trails and they weren’t ready for the constant plodding of road?
So now I’m thinking I might actually like running? I would like to do a marathon but I’m sort of an all-or-nothing kind of guy.
Would a goal to run a sub 3 hour marathon be at all realistic if I were to do a proper 12-week training plan?
I’m thinking this would be a “next year” thing - Manchester Marathon is in April so April 2024 - start my training after Xmas?
Still no running this week waiting for a chest infection to clear up. The ultimate taper… zero running. Did 60 minutes on the bike yesterday Z1 power, heart rate under 108 bpm. Only 24km ran in the last 10 days.
Legs feel super fresh, but worried about the lungs and longer lasting illness. Might try a HR capped run this evening 108 - 110 bpm cap
Revised my Manchester Marathon goal down (slower) to 3hr30 but really my only goal is to run the best race I can on my condition on the day. Not sure what going to happen in the next 18 days.
