Trainingsession 13th - 19th Feb
Sunday - Wokingham Half Marathon - 2nd in 64.55. Did 2 miles before and 5 after. (20)
Monday - 67 mins run home from work at 6.27 miling. Legs felt pretty good after yesterday. (10.5)
Tuesday - AM - 50 mins run to work at 6.22 miling. (8)
PM - 66 mins run back from work at 6.25 miling (10.5)
Wednesday - 2hours9 with 9 x 3min tempo efforts with 3 mins steady between them. Did the tempo along the canal. Actually felt quite tired when I picked up to tempo pace so just ran by feel and didnt measure the speed. This was my long run moved form this coming Sunday as I have a stag do on the Saturday! 149 avg HR and 6.10 miling. (21)
Thursday - AM - 48 mins easy to work. Kept it very easy after yesterday. Want to be fresh (ish!) for Saturday's big session 132bpm (7.5)
PM - 69 mins with Savage round the canals. Felt a bit better but held back a bit. 6.33 miling 138bpm (11)
Friday - 46 mins steady to work. 628 miling (7)
Saturday - 2hrs 21 mins with 30k tempo. Did the tempo round Hyde Park and plan was to start at 5.30 miling and run the last 10k at more like 5.10 miling. John Hutchins was doing 10 miles at marathon pace so he joined me once I'd done 14k. Pace picked up a it then and I moved away from him with 5 miles to go. Felt really comfy eary on and was holding myself back. A bit tired towards the end but still felt under control and wasn't fading. Very happy with the session! 5.17 miling altogether. Did 3 miles easy either side so 40k altogether.
5k splits: 16.54, 16.47, 16.28, 16.12, 16.05, 16.01. (25)
120 miles. 3 runs in the week added up to 66 miles! Considering I only double dayed twice this week, to still make it a 120 mile week is pretty good. Some really good money in the marathon bank, and I'm racing well, as Wokingham showed.
Comments On "13th - 19th Feb"
Wow, what a week. What time are you looking for this year?
Paul Posted on March 7th, 2011Thanks again Old Scottie and hello Phill! To be told my training is good from someone who is known for training tough is high praise indeed! I certainly feel strong at the moment and the most encouraging thing about these sessions is that I'm not in bits at the end. Of course I'm tired but I'm not falling apart or fading. I'm maintaining well.
Ben Posted on March 1st, 2011Some great, true marathon running there Ben. Shows how strong you are that you can back up the week after a HM.
Phill Sly Posted on February 27th, 2011To back up the suggestion of Canova/ Old Scottie I've know of a few strong marathoners doubling up. One guy I know (cant recall his name now) used to regularly run a 10mile tempo in the am, then try and run faster on the same course in the PM. All in the context of a big week. He wasnt a talent, but he did run 2.16 at age 36 or 37.
I've been a fan of doing similar in the past too. Keep it up!
Sessions
Might be worth experimenting with trying 1 of the sessions out...you would likely lose nothing by doing so, potentially make a significant gain, and at the very least find out what effect this kind of double day has on you in terms of recovery and subsequent planned sessions...There is still plenty of time before London so as long as you did it in a controlled fashion there would not be any adverse impact...
Old Scottie Posted on February 23rd, 2011Your 30K tempo was around 2:18 pace and I reckon with the improvement due over the next few weeks you are on for a breakthrough to around 2:13 +/- 30secs...
Keep it controlled :)
Old Scottie
That's real food for thought there. Really interesting stuff. I think the double day aspect isn't something Nick thinks is ideal, but pretty awesome nonetheless and I love learning about this stuff!
Ben Posted on February 23rd, 2011Recent Quote from Canova on Special Blocks AM and PM
(Sorry Ben, put it in last week's log by mistake)
Old Scottie Posted on February 23rd, 2011Recent Quote from Canova on Special Blocks AM and PM
...about the special block, the mean is to reach a massive physiological stimula, such as to produce the greatest possible adaptation in the body of the athlete.
This type of training is, of course, very much expensive, and cannot be used by athletes with little base, or still young.
I use about once every 3-4 weeks during the preparation for Marathon or HM. This training (from 45 to 60 km in the same day) includes a very high percentage (between 50% and 65%) of specific speed, and the remaining mileage is at speed 85%-90% of the specific.
For marathon, we have different kinds of "special blocks" :
A) SPECIAL BLOCK OF VOLUME
Example : Same in the morning and in the afternoon :
10 km at 90% of Marathon Pace + 10 > 15 km at full Marathon pace (globally 20 km at 90% + 20-30 km at Marathon pace).
In the case of an athlete running 2:06:36 (3:00 / km), can be 10k in 33' + 15 km in 45', both morning and afternoon.
In this way, we can run in one day more kilometers at specific speed, teaching our fibres to create the correct mixture of fuel reducing the request of glycogen (replaced
by the most powerful fatty acids) in order to last longer.
For helping the depletion of the tank, we also use not to have a lunch with carbohydrates : only some vegetable, and a lot of liquids. In any case, normally the training of the afternoon becomes better, and everybody is surprised...
B) SPECIAL MIXED BLOCK "A" (giving more importance to the Aerobic Power)
Ex :
a) 10 km at 90% of MP + 5 km at 105% (in the case of the above Marathon runner, 2'51" / km = 14'15")
b) 10 km at 90% + 10 x 1000m at 108% (2'46") rec. 2'
C) SPECIAL MIXED BLOCK "B" (giving more importance to the strength endurance)
Ex :
a) 10 km at 90% + 10 km at 100% (30')
b) 10 km at 90% + 15 x 500m climbing (10-12% gradient) very fast with long recovery (4'/5' in between)
We can organise a lot of different special blocks, depending on the period of the season and on the technical goals of the moment. I invite coaches to use their imagination.
One important point : when we want to bring somebody with high talent to become a top champion, WE NEED TO STIMULATE HIS QUALITIES. Everytime we go for specific training, the athlete must be able to produce quality, otherwise never can become a champion. When we speak about EXTENSION, we speak about QUALITY OF EXTENSION. Mileage without intensity is completely useless (good for rigeneration, but it's not training). So, the quality for a marathon runner is not to run a lot of 400m in 60", when the pace for the WR is 71" every 400m. Every speed faster than 5% of the race pace doesn't have any action on the specific performance (in this case, if the MP for the WE is 2'57" = 17"7 every 100m, 105% is 15"9 = 400m in 63"6 = 1000m in 2'39").
See what you think Ben
Old Scottie
Epic
I think many people did much harder - the bit I'm happy about is that I didn't feel amazingly tired throughout it!
Ben M Posted on February 21st, 2011That has to be one of the toughest weeks I've ever seen.gotta be looking at sub 2.15
Epic Posted on February 21st, 2011