Post London Marathon Training Review – Recovery/Taper

Post VLM it’s been a mixture of recovery from the marathon and taper ready for the MK Marathon this bank holiday Monday.

The Monday straight after the marathon  involved a fair bit of travelling as we went home via my sister’s house which was the opposite side of London from the hotel we stayed in. This didn’t really help with the active recovery but my legs didn’t feel too bad when we returned home.

Apart from some careful stair descending the following day I felt fine and even went for an easy run that evening, that turned into marathon pace by the end! A nice swim on Wednesday helped even more and dare I say it by Thursday I felt as right as rain again, so much so I ran again on Thursday and even squeezed in a useful six on the Saturday.

I was ready for my 5km swimathon on Sunday evening but unfortunately it was cancelled at the last minute. The suggestion was made by the Leisure Centre to reschedule it to the following Sunday night, the night before the MK Marathon – polite as my reaction was, I think they got the message that I wasn’t particularly enamoured by that…funnily enough the nice lady mentioned several other swimmers had reacted in the same way! If I was training for an ironman, fair enough 5km swim followed by a marathon around 12 hours later might make sense – but I’m not! It’s now on May 12th 🙂

The second week of my recovery/taper really was a taper, one 4 mile run, a 4.4 mile club handicap and a massage. The club handicap was good fun. I forgot my Garmin and then my Timex stopwatch also died so I ran ‘naked’. It was quite liberating and despite trying to run well within myself – I am tapering after all – I was only a minute off my best ever time so there was still some running in the legs after all. Things were looking up for Bank Holiday Monday and the MK Marathon….

Monday – rest

Tuesday –  2.5 miles easy

Wednesday  – swim with GreenlightPT

Thursday – 4 miles easy

Friday – rest

Saturday – 6.4 miles easy

Sunday – rest (swimathon cancelled)

Miles for the week – 12.9 miles

Monday – 4 miles easy

Tuesday –  rest

Wednesday  – rest

Thursday – 4.4 miles club handicap race (steady/easy)

Friday – physio/massage

Saturday – rest

Sunday – rest

Miles for the week – 8.4 miles

The Henry Allen Appeal

Week 16 – London Marathon Training Review

Final week and was pretty good to be honest. I avoided the usual Monday night swim in order to rest. Tuesday was a physio session and as my achilles has been quite good I had a full leg massage instead. This meant no running on Tuesday, another gold star!

Wednesday was the GreenlightPT swim session. I still went as I needed to do something but dropped down a lane so that the distance and intensity was reduced. Only problem with that meant I had to lead the lane, which meant clock watching and counting reps – not my forte! I’m used to hanging at the back of my normal lane leaving five seconds after the person in front and swimming as far as they do. Anyway, it was a good session and felt refreshed at the end of it.

On Thursday I met the gang for an early lap. We ran this at marathon pace which was great, just the confidence booster I needed. That was me done. I took annual leave on the Friday so I could get packed up for Sunday and just rest although I ended up doing some shopping and housework so didn’t really pan out as I had planned.

Saturday was travelling to London and the expo to pick up my number for Sunday. I met a few DLRR team mates there and found out I’d just missed Liz Yelling and Iwan Thomas. Expo was still good though – loads of freebies and things to try or have a look at – there was an opportunity to spend a fortune but we came out with a VLM mug, bear and t-shirt – it could have been a lot worse, especially as it was Saturday afternoon and many of the stands were introducing massive discounts on stuff.

On Sunday, I had a nice long run in the sun around London, with around 36,999 other people…

Monday – rest

Tuesday –  physio/massage

Wednesday  – swim with GreenlightPT

Thursday – 4 miles

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 26.5 miles

Miles for the week – 30.5 miles

The Henry Allen Appeal

Week 15 – London Marathon Training Review

Apologies for the late post but didn’t get a chance to post this on Sunday and then it didn’t seem appropriate last night. 😦

The penultimate training week…the tapering really took effect this week. I was a bit naughty and succumbed to some intervals on Tuesday. They were only 400m long and not particularly fast, just enough to remind my legs that I can move a bit faster sometimes and was reassuring to see I had regained some of the strength I had before my injury. My calves were a bit tight so it’s possible I did only do seven reps, kind of lost count and trying to recalculate while running a rep is impossible! Judging by the total mileage, I think I was probably 400m short but hey, life’s too short to worry about that…

I attended the usual swim session on Wednesday with GreenlightPT with the plan to go down a lane so that I could keep in line with the taper – no such luck, stayed in the top lane and completed a tough session, just a touch under 3km. I really can’t wait to do a triathlon now to see how my swimming has improved.

Thursday I met the guys and gals for an ‘early lap’ we deliberately didn’t go all out but it still got progressively quicker and wasn’t that much slower than the previous week. I was then very good and rather than go on the social run, which would normally work out at least another 5 miles, a couple of us went for a quick 1.5 mile run. Only trouble was the heavens opened and it didn’t just rain, it was a deluge and I haven’t been that soaked since the MK marathon last year! It was a rather tough 1.5. miles but doing that rather than the social run meant I kept my mileage down for the week.

This weekend was the last long run. The route planned by this weeks club routemaster was somewhat of a tour of the hills of MK, perhaps not the best run to do as a last run before London but there were plenty of drop out points so I bailed out after 7 miles and then ran the last three miles back to DL at race pace.

So after 15 weeks of injury, recovery, relapse, more recovery, illness, rebuilding and eventually almost a full return to training, I’ve actually made it to race week – woohoo!!!

Monday – rest

Tuesday –  4.6 miles (1 mile jog, 8x400m fast, 2 min rec), 1 mile warm down)

Wednesday  – swim with GreenlightPT

Thursday – 5.3 miles (4 mile early lap/1.3 mile run)

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 10 miles

Miles for the week – 19.9 miles

Week 14 – London Marathon Training Review

The miles have started to drop off now as I start to taper for London. I didn’t manage any cross training this week although not by choice. As Monday was Easter Monday the pool was shut in the evening and on Wednesday I wasn’t feeling too good so the upshot was no swimming this week.

Now that all my injuries and niggles seem to be on their way out I did contemplate some intervals on Tuesday, but the sensible voice in me determined that this was probably not the time to start 400m reps after three months of steady running – it would probably have ended in tears, so I decided to do a 3 mile progressive run, the first one at marathon pace then each mile 20 seconds quicker.

On Thursday I met the early group for our 4 mile ‘early lap’ and not quite sure what got into me but I was flying and felt really good. In fact all of us ran really well – just pushed each other along, so much so the final mile was a 7:17! I haven’t run a mile that fast in years! Overall the time was only just over 10 seconds off the fastest I’ve ever run on that route and at the end I still felt there was some left in the tank – I even went out on the main club run afterwards and that too was one of the quickest I’ve run that route.

This is all great confidence boosting stuff. I feel that I’ve managed to get some of my flat speed back, but I’m conscious the long runs I missed in January and February mean my basic endurance is still a bit lacking. Two 20 milers in two weeks will have helped loads but with only two more long Sunday runs to go I’m not got any chance of pushing the endurance further.

The club run on Sunday was billed as a three hour run as most are aiming for the MK marathon but for London this was a bit too long so I ran the first 8 miles with DLRR and then retraced my steps back to our starting point. My legs felt heavy today. I guess the last couple of weeks are still sitting in my legs but I found it quite a struggle. As I was on my own for the last 6 miles I thought I’d have a go at marathon pacing for a few miles to see how it felt and despite how my legs felt, it wasn’t too much of a problem. Doing that for 26 miles may be a bit more difficult though…

Monday – rest

Tuesday – 4.6 miles (1 mile jog, 3 miles steady, 0.6 miles warm down)

Wednesday  rest

Thursday – 9.2 miles (4 mile early lap/5.2 mile DLRR Social Run)

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 14 miles

Miles for the week – 27.8 miles

Week 13 – London Marathon Training Review

This was my highest mileage week so far and probably will be of my marathon training this season. After the 20 miles in the snow last Sunday, I actually didn’t feel too bad the next day and the long swim that evening really helped ease the muscles. We still didn’t get the full hour in on the swim session so I’m pretty confident that I can swim at least 3km in an hour. I could really do with an hour and a half session to get at least 4km in, just for piece of mind really with the 5km swimathon coming up but pool opening times and other commitments are limiting me at the moment.

Tuesday held a visit to the physio. My achilles has little pain now although it does feel tight now and again so it’s a useful session to loosen it up plus with my knee a bit niggly I’m keen to keep on top of it. They had a quick look at my gait and seems most of my niggles over the past year are due to flat feet and even stability shoes aren’t doing the job. Post marathon it looks as if orthotics may be on the cards, but to get me through the next few weeks with as  few problems as possible, I have more padding in my shoes to try and alleviate the problem. It was a tough physio session, perhaps the most brutal so far.  I did go out for an easy run (an agreed compromise with the physio) but part of me wishes I hadn’t as it was hard work and still quite slow.

Wednesday was swim training. Slightly different session to usual with pyramid sets but felt really strong for most of it. I’d had a rubbish day at work and it would have been quite easy to miss it but I am always glad I’ve been afterwards and boy do I sleep well on Wednesday nights!

Thursday night I met a few guys at the club for an early 4 mile loop. I thought I’d give my new trainers a go, with the insoles from my old trainers (plus padding) to ease the transition. I wasn’t sure how I would run but we agreed about 8:30 pace which was still quite fast for where I am at the moment but thought I’d wing it. Well, the first mile was 8:30 ad then got quicker and quicker finishing with a 7:46 – quickest mile I have run since before Christmas! Just goes to show, sometimes you need to be pushed outside your comfort zone! That gave me a bit of a boost for the second main club run and I thought I’d carry on in the same vein and run it reasonably hard so that I got some sort of a reasonable tempo run in. With loop backs I managed a further 5.2 miles.

I decided with four Sundays to London I could afford another really long run so felt 20 miles would be about right. I’ve been a bit naughty and not had a recovery week as you’re supposed to but felt as I’d had to build up really slowly I could probably manage another week before I cut back. The main club run was due to last about 2 hours 35 minutes so I figured I’d need to do a bit on my own at the end. I felt really comfortable the whole way round and averaged just under 9 minutes a mile for 20 miles. This included several shoe lace stops and a stop at the car to refill my bottles when I forgot to stop the watch, so possibly a bit quicker still. My penultimate mile was an 8:30 so it would seem still have something in the tank for the last six miles when they come and am actually now running better than I was this time last year…just got to stay healthy….

Monday – swim 2.7km

Tuesday – 4 miles easy

Wednesday – swim session (GreenlightPT)

Thursday – 9.2 miles (4 mile early lap/5.2 mile DLRR Social Run)

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 20 miles

Miles for the week – 33 miles

Week 12 – London Marathon Training Review

Still building on the good work last week but with one little glitch.

I was quite tired from the 18 mile run last Sunday so decided to give the Monday night swim session a miss so the first bit of training this week was a run on Tuesday night. So far most of my running has been easy or at best steady with no variety, mainly because I’m trying to manage my injury and also because I don’t feel confident about doing anything beyond straightforward running in fear of causing any more damage but I decided to throw caution to the wind and try some intervals for a change. Nothing too fast or short but just something to mix it up a bit so I went for 4 x 1 mile not for any set time, just to stretch my legs. None of the miles were particularly quick, perhaps marginally quicker than a couple of miles in the half a few weeks ago but that was about it.

Only problem was I started to get a bit of a niggle in my right knee. It feels a bit like the infamous ‘runners knee’ that most people get at some point. No real pain as such just discomfort. I suppose it might be  result of my right leg compensating for my left leg and I do have padding in my left shoe so might all be linked. But some icing seemed to help and I thought no more of it.

On Wednesday I helped out with the beginners group at work. They’re split into groups according to how far they run and I took out the most advanced group who ran 5km. It was a nice run with a chance to chat while running and got a few more miles on the clock. Both my knee and ankle felt ok so I wasn’t too worried about either.

Wednesday night (get me, a two session day – and I did a full 9 hours at work, plus a DLRR MutliSports meeting!) was the usual GreenlightPT session. As well as the warm up was a 12x100m set – hard work but still got a good bit of rest as the end of each rep – looking good for the tri season – not that I’ve booked anything up yet.

I couldn’t run on Thursday as the other half had to go out but I did plan a quick run on Friday. As it turned out by the time I’d finished work and popped to Tesco it was pouring down, almost verging on sleet so decided another rest day wouldn’t hurt, especially with the Oakley 20 on Sunday.

The rain on Friday turned to sleet and then snow with lots more forecast, plus icy temperatures and high winds. Upshot was the Oakley 20 was cancelled on Saturday morning along with virtually every other race in the area. It was a shame as it’s a really good race and always a good test. It was also going to be my longest run this year. Not too many weeks ago running 20 miles was just wishful thinking so I was gutted not to be able to run it, but in true DLRR style the Sunday club run morphed itself from a 9 mile off-road run into a three stage epic to enable us Oakley deprived people a chance to get 20 miles under our belts.

To do this meant an early start, 6:30 am breakfast, out defrosting and clearing the car ( a couple of inches of snow overnight had frozen solid to the car) at 7:30 am and then the journey to David Lloyd in MK to meet the others. To be fair apart from the roads in the village they were all pretty clear – only dodgy point was getting out the village – up a steep hill covered in solid ice that no other cars appeared have driven over – traction control was having a ball!

About 20 of us turned up for the extended run. We ran about 3 1/2 miles to Newport Pagnell to meet the rest of the DLRR crew. It wasn’t too bad running on the snow, much of it hadn’t been walked on so gave a reasonable footing. Normally I’d have worn trail shoes in the snow but 20 miles in them would be pushing it a bit so had to be careful. There were a fair few waiting for us in Newport and had a bit of a cheer as we arrived – a bit later than planned, but 3.5 miles in the snow takes a bit longer than normal! We then followed a great route along the old railway line to New Bradwell and looped back towards Linford Wood before rejoining the old railway line again and heading back to Newport. From there, after a quick group photo – Sunday run tradition – the longer run group set off back to David Lloyd.

It was a hard 3.5 miles back, the weather had got colder, the wind more biting and had started to snow again but we all got back in one piece and had at least 20 miles on the clock. I’m not sure exactly how many miles I completed as I’d forgotten my Garmin, and although I’d got my phone and was using RunKeeper, for some reason between Linford Wood and the railway walk it stopped working properly. Based on the route I know we took it was a straight 18.1 miles, but I know I did a fair few loop backs so I’m pretty confident I did the full 20. I’m not used to running ‘naked’ but it was quite liberating in a way as you can’t get hung up on pace or how far you’ve gone. It was nice to just concentrate on running and for a long run like that when time and pace wasn’t particularly an issue that’s perhaps no bad thing….

Anyway – 20 miles (at least) in just over 3 hours in the snow means it’s coming back together. No issues with my ankle, bit sore the last few miles, but so was everything. Knee was a bit sore, but not too bad running, just afterwards but I’m due a physio visit this week so will see if it is ‘runners knee’, and if so at least I can get it taped to ease the pain.

Monday – rest

Tuesday – 6.3 miles (1m easy, 4x1m fast, 1m easy)

Wednesday – 3.8 miles easy/swim session (GreenlightPT)

Thursday – rest

Friday – rest

Saturday – rest

Sunday – 20ish miles

Miles for the week – 30 miles

Run Stats for 2012

Miles run – 859 (plus a few without my Garmin)

Longest run – 26.2 miles (London Marathon – April)

Most miles run in a month – 132 in March

Fewest miles run in a month – 37 in January

What do these tell me?

• I doubled my mileage between February and March and more than trebled what I was running in January. That was an injury waiting to happen…
• I seem to churn out about 60 miles a month when fit and uninjured
• Going from a 60 mile a month base up to 100+ when marathon training has got to be better than going from 30+ to 130+ in two months!
• Fully fit I reckon I’d top 1000 miles in a year
• On average I run about 16 miles a week – just goes to show, quality  seems to outdo quantity…in my case anyway
• Cross training does help – to make up for my lack of miles I swim and cycle during the summer months

Anyway – that’s all for 2012 from me.

Happy New Year and happy running for 2013!

Stat Attack!

Thanks to a fellow blogger catslondonmarathon I learnt something new tonight. You can get Garmin overall stats so I can see how many miles I’ve run in total this year. And, well, I was pretty surprised to see that I’ve run 228 miles since the start of 2012. Not bad for a bird with PF three weeks sidelined with Man Flu (bit of a cold!).

I’m quite impressed with that to be honest, there’s also a couple more miles more than that where I’ve forgotten to wear my Garmin – I do still have a soft spot for my Timex Ironman, we’ve been together a long while….but can’t fault the Garmin, not sure how I actually used to run without it.

Well, short but sweet post – I’ll try to get some proper stats up this week.

Review of Week 6

Bit of a funny week really. With the cold weather the training plan has gone out of the window a bit. I was supposed to do some speed work on Tuesday but with copious amounts of ice about decided to swap with the Thursday tempo session and run 5 miles. Except, I didn’t as after 30 minutes of trying to stay upright I gave it up as a bad job and went home. I decided that for the sake of avoiding broken bones giving up was the sensible option.

The swimming on Wednesday didn’t happen, as usual! So by Thursday regardless of the weather I was quite desperate to get out there. It was cold and large sections of redway in MK were frozen over but I ran quicker than I planned so was pleased with it despite the weather.

The weather didn’t improve much over the weekend so the bike didn’t happen, but I did complete the 14 mile long run. Having woken up on Saturday with a head cold it was a long hard slog, but got there in the end!

 

 

Review of Week 5

This was the first week of  ‘proper’ training after easing myself in over the last four weeks and all in all seemed to go according to plan. The weather is playing havoc with the cross training (or lack of) but despite the cold snap all run sessions have been completed (mostly!) according to plan.

Tuesday’s speed session wasn’t as quick as it should be but I blame the cold weather, and even though I don’t mind running in the cold, I had to cut the session short. The tempo run on Thursday was well under target which was good in that I ran a lot quicker than I have done to date but also made me realise how reliant on the Garmin I had become! It had run out of juice so I had to run with my trusty Timex and guess how quickly I was running per mile.

The long run on Saturday was tough but confidence building. This was the longest I’d run for nearly four years so it was a bit of a step into the unknown. The temperature on Saturday wasn’t due to get above zero all day so I waited until lunchtime to run in the hope it was a bit warmer, but with several light layers on I wasn’t too cold at all. The first six miles flew by and although I had a couple of stops for gels and calf stretches felt pretty good. The next 2-3 miles were quite tough, partly because it was a new route and I wasn’t entirely sure where I was – running on redways in MK has that effect on you! The last three miles were not too bad – it was much colder as I ran along the river back into the countryside.

I was expecting some aches and pains but my PF wasn’t too bad at all the only niggle was a burning sensation in the ball of my foot. Didn’t start until the 8 mile mark so I’m assuming it’s mileage related but will do some internet diagnosis in the week just to be sure! It was tough, but I secretly enjoyed every mile and am looking forward to 14 miles next weekend – I think!