The streak that started on 1st June 2012 continues and the total number of days is now 220. There’s now 15 weeks to go before the Virgin London Marathon and a crack at running sub 2.45. The 3rd week of the Mike Gratton “hard training” plan saw me top 100 miles for the first time in my life. Not something I thought I’d achieve as part of this block but very happy to have survived all the sessions and I remain injury free. The last 3 weeks has been 71, 83 and 100.5 miles. Previous lifetime biggest week was 74 I think so this is an excellent block. But is more better? I think it is. I think it’s the speed endurance that it develops. I’ve seen little signs but I’ll wait to comment fully on this till after Wokingham.
The last session of the week included a trot out at Bushy Park 5k. Placed 7th in a time of 18.01. Started very comfortably with 1st mile in 5.55, 2nd mile in 5.45 and 3rd mile in 5.40. Felt very strong and really enjoyed it. Even the picture shows good form.
I wasn’t really planning on hitting 100 miles this week. I did and I’m glad but it wasn’t really what the schedule dictated. I’d have been in the mid 90s but decided to tag a few miles onto the end of some of the later runs in the week to squeak over 100. It’s always fascinated me what it would be like and now I know! Chasing a sub 2.45 marathon is still firmly in my mind and even my fridge has the 2010 time (2hrs.47m.04s) so I’m constantly reminded of the goal. THAT SAID. I’m quietly, or not so quietly given I’ve written it publicly, hoping for a little more. Maybe even closer to 2.40 and dare I say it…..sub 2.40. We’ll see how things go at the Wokingham half marathon on the 9th Feb. If I can run under my PB I’ll be a happy man. I’ll be targeting a 1.15 though which is slightly over a minute quicker than my PB.
Physically I was very very tired by the end of this week. Probably the most tired I’ve been in the last 7 months. I think this was obviously due to the cumulative mileage but also the hard effort at Bushy with tired legs. I really let rip in that last half mile. Other than that the week went by remarkably comfortably both physically and mentally. I had a lot of excellent company from people like Danny Norman & Chris Walmsley (long run Sun), Turbos (ponds of Wimbledon run Monday), Double Park run Tuesday (Grant Russell & Others), Mitch Philips on Thurs and Colin Todd on Saturday. Makes such a difference to have company.
Here’s how the 100 miles was achieved.
Next week it’s an “easy week” but I note there’s still 3 doubles and of course the mandatory daily run. I reckon it’s around 60 miles though so a big step down.
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