All my runs lately appear to average 10 seconds either side of 7:42 pace despite the fact that they all have a different focus - Long, MP, hill reps, hill sprints. My recovery run on Monday was the only one that bucked the trend. My legs were still fatigued from Sunday's long run and the 8:33 pace was all I could muster.
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The 20 week programme I am looking at ("Run faster from the 5k to the Marathon" by Brad Higgins & Matt Fitzgerald) calls for a Tuesday run of 3 x 15 minutes @ MP, MP/HMP and HMP/10k Pace. Since I am jumping into the middle of the programme and I haven't done much speedwork I adapted (The main thrust of the book is towards adaptive running) the run to 2 x 2 miles @ MP with 10 x 15 second hills sprints (which I should have done on Monday). For MP I decided on 07:00 to 07:05 pace. The first 2 MP miles were a shade faster at 6:59 & 6:52 - a minute and a half later I was into the hill sprints which went reasonably well. They're sufficiently short to allow for a quick burst of speed (5:14 to 5:48 pace) and recovery. The return MP miles were a little faster than the outbound, particularly as I pushed hard for the last 200 yards of the 2nd mile ( trying to simulate race finish) 06:50/06:31. The start of the 2 warmdown miles was a struggle as my legs recovered from the fast finish but they soon came back to life.
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Wednesday I was in Inchydoney visiting my sister and mum. In the evening I managed to get out for a run through the light rain to Ardfield - towards Red Strand and back. There's a nice steady climb from mile 2 for about a mile and a half (08:30 pace outbound and 06:30 inbound) and a nice undulating road to the turnaround at 5.5 miles. It started to pour out of the heavens for the last mile so I continuted past the house to the beach and cooled down in the surf with a few surfers for company.
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Today I went looking for a new hill to run on. The programme called for 5 x 3 minutes uphill @ 5k effort. (I swapped Friday's for Thursday's run as I intend to run long on Saturday) Uphill speedwork longer than about 90 seconds efforts is alien to me so I was looking forward to it!!!. However as I had little speedwork in my legs I wasn't going to hold myself to the 5 reps. I warmed up towards the Regional Park and along the Wood Road and turned right over the Bride River to the base of the hill. I decided to run easy to the top of the hill to see how long it was. 16 minutes later I reached the highest point, although after the first mile the gradient eased. I ran at a steady pace back down to the start (a 6:40 mile at 130HR never felt so easy). Turning at the bottom I decided I had time/energy for 3 x 3 minute reps. I set out too fast at the start of the first rep and paid for it towards the end as my legs turned to jelly. For the next 2 the pace was more steady (07:09/07:13) - although both reps fell about 10 yards short of the first (06:54 pace). Still a good workout though.
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Mon 17th Aug 7.45 miles in 1:03:47 (08:33 pace @ 118HR)
. Tue 18th Aug 9.64 miles in 1:14:35 (07:44 pace @ 142HR) with 2 x 2 miles @ MP- and 10 x 15sec hill sprints. . Wed 19th Aug 11:28 miles in 1:25:23 (07:34 pace @ 133HR) .
Thur 20th Aug 9.73 miles in 1:15:23 (07:45 pace @ 135HR) with 3 x 3 min hills @ 5k effort.
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i kind of enjoy the 3-5 min hill efforts, was reading that Ryan Hall has been going his tempo runs up a mountain, 3,000 m in about an hour!
ReplyDeleteNice elevation profile on the chart. It looks quite a bit like the ones I usually do.
ReplyDeleteRick, we don't have mountains like that in Ireland. Not even close.
You broke the 7:42 barrier with that session Grellan! I like Hudson's book. Plenty of value in hill sessions, both long and short - a good way to get the HR up, and improve strength/speed.
ReplyDeleteThat is a very solid four days of running, and those uphill efforts would kill. Impressive.
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