With no running since Saturday and no exercise at all over the last 2 days my legs were fairly fresh for this evenings session on the grass of UCC Farm with Joe and Norman from the club. Joe who's training for the Berlin Marathon in 3.5 weeks time was planning on 3 x 4 miles @ 3 hour Marathon pace with 3 mile recoveries. I figured it would be good training for the HM in the Lost Sheep Tri in 10 days time. I joined the session late and after a 1 mile warmup ran my opening 4 miles partly with Joe and Norman and then on my own - a tad fast at 6:39 pace. I then joined the others and recovered over a mile before heading into the second 4 miles - 6:48 pace, closer to the 6:50 target.
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A further mile recovery (we decided to scrap the longer recoveries and get the session over with earlier) and we launched into the final 4 miles. This was certainly tougher and a quick check on the pace after 1.5 miles revealed a 6:58 average. It took a lot of work over the next 2 miles to get that down to 6:50 average and when the 4 miles was up I was relieved - certainly much tougher than the 2 previous sessions despite the slightly slower pace. A 3.5 mile warmdown gave me 18.5 miles in total and that stiff post marathon feeling in my legs.
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Wed 1st Sept
18.54 miles in 2:17:57 (7:26 Pace @ 142 HR) with 3 x 4 miles @ 6:39/48/50 pace.
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Well done. Sounds like a good workout. I may have to experiment with that 3 X 4-mile format, could be a good way to mix things up for me.
ReplyDeleteBIG SESSION!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an Italian type marathon training workout, good one!
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ReplyDeleteInteresting session. I must give it a go sometime. Sounds like the type of session that would take a few days to recover from.
ReplyDeleteJamie, certainly a good session for mixing up a long run and perhaps to repeat a few times to see if there is any improvement.
ReplyDeleteRick, Joe tells me you're spot on with the Italian connection. I think he'll be a regular visitor to your blog from now on.
Paudie, surprisingly it is taking a while to recover. No running on Thursday and my easy 5 miler on Friday felt hard on the legs.