Sunday 27 November 2011

Taper?

With the Clonakilty marathon only 13 days away (I must remember to sign up for it) I completed my one and only race specific workout today, heading out of the house shortly after 8:30 this morning for a two and a half hour run. The plan was to run in a reasonably glycogen depleted state so, as for all my morning training runs, I had no breakfast and also left the gels at home. The aim was to encourage my body to burn more fat at a moderately hard aerobic pace, so that on race day my glycogen stores will last longer.

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Instead of heading east towards the City I turned west heading into the hills between the Bride and Lee valleys on a beautiful sunny morning. As Clonakilty has a few hills along the course it was hills I was looking for. With a long hill at mile 3 using the 4 or 6 mile cut-in wasn't going to work today so i just eased into a pace under 7:30 until I hit the hill. My target was to average 7:30 pace through the hills taking advantage of the downhills to compensate for the slower uphill sections.

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Things went pretty much to plan over the first hilly 8 miles, in fact I was a minute ahead of my 7:30 target. With a half notion of getting under 3:10 in Clon, I dropped the pace towards 7:10, which I maintained pretty much to mile 19 - passing 13.11 in about 1:35. Over the last few miles the effort of maintaining pace was increasingly stressful and it eventually dropped to 7:31 for mile 20, which I passed in 2:24 - still ahead of my notional 2:25 target. I kept going until 2:30 was on the clock and was glad to stop - 20.83 miles (7:12 pace & 144HR Avg). If i'd kept going my pace would almost certainly have dropped to 8:00 and slower as fatigue was well and truly setting in. Hopefully the hills in Clon won't be as tough and i'll be a little more rested.

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Now time to taper, I suppose. Although with my weekly mileage at 45, I'm already halfway there.
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9 comments:

  1. Looks like you're fit enough for a sub 3:10, hills or not. The non-fueled long run is a good tip. I'm surprised more runners don't do that. Will keep that in mind when I run another marathon (one year in the future).

    Funny about the taper from 45 mile weeks. I've just got my mileage up to 40 mile weeks ;)

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  2. Looks like your in very good shape.
    Fully fueled and fresh sub 3 in the marathon looks more than possible again!
    Way to go :0]

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  3. I hope you remembered to sign up.

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  4. Ewen, I hope so. We're at different ends of the racing spectrum at the moment.

    Michael, you're right. I'm in denial.

    Rick, I love your spirit.

    Thomas, postal/online entries closed last Saturday. I posted mine off today, along with my Ballycotton entry. I'm sure my cheque(s) will be accepted.

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  5. Looks like Im going to be chasing you out there Grellan my aim is just to beat last years 3.20 not sure by how much yet but 3.10 is a bit to risky for me I think.. enjoy the tapper ...

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  6. Rob, why don't we start together and see how we get on. My starting pace will be 7:40/50, no rush.

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  7. Im planing on starting a bit quicker than that Grellan maybe 7.20
    Im gussing starting at that pace you will be pushing hard on the cut in`s I think they would burn me up on a hilly course but will hook in with you along the way..

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  8. Hi, I came across your site and wasn’t able to get an email address to contact you about some broken links on your site. Please email me back and I would be happy to point them out to you.

    Thanks!
    Mandie Hayes
    mandie.hayes10@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete