Solo Run: Marathon Training Week 5 of 10

Sunday, 12 May 2013

Marathon Training Week 5 of 10

Session 1 - Tuesday (1830hrs - 2030hrs)

4 x 1 mile @ 10k Pace with 2 minute recoveries between 5 mile easy warmup and 5-6 mile moderate cooldown.

I wasn't worried about this session too much as I was coming down from last weeks 4 x 8 laps of the track to 4 x 4 laps this week with 30 second more recovery - ok the pace was going to be 10 to 15 seconds per mile faster, but how tough could that be. Quite a bit as I found out.

While last months UCC 10k race was @ 6:21 pace average, I had already completed last weeks 4 x 2 miles @ HMP in 6:16/17 pace so I set my minimum target at my 10k PB pace of 6:09. With lane 1 open I had 6 minutes 1,600s in mind (90 second laps - 6:02 pace). Ok a bit faster that 10k pace, but surely i'm capable of churning out 6 minute mile repeats - not quite as it turned out - hitting repeats in 6:03/05/06/04 close enough but mildly dissappointing - it's a fine line between the 2 mile repeats @ 6:16 pace last week and mile repeats at 6:02 pace. Perhaps if I had an additional days rest after Sunday's marathon I might have done better. Then again I wanted to maximise the number of easy/rest days before my second session of the week.

15.97 miles in 1:55:44 (7:14 pace @ 136 Hr = 611 Hb/Km) with 4 x 1 Mile @ 6:03/05/06/04 pace.

Session 2 - Saturday (0930hrs - 1053:30 hrs)

Half Marathon Race

This is the only scheduled race in the programme and therefore took on a significance all of it's own - the only real test of how my training has gone and what i'm capable of. The timing was perfect for the Bandon Half Marathon (& 10k). The only issue is that it's a hilly half and I ~~couldn't~~ shouldn't compare the result against my HM PB of 1:22:32. How else was I going to rate my result though? The only thing I could think of was to compare it against last years results. Two of my clubmates had run this race last year and gone on to run sub 3 hour marathons in Cork, 3 weeks later. Pat ran the half in 1:24:05 and went on to run a relatively comfortable 2:58:18 in Cork, while Ann-Marie ran a 1:26:03 in Bandon and went on to a 2:59:51 in Cork. So my baseline target was half way between these 2 results - 1:25 (6:30 pace) with an eye on getting under 1:24 if things went well. Although the plan was to average 6:30 pace to the top of the hill at mile 6.

I headed out with Clubmates John and Tony, with John also planning on 6:30 pace (but more as a hard training run than a race) and Tony fresh from his 2:56 marathon PB in Limerick on Sunday (I know where I would be the weekend after a 2:56 Marathon PB - and this was his second race since the marathon, having completed the Pfizer 6 miler on Wednesday evening!!!).

Mile 3 - No sign of a hill yet.

We stayed more or less together until Mile 6 (39:08), just 8 seconds off target 6:30 pace average - although mile 6 was @ 7:04 pace (slowest of the day). I opened up the throttle on the downhill Miles 7 (5:56 - my fastest of the day) and 8 (6:04) and kept a pretty good 6:15 pace for the next 2 miles, passing Mile 10 in 1:03:37 - 6:22 pace (about a minute down on my HM PB - 1:02:46 @ Mile 10). The going got tough on the long rise between miles 10 and 11 (6:50) as I passed Carmel Crowley (leading female) with my legs turning to jelly, but thankfully turning back towards normal as the road levelled out and dropped steeply to give me a pretty decent mile 12 (6:15). The drop gives way to an energy zapping short but jelly leg climb, where I get passed by a 10k runner (I could hear him coming for a while and had assumed he was a HM runner). The 10k started 45 minutes after the HM - so if I was finishing in 1:25 say (6:30 pace), I should be in the company of 40 minute 10k runners (6:26 pace). Great Idea because a flagging HM runner could get pulled along by the 10k runners - although he was the only 10k runner that I saw (not many sub-40s today).

The last half mile was a steady drop to the finish line where I could open up the pace a little - Mile 13 in 6:11 and a final push to the finish - 1:23:30 for a 15th place finish and first M45 (worth €50). Delighted. John was just behind me with Tony a few seconds over 1:24 (and 2nd M45 - lucky for me he had a 2:56 marathon in his legs). Just under a minute (58s) outside my PB, but that was never going to be challenged on todays hilly course.