Old School
Have decided (or been forced rather) to go Garminless since yesterday. I have toyed with dropping the beep machine for many reasons.
Anyone who trains with me will know that without fail my Garmin will always beep for a mile split after ANY other Garmin in the vacinity which pisses me off muchly. It wrecks my head on long tempo runs coming out a good 6 secs per mile slower than anyone around me.
In fact some of my better races have been done without my watch telling me how I am doing. I think I became too much of a slave to the data.
Yesterday I did a couple of stead 8 mile runs. They were about 7/mm pace, maybe a bit slower, maybe a bit faster. If they were faster then come race day I will feel better than I expect at a given pace. If they were slower then I will be more confident of performing than if I'd known I was running say 8/mm whne I thought it was 7/mm. Win - Win !
So tonight, I did a known 8.65 mile tempo route. 2.5 mile warm up from Goddy to the old BRJ club. Good strong pace to warm up, felt like 6.45 ish on past runs. Felt good and relaxed. Quick stretch and onto the usual route.
First mile goes by real quick. Feel relaxed and fast and smooth for the first time in a long time. 2nd mile is always a drag, hard work around the underpass but a nice downhill bit. Mile markers from the frostbite are still on the roads. If I'd have had a watch on I'd have known what pace I was running!
3rd mile is hard work, almost all uphill with a couple of peaches in there. Tonight I eat the hills, fly up the first big one and hit 3 mile marker pretty quick. Great thing about this route is once you are at the top of the hill the last mile is almost all plum down! Fly down the fats road, last small hill to the turn is always hard work but get round and work hard to the finish.
Great session, really enjoyed it tonight even on my own. Good one to nail and would have been easy to take a pass and jog 8 miles round Cambourne.
Jog the 2.15 miles back to the car at about 7.20 pace feeling easy. Left ankle little sore as is right hammy (from weekend) but reckon the 4 miles tempo was in the 5.3x range on past runs.
Really happy with that. 24 miles on Saturday will help out with general fitness I reckon now I seem to have finally shaken the lurgy.
Training wise I am not sure if I have hit a plateau. My week has looked something like this -
Mon - 6 recovery
Tue - 10
Wed - 14
Thur - 8 inc 4 Tempo
Fri - Rest
Sat - 6 + 6
Sun - 8 steady / quick
Give or take for around 60 miles per week since January. Victoria Park 5 will tell me if I am moving forward or I have just stayed in similar shape. If I run a PB I'll take that as a sign there is more to come from just 1 or 2 hard sessions per week. If I don't I will probably have to add an interval session in there, probably longer to start with (quicker gains, less risk) or 6 x mile or something but I want to keep that 4 mile tempo in as I must admit I love doing it.
To be fair, the best tempo sessions I have done led to similar race performances that same weekend. Either I am running them too hard and not recovering in time OR I am becoming really efficient. Last 2 races were 4 miles @ 5:25/mm tempo -> 5 miles @ 5:26/mm race and last 5 of 10k tempo @ 5:38/mm -> 10k race @ 5:38/mm.
Answers on a postcode !!!
Either way I love running fast again. And not having a Garmin on means I don't have to answer pointless questions like the one above as I won't have a clue what-the-fuck pace I am running at !
Anyone who trains with me will know that without fail my Garmin will always beep for a mile split after ANY other Garmin in the vacinity which pisses me off muchly. It wrecks my head on long tempo runs coming out a good 6 secs per mile slower than anyone around me.
In fact some of my better races have been done without my watch telling me how I am doing. I think I became too much of a slave to the data.
Yesterday I did a couple of stead 8 mile runs. They were about 7/mm pace, maybe a bit slower, maybe a bit faster. If they were faster then come race day I will feel better than I expect at a given pace. If they were slower then I will be more confident of performing than if I'd known I was running say 8/mm whne I thought it was 7/mm. Win - Win !
So tonight, I did a known 8.65 mile tempo route. 2.5 mile warm up from Goddy to the old BRJ club. Good strong pace to warm up, felt like 6.45 ish on past runs. Felt good and relaxed. Quick stretch and onto the usual route.
First mile goes by real quick. Feel relaxed and fast and smooth for the first time in a long time. 2nd mile is always a drag, hard work around the underpass but a nice downhill bit. Mile markers from the frostbite are still on the roads. If I'd have had a watch on I'd have known what pace I was running!
3rd mile is hard work, almost all uphill with a couple of peaches in there. Tonight I eat the hills, fly up the first big one and hit 3 mile marker pretty quick. Great thing about this route is once you are at the top of the hill the last mile is almost all plum down! Fly down the fats road, last small hill to the turn is always hard work but get round and work hard to the finish.
Great session, really enjoyed it tonight even on my own. Good one to nail and would have been easy to take a pass and jog 8 miles round Cambourne.
Jog the 2.15 miles back to the car at about 7.20 pace feeling easy. Left ankle little sore as is right hammy (from weekend) but reckon the 4 miles tempo was in the 5.3x range on past runs.
Really happy with that. 24 miles on Saturday will help out with general fitness I reckon now I seem to have finally shaken the lurgy.
Training wise I am not sure if I have hit a plateau. My week has looked something like this -
Mon - 6 recovery
Tue - 10
Wed - 14
Thur - 8 inc 4 Tempo
Fri - Rest
Sat - 6 + 6
Sun - 8 steady / quick
Give or take for around 60 miles per week since January. Victoria Park 5 will tell me if I am moving forward or I have just stayed in similar shape. If I run a PB I'll take that as a sign there is more to come from just 1 or 2 hard sessions per week. If I don't I will probably have to add an interval session in there, probably longer to start with (quicker gains, less risk) or 6 x mile or something but I want to keep that 4 mile tempo in as I must admit I love doing it.
To be fair, the best tempo sessions I have done led to similar race performances that same weekend. Either I am running them too hard and not recovering in time OR I am becoming really efficient. Last 2 races were 4 miles @ 5:25/mm tempo -> 5 miles @ 5:26/mm race and last 5 of 10k tempo @ 5:38/mm -> 10k race @ 5:38/mm.
Answers on a postcode !!!
Either way I love running fast again. And not having a Garmin on means I don't have to answer pointless questions like the one above as I won't have a clue what-the-fuck pace I am running at !
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