Daz Does Tri

7 easy miles on the trails Saturday, legs OK but generally tired. Marathon hangover or maybe just too much beer Friday night.  Either way nothing to worry about except the fact it will not stop training. The limiting factor on Saturday was the wind, really felt weak running into it and it felt like it was omni-present.  Plenty of beers with Friends on Saturday night then into the box for Spurs game Sunday.  Great game and had picture taken with Kyle Walker, we were like a bunch of school girls not 35-60 year old men !! Busy day today and ran at home.  Bit steadier than normal and around 41 mins for 6 miles.  Legs starting to feel my own again. Going to try something interval/y tomorrow and see how the pace is but once legs have recovered 6.30 pace will be comfy. Missus is looking at marathons in August or October - trying to combine a family holiday with one and we are looking at some interesting options.  August means today is the start of a 16 week marathon plan so options ar

So run day today. Legs feeling fresher for the day, almost normal. Day off work, shopping and noncing about. Posh fry-up (Ubantu) and Nandos for lunch, needed to get out anyways to burn off some flab! On the run, felt OK for a couple of miles, legs started aching. Garmin no signal so splits off laps (7.03, 6.47, 6.30, 6.44, 6.41). All off about 151/152 bpm once I had warmed up so not as bad as expected. Relaxed on the last 2 1/2 miles as legs were a bit stiff. Kept an eye on HR but to be fair was hard to keep it up high without tiring the legs. Pretty happy if I can have my own legs back by Sunday I reckon. That will be interesting as we have a box for the Spurs game and I have a lift so will be pretty hammered. Marathon recovery is taking it's time on the body, the mind has healed though. Pissed off I let myself down with poor discipline after a great build up but that's the draw of the marathon, fuck it up and you have a long wait till the next one. The learning curve

When I can't run, I think a lot about what I have done in the past - what works, what didn't etc. I know recently I hit a plateau in certain areas of running, while other areas wen't better than ever. Before London, I had become immune to adapting to running around 5.35/mm tempo runs. So much so that my last 2 races (10k & 5 miles) were around that, I had also done a lot of tempo work at that kind of pace on our Thursday runs. I was struggling to get faster at this pace while running around it was becoming easier. Good sessions and races were more about how I felt on the day than what I was capable of. General fitness was better than ever & efforts below 'marathon effort' 6 miles @ 6.10 ish pace for example was easier than it had ever been. I really enjoy running at this kind of pace in training. The biggest flaw in my training was specific long runs. I either hadn't done enough long runs OR I hadn't done the 2/3 at around marathon tempo

Race of the year for everyone, the Olympic marathon trial! The big aim for Daz Man - sub 2.45. Plan B - sub 2.45. Everything else is failure. ...or so I though. The skinny is that I started too fast, held pace, pushed on for a few miles and stumbled in. The final thought though is that I worked bloody hard to keep things respectable. Once you start too fast there is not a lot you can do about it. Unless you stop for a good while you are not going to get that wasted energy back. I got myself into trouble by 9 miles and switched to Plan B. I felt good up until 10 miles, from there I was desperate to get to half way. From 12 miles I was in trouble and by half way I felt worse than I should have felt at 20. I had been running for 1.20:44 and it felt like a lot longer. the pace ebbed away and the thought of keeping a 7.xx off the scorecard was all that was keeping me going. By 16 miles I was doing mental maths to break 3 hours. With a 6.59 for mile 21 I knew I was cooked a

After a dissapointing race but great week, T-2 was as follows- Mon - 5 Recovery Tue - 4 inc 1 x mile 5.33 & 0.5 mile @ 5.24/mm. Wed - REST Thu - 4 x mile @ 5:08/mm avge Fri - 14.5 easy Sat - REST Sun - 8 miles w/6 @ MP (6.08/mm) 38 miles The key session was probably the long run in the big scheme of things. Off road and easy but on very tired legs. Most pleasing was Thursdays session of 4 x mile in 5.02, 5.09, 5.11, 5.09 feeling good for a 5.08 avge off 3 mins recovery. Today I tested marathon pace with 6 miles @ 6.07, 6.06, 6.13, 6.13, 6.00, 6.00 feeling good. HR was a little high but it was bloody windy out there! Felt pretty easy but just need legs to recover more now into the final taper week. Last week from Saturday previous week have had a lot of quality - 5 miles @ 5.34/mm 13.4 miles with 9 @ 6.27/mm 1.5 miles @ 5.30/mm 4 x mile @ 5.08/mm 6 miles @ 6.08/mm The plan this week is: Mon - 6 MIMBLE Tue - 6 HR TEST (140, 145, 150, 160, 160, CD) Wed -

Been a while since I blogged. 4 weeks out from London finished a 70 mile week off with a nice easy off road 24 miler at 7.18/mm and a good solid 10 miles with DC @ 6.23 pace along the GBW. 3 solid weeks of 66, 60 & 71 miles with long runs of 24 & a 20 was a really positive block of training since my last race (27.10 5 miles) so last week the plan was to ease up for the Victoria Park 5. Monday I was feeling my old thigh injury. It always makes me paranoid after finishing off my 2010 London campaign and needing 8 weeks out in 2009 when I got into good shape. Tuesday just ran an easy 8.3 route at work feeling controlled. Little tired but around 7/mm feeling relaxed. Wednesday did a short, sharp marathon pace ish run - 5 miles @ 6.17/mm. Calves ached but thigh was fine. Whole hip area is a little achey but this is a decent clip for me. 977 beats per mile I think is a record - certainly a training run record :) Thursday I did an 8 mile recovery run at just under 7/mm.