Grinding it out

Back into lockdown, in the cold.  Can only mean one thing - plenty more treadmill for me and the boys !!

Form is really coming along now, really starting to believe #project15 can happen. It's only a whisper but the improvement is there. The concern, as always, is the body holding up.  I'm doing more of the rehab and S&C that needs to support this and right now it feels like I can hold it together.

It's a funny battle. The hips, glutes, lower back area is where the problems are so strengthening all of that chain is required. Putting the area under stress and most likely to collapse under strain seems counter intuitive but left un-strengthened it will fail spectacularly as it always does!

Backing off the miles really takes a lot of pressure off. Pace this week is much better, a 5 mile steady run on Wednesday at 6.07/mm felt pretty relaxed. That was flat out 5k pace at the start of the year ! I can handle that pretty comfortably at the minute which is a great sign. It doesn't need to be an awful lot quicker than that to be honest.

Easy to recovery run on Thursday of 7.5 miles at 7:20/mm felt really good. Sometimes it's possible to bull shit yourself that these runs are easier than they actually are but this week it really clicked.

Keeping to 35 miles per week for me now gives me the opposite problem I usually have - cutting miles DOWN to get to target! Tomorrow I only need to run about 3-4 miles nice and easy which in turn means I can run better quality for Sundays long(ish) steady run. It also means more time to focus on the aforementioned S&C work. No excuses !

The two treadmill sessions I do are really starting to pay off right now. The speedwork one is 12 x 60 secs off 30 recovery incrementing pace. I have built this session up from early April starting at 8 off 60 seconds and much slower. I really look forward to this session as it usually follows a rest day. Pace is between 1500m and 3k and the treadmill really stops my legs getting smashed.  

Consistency is key for me this year and having 6 months of knocking out a consistently improving session has massively helped me hitting the times I have.

The endurance session I knocked out today - 6 x km (just over) off 90 secs recovery at roughly 5km pace.  This is an old classic and one that really put hairs on your chest all winter. This is where the strength is built to cruise the first few km of a race. Tough session mentally on the first few reps but as soon as you get to half way it's all down hill. I'll probably keep this session all the way up until were well into track season next year as it really helps. 

Off relatively low mileage (most guys running 16-16.30 5k would be running 60+ miles per week) no session in itself is most important. The framework of the week is what is important as every mile and every rep counts and needs to be done at the right intensity. That is why I am obsessive over consistency, trying to replicate week after week slowly getting more relaxed and quicker. It's easier to identify where things are going right and wrong.  It does mean is tough to match up with people for sessions but I generally am self motivated enough to get things done.

Mind you, if I had to knock out 12+ mile runs I think I'd really struggle to do that myself very often!

Treated myself to a new watch last week - Garmin 945. Unfortunately doesn't hook up to the treadmill like I would like yet but it does have some cool data that really is pretty pointless lol

The winter is actually passing really quickly. Already at the end of first week of November !  Will be interesting how races start in December (if at all) as would be good to pick a fast course early doors and look to at least consolidate my recent times.  I have an idea what will be required for #project15 to happen and one of the first things on the list is fast course, good day !! Can't see track happening so I do think I will be extending this current plan until at least Start of March.