Winter 2024 - Week 6

Autumn training is flying by. Race at the end of this week so time to take stock of where we are at at what's cooking under the hood.

Monday

Rest - day of re-grouting patio and my back and hammys are absolutely shredded! Wanted to hit gym for core but think this was better as I'm feeling it!

Tuesday

All day chill to help my body come back. Hit Eddington for session. Nice long warm up and cool down helps keep the volume active (2.6 & 2.4). Taper set with Jake, Andy & Matt. 2 sets of 4 x 400 and then 1200 tempo.

Plan is first set at 5k and then second set at 1500. Pace is always easier at Eddy but knew from the gun of the first set we were going to be shifting today.

77,77,75,74 on the first set. Felt good. 67,66,67,66 on second set. Pushed but under control.

Tempo 0.78 miles in 4.22 @ 5.36/mm was very relaxed. HR got to 166 bpm on that but most part sat at around threshold.

9 miles for the day. Decent workout, legs not feeling over done and everything under control. Feels like I am progressing well.

Thinking on Saturday now and looking 27.30 as an A target and 28 dead as a B. I should be rolling at those paces by now. 27.30 probably equivalent of 16.30 at a guess so that's about the right ball park.

Happy with where speed is considering I haven't done loads. Comparing to Andy & Jake & Matt I am getting closer. My longer stuff is still good. In all honesty at this stage it's really just the mental side that needs specific toughening up. Everything else is as good (or bad) as each other. Key now is consistency and that'll pick things up.

Wednesday

Few aches and pains waking up. Plan today is my bigger mileage day just to bank enough so I can relax at the weekend where I am racing and busy.

I'll aim to do 3 this morning and then cc+ tonight so around 13 for the day. All easy stuff just ticking the legs over.

I'm not 100% but may need to add a week of doubles to kick start the metabolism and get weight down. I'll see how it goes though as I'd rather just keep sticking to the plan if I am honest.

am) 5k very easy shakeout - 9/mm. Legs felt much better afterwards. 

pm) 9 miles easy. Ran from here, think cc has finally died! Felt OK, not amazing and tired but needed a bigger day to get it out the way for the weekend. Shakeout helped.

Thursday

Up and got a few chores in. Decided against a shakeout in the morning or weights as just feeling a bit achy. No point pushing pre-Saturday now. I'll get that done and then try to do more afterwards.

Looking at Saturday, 27.30 equates to roughly 16.30-16.40 equivalent for 5k. Going off training paces and early part of Cambridge 10k that should be fine. Might get stiff through 5k but we will see. Time to start looking at getting a marker down in prep for November which is all about the Battersea build.

Try and relax at a decent clip and stay in the game. Andy & Matt will start harder but my race plan is to hold back for the first mile and work my way in.

Track tonight. Very light one. Just standard warm up / cool down and 4 laps of jog the bends and stride the straights. Legs come more alive as it goes on and start pushing well towards the last few 100s. 6.12 for the mile with half of it at about 9-10 mm!

Friday

Jake wakes up full of head cold. He's going to bin the race today which is a shame. I wake up and legs are feeling better and better. Bit snotty so hopefully nothing contagious but body really starting to recover.

I'll zero today, full r&r treatment and plan to wake up tomorrow totally reset.

Feeling pretty confident and relaxed about tomorrow. Not a lot of pressure just more excitement to see how the legs are. Reality is I know I am not flying but excited to see how things have progressed. If I can keep moving forward then December will be bang on in terms of times. 5.30 pace feels a stretch after about 3.5 /4 miles but being only 5 miles and not 10k I am hoping the mental gamne remains strong.

I know Andy will be low 5.20s and Matt will follow so I'll have a couple of nice carrots to aim at if I pace correctly !!

So day pans out and I start feeling full of cold. 2 hour nap at lunchtime and then bed at 9pm to sleep off whatever I can. FFS

Saturday

Wake up and feel better but not 100%. I'll race as I'll run anyway and I'd probably do 5 miles steady so roll out and see what's happening. If it goes to shit I'll just back off to tempo.

Get to MK and meet Matt. Warm up and feel fine.

Into the race and settle in. Feel good through a km and through mile in 5.22 which is way too quick. 

Back off and to about 1.5 miles I actually feel good and don't think anything is wrong. From here start to feel laboured. Throiugh 2 miles at 5.30/mm race average but know I will fade. Keep it there to half way and then notice legs have that hollow feeling. HR is low but I can't get oxygen to my quads.

Through 5k in around 17.12.

4th Mile is horrific. Hardly moving and just feel flat and heavy.

Into mile 5 and rally a bit just trying to hold position.

Finish up with 28.13. Not great but not terrible considering how I felt. 

Lungs tickly on breathing out at finish so know it's lurking in there. Cool down with James (25.50) and Matt (27.57) who both ran well. Spent evening stewing on that. Headed to Colchester with Ange & Sawyer for his powerlifting comp and ate loads of shite and sank a few beers.

Sunday

All morning at Sawyers Powerlifting. He crushed it even though he was feeling rough himself.

Drive back then get ready to head out the door.

Plan was 10 miles a bit steadier than usual - bit on venom & bit of freshness.

Start off on the CC 10 route. 7.08 on the Garmin. Feel easy but thought it was quicker. From there it's 6.30s through the card and just rolled nicely. Legs felt good at that pace and HR was low. Where was thius body yesterday.

Bringing these runs back in now. Looking at plan for Battersea there's time to get back to really strong steady runs if I pace the rest of the week correctly. Forgot how much I enjoy knocking these out at low 6s. Today felt like I was moving really well.

45 for the week from 5 days and in a taper. Weekend pace was pretty good! Race didn't go to plan but was hampered by illness and considering that it's actually pretty solid.

Plan now is to just roll these weeks out like this and sack off cc. I'll add in some shakeouts for conditioning but moving the pace along and getting super strong for Battersea is the plan. 

Need to stay strong on the good habits and start getting better at hitting the S&C.

Next week plan is to relax until Tuesday track session. From then I am adapting Wednesday to a shakeout then easy but lower volume. Shakeout Thursday and then track session pm. I'll take the weekend as it comes but plan is Parkrun plus intervals session and steady 10 on Sunday.