Winter 25/26 - 10k Training Week 1

And so, with the disaster of a non starting indoor season behind me I roll on to the build up for Thorney 10k.

Catchup - Got fit, got ill. Currently getting over that and rebuilding. No sessions last week, just all mainly easy running.

Monday

Rest. Travel to Lisbon.

Tuesday

Up early. Run easy -> steady. Actually HR is almost entirely easy. 8.65 miles @ 7.16/mm @ 135 bpm. Felt good and nice ot be in shorts and tee shirt. LOTS of walking in the day and place is banged out full of hills and stairs.

Wednesday

Ditto. Decided on something steadier to see how things are. Definately feeling healthy now it's just getting crap off of my lungs. Little fresher out but still much warmer than home - 12 degrees or so at 8am. Stuck to the same sea front route as it's the only real flat piece of land in town. Route is made up of everything from rough cobbles (40%) to purpose made tarmac (30%) with the rest all sorts of shit. Not amazing under foot but not the worst. 10 min warm up, 40 min steady and cool down back to the apartment (or the start of the big hill to it).

7.50 pace warm up, 6.30 pace for 40 mins, 7.25 pace cool down. There was a big old head / tail wind on the tempo so 20 mins at 6.43 pace and 20 mins at 6.17.

Pretty decent, moving well even into the wind.

LOTS of walking and climbing, I was absolutely battered when I went to bed! Few beers with dinner too which was cool.

Thursday

Travel home but manage to get an early run in on guess what - the same route lol. 8 miles recovery @ 8:22/mm for 120 bpm. That's possibly the lowest average HR for a run ever.

Felt crazy easy but was nice just to run super chilled out and actually feel healthy again. Was nicer day today. Had a gluten free macdonalds at the airport with a gf big mac!

Nice little trip that. Place was lovely, obviously would be nicer in summer and it is crazy hilly round there. Feel like I got plenty of leg s&c work in !!

Run wise I got 25.5 miles in at crazy low heart rates for paces. I 100% feel healthy again. Still have to get some shit off my chest. Nice to get away with Ange & Lola and we had a great time over there. Ate too much, drank (for me) too much and walked miles every day. Nice reset and feel ready to crack on with the healthy programme from tomorrow.

I am very aware that I have a mental block resuming sessions but the plan is to do the usual coffee / cake run tomorrow with John, Parkrun at LT1 (6.05/mm) and long cool down on Saturday and then 6 x mile at thresh on Sunday. That all gets my miles in and starts a return back to normality where I can rebuild from.

3 weeks and 2 days until Podium and 4 weeks and  days until Thorney. Am very fit at the minute but I need some specific speed and sharpness from now. It's not total dispair and I am sure my C targets of 16.59 and 35.29 are realistic from here.

Friday

Time to get serious. Everything on point now until I race. Lets get this train back on the tracks.

Wake up and do my morning mobility for the first time since Sunday. Feel pretty good.

Run - head to do the usual 9 miles coffee / cake run with John. Feel good and moving well. As ever feel a bit wibbly wobbly after coffee at Caxton but short walk and back on it. Last mile do 5 x strides of roughly 20-30 secs with first 2 uphill. 

9 miles @ 7.39/mm @ 131bpm. 

Aim tomorrow is to run to Parkrun which means an early start. That will get me on track with miles and then finish with a PR at 6/mm or LT1 is the target.

It'll be first bit of effort for a couple of weeks so will give me a sight on how the Sunday session will go.

Will aim today to get rehab done but have a long list of tasks in the garden to crack on with.

Saturday

Up early (again!) Run to Parkrun and then Parkrun with John, Coffee then easy ile cool down and done!

Feel pretty good on run to PR - 8.35 miles @ 7.11/mm. Bit of a coughing fit getting crap off my chest but left too close so no time to stop at all!

Met John at the start, we pushed hard but neither of us was up for hard running today lol. Finished up Parky with 19.42 - 6.20/mm @ 156 bpm. Showing fatigue there as that's not great but tbf was pretty tired.

Mile cool down was at 9.09/mm. Overall 12.5 miles @ 7.09/mm.

Pretty happy with that. Time to resume sessions now. Not 100% but may do Thursday session tomorrow (6 x 800) or stick with 3 x 2M. Undecided. Check weather and how I feel I guess.

Miles banked, looks all good from here to hit my prescribed 55 which recovering from illness plus travel is pretty solid.

Head straight time - OK so I am finally getting back into the grove. Consistency is critical. I am very happy sticking to 55 miles per week with a steady long run, a tough Eddington session and something spicy (ish) on Sunday. I don't have a benchmark yet so I'll just keep working until I feel 100% - i.e. no shit coming off my chest. It'll happen I just need to keep turning up. I feel like my head is spun but once I stabilise a couple of weeks and sessions I'll be able to pinpoint where my fitness is. I will be defensive, no risks and keep it safe. Once I start racing I can start working towards opening things up but right now it's about being consistent and that means being healthy and disciplined through winter. I'll slowly build paces and get back where I was in mid January just ticking off run after run being happy with progress. I am tired right now but that is to be expected. Eat well, sleep well, get it in. Don't overthink just hit paces.

Sunday

Weigh in 64.6kg - lowest. Nice!

Plan today is to get back to it. I'll do Thursday's session of 6 x 800m off 200 walk/jog at 5k pace. It's time top get back to hitting numbers.

Right now my base is super strong. Running easy feels good and my paces for HR are great.

I am missing top end - I've not done much anyway. That can come when the weather warms up and I don't have anything booked in under 5k so not as important.

I am very weak. Any hill or wind is taking far too much out of me. Right ow it's not important as I am not planning much hilly. The wind will come in to play at Thorney so I'll need to tuck in!

I just need to regroup and get back to running harder threshold -> 10k stuff from here on. Just relax at pace and it'll come. 

Legs are pretty beat up and I'll factor that in this week to see what I do. Hitting that 55 miles right now is essential and will build the economy.

Run - warm up and cool down as usual. Eddington solo session. This was the Thursday group session. Warming up felt pretty ok but clearly nervous. Feels a while since I have done any real quality. A - plan was 2.40 for the half miles - sub 16.40 pace. B - plan anything under 2.45 (sub 17) and C - plan was 10k pace (2.50).

Reps went - 2.41, 2.37, 2.38, 2.38, 2.35, 2.34 much better than expected. I took lots of recovery (2.20ish) and it was very windy so pace was well under then well over and back under again. 

Happy with that. Decided to keep quality up and get pace quicker by relaxing the recovery. I had the benefit of more tailwind by about 100m BUT the head wind was strong.

HR wise, it got to 174 bpm by the end! Average was cool but HR climbed to 5k effort max over the last 3 reps so a solid workout.

Very pleased I got that in. I shows a lot of promise, think I can roll close to target paces and pretty confident of hitting a sub 17 minimum off the back of this. 

From here, I will run recovery tomorrow and then session Tuesday so I can bring my rest day to Wednesday. That will put me on a rolling 63 and then 66 mile average for the past 7 days.

55 miles for the week. Lots of steady running and finally got a session in on Sunday. Moving really well and fully recovered. Saturday was by far the worst as I felt tired and weak. Plan from here is to build in to session paces now and dial in for faster work.