After last week's Knowle fun run, this week was about getting the miles in. Tuesday was the return the usual hilly 5k run - my legs still felt a bit tired after Sunday's fun run (understandable as I really went for it at the fun run), but I still put in a very good time of just over 29 mins.
Wednesday was a 5 mile plod at around my target marathon pace and in honour of Eric, I did a simple 5 mile pyramid run on Friday: starting at my target marathon pace of 11 mins per mile, then after 1 mile switching to a 10:30 pace, then to a 10 min pace for mile three, back to 10:30 for mile 4 and the last mile at 11 miles. It went surprisingly well, I'd not done a pyramid before really, but I managed to keep very close to the required pace. Will have to do more of those.
Saturday was my 100th parkrun - no plans to run due to forthcoming long run on Sunday (see below), so I volunteered for the 79th time instead as safety cyclist; it's a great role, don't know why more people don't come forward to do it?
I'm ahead of the training plan at the moment and the longer distance runs are yet to come, but with not doing a long run last weekend and hopefully running at parkrun next weekend at the Club Day pacer hunt, this weekend was ideal for the long run. The last long run was 10 miles long, so I thought about doing my first ever training half marathon. My half marathon pace was my guideline and it went great, 11 mins per mile for the first ten miles with little variation, but then I met a steep hill (Easemore Road) and this took it out of me and a slowed to 12:20 pace - then the remainder of the run was uphill. I managed to return to the 11 mile pace for the final mile, making my total run time 2hrs 26mins. Now, given my target marathon time is 5 hrs (minus 1 second), finishing the training session with a few mins to spare on the half way mark is a big confidence boost about the preparation. I can run at my target pace for half a marathon - just got to continue this for another half marathon - gulp!
Hey Nick, sounds like you're making great progress!My friend and I are also currently training to run the Chester Marathon and I don't think we're at your level yet! We wanted to get a half marathon distance run in this weekend, but it was just too hot, so that's our goal for this weekend! I like your pyramid running plan as well, this is all new to me!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, just thought I'd stop by and say hello as I really liked your blog, and I hope you get the chance to check out mine as well :) Good luck with the training as well!
Take care,
Rory.