I can see it still
It's soft and craggy bogland
It's tall majestic hills
Where the ocean kisses Ireland
And the waves carress it's shore
Oh the feeling it came over me
To stay forever more
Forever more
Monday, 16th September, 2013 – Rest Day
Really tired all day so gave into a second successive rest day. :-(
Tuesday, 17th September, 2013 – 11.9km Easy Run (4:58/km)
Almost became a third rest day(!) but just about managed to rescue a run very late in the evening. Fairly miserable out there and I went with the gloves for the first time since Spring.
Wednesday, 18th September, 2013 – 13.1km Yasso Session 8 x 800m (3:12/split)
Decided I’d use the Yasso’s as VO2 training on the run in to the big day. They serve the purpose of speed training but also according to theory, the pace you manage to sustain over 10 x 800m 10 days out from the marathon should approximately equate to the hrs & mins you’ll run the marathon in. So, I was aiming for 3:10 per split in this session which should equate to a 3hr10min marathon.
The evening itself was very blustery, so hardly ideal for this session. I was on my usual stomping ground of the Furze Road for this becaue of it’s flatness. The first two splits were with the wind and came in at 3:15 & 3:14. Not a great start as I was sure things would only get worse. The third split was back into the wind and came in at 3:12 which was a huge surprise! This gave me confidence for the next few which were with the wind again and resulted in 3:07, 3:10 & 3:09. Very happy with these so with just two left I was confident I’d see them all out. Last two were 3:15 & 3:12. So all in all I completed the whole session (Which looked dodgy after the first split!) and averaged out at 3:12. A little outside what I was aiming at from the beginning but if I managed a 3:12 marathon in Chicago I’d be more than happy! The last couple of splits I lost focus for parts of them and that was the reason for the slightly slower times. I’m sure if I was accompanied doing these I’d have maintained pace on them but c’est la vie! A great speed session overall.
Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 6.4km Recovery Run (5:34/km)
I sneaked in a short recovery run in this morning as I wanted to loosen out the legs in advance of a MLR this evening with Philip. Seriously miserable weather but the nice stuff is on it’s way!
Thursday, 19th September, 2013 – 17.1km Easy MLR Run (5:08/km)
Met Philip in Celbridge for this one. He let me choose the pace but once we got into our stride we ended up going about 15 secs per km faster than planned. It still worked out though and we were able to hold a chat the whole way, so nothing too strenuous. We ran along the Royal canal until 45mins before turning around. We got back in 42mins thanks to the aid of the wind!
One thing of note from the run is that my hip flexors appear to be quite sore and stiff for the first couple of kms so this damn injury seems to be floating around theplace the past few weeks. May need to get a check up by a physio soon…
Friday, 20th September, 2013 – 7.4km Recovery Run (5:36/km)
Very relaxed 6.5km in advance of pacing 1:40 in the Dublin HM tomorrow morning.
So, now that I'm up to date, how about that spare ticket??
Week 38 Summary (so far):
RTW: 5 from 5 days
DTW: 55.9 km
DTY: 3,017.7 km
Chicago - 23 days (3 weeks, 2 days)
Here you only did 8 of the yasso 800's .....
ReplyDeleteIt's a build up process over the next 10 days. This week I am due a 9 x 800m session and then my final one next Wednesday of 10 x 800m. Think I may do the St. Anne's Parkrun on Saturday instead of the 9 x 800m though...;-)
ReplyDeleteBe careful of doing too much v02 max sessions during taper. It's a different energy system and for what it's worth I think you'd do better doing more MP sessions
ReplyDeleteThe good thing about the VO2 sessions though is that they are short bursts so theoretically should recover fairly quickly. P&D seem to suggest throwing in a few in the final weeks before/around taper. MP sessions are usually longer and at a decent clip, and I think they may end up taking more out of me. I seem a little more knackered after those runs, so I may have done one too many in the past few weeks (I must check my data but think I did one session per week when P&D recommend more like one every two weeks or so).
ReplyDeleteGonna' take it all very handy now anyways 'til the EcoRun 10 miler on Sunday and that will be the last 'hard' session (2 weeks out from C-day). I have preferred 2 week tapers to 3 week tapers more recently as I think I lose focus too much with three weeks...
I can see you barring me from your blog soon but before you do......I posted an article from runnersconnect in the novices thread where the author talks about 3 common tapering mistakes and one of them is doing speed sessions instead of marathon specific sessions. Check it out
ReplyDelete