I can’t believe I’m actually on week 10. Where did the time go? That’s 10 weeks of training in mostly summer heat. I’m fitter than I was 20 years ago. I’m beginning to stress about the race a bit now, though: mostly about sleeping ok the night before. I know what I’m like; if I need to sleep for a special occasion, I can’t.
Still a bit tired, mainly because I woke at 4.48 and couldn’t get back to sleep. With me it isn’t so much how MUCH sleep I get, but when. My body clock or bio rhythms or whatever just don’t want to play before 6am. Consequently 20 minutes in zone 4 was a bit daunting till I got into it. Once I did, I realised how more tiring it is running slowly in zone 2.
Anyway, beautiful sunny day again. There are a lot of housing estates on the outskirts of Abingdon, but most of them are quite old with huge green areas in front of houses - some as big as a village green- with mature trees and well established gardens. It makes for pleasant running at this time of year, when the horse chestnuts are laden with conkers, gardens are aflame with the orange and yellow of autumn flowers, and the leaves are showing the faintest hint of gold at their edges. A red kite flew directly over me, low enough for me to make out individual feathers on the underside of his wings. His shadow tracked my run for a minute or so.
As I came towards the end of the run, two boys in their late teens suddenly began running, absolutely powering ahead of me. I reminded myself that I’m three times their age - but, to be honest, I couldn’t have run that fast when I was 19 and running regularly.
I was reading somewhere on a site about marathon training that most first timers don't sleep well the night before due to nerves etc. They said it shouldn't be too much of a handicap if you get everything else right. Training, nutrition, hydration, mental attitude.
Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.
On a negative note, I've definitely lost performance by only doing long trail running for months and a couple of spells on the IC. I think it's actually the lack of mixed running that has mostly affected it though.
Funny you should say that - I was saying to my son yesterday that since I’ve been doing the long runs I cant speed up in my short runs now. Now I know I can run 21k though I am going to work my way back through C25k and B210k with my sone who has signed up for a 10k mission Unbreakable in October
I’m slower now, even for short runs. This seems to be the case with a lot of people, judging by reports here and on Strava.
That sounds a good plan. I couldn’t repeat c25k on my own, but if you’re accompanying someone else, it’s doable. The intervals in the early weeks are really good for fitness.
I don’t know what to think about that. The couple of nights recently when I’ve slept badly, I’ve found a few km a struggle. I ain’t 20 anymore, all night partying and bombing up the recently opened M1 for breakfast! On the other hand, I got my best 10k time over a hilly course for the Blenheim BHF race this time last year after insufficient sleep. Still, this will be twice as far ...
I think you are spot on about the mixed running. Most of my running last year was hilly trail running and I’m fitter now. Mind you, I was faster then!
I think it assumes you're getting good sleep most of the other nights. Not much we can do about lack of youth, previous illness/injuries etc except celebrate what we do despite the odds.
I have put running miles on my legs which is good (well apart from falling over and knackering my knee) but I am getting slower. From next week I will be back to the club sessions. I might even do a few Parkruns.
Luckily I’ve slept well over most of the training. It’s gone a bit to pot recently.
I’m slower too. I wonder if I will ever get the pace back up. Mostly it doesn’t matter for me, as I most enjoy exploratory trail runs with photo stops. I don’t take photos on the training runs. I will be interested to know if your pace improves again with mixed running.
I have found the same thing. I'm hoping to work on some shorter (quicker?) runs this fall before the snow falls and then will really focus on strength training this winter with whatever runs meet my fancy.
I was a sprint runner at primary school, although I won a few races I just got fed up with running at that time and took up cycling instead.
When I was 10 or 11 my teacher at school forced me into a 100 yards/91 metres run, I was so fed up that although I was ahead in the race, at around 10 metres to go I slowed down a little and came in second or third, my teacher wasn't at all pleased with me on that day in 1957, after that I did not do any running until 2018. 😊 🏃
I was always last in running heats at school. I’m built for distance running, slim, long limbs. I think the run fast mentality of schools puts a lot of people off running, and is the reason so many people who don run try to knock themselves out pushing as fast as they can.
You must be the same age as me if you were ten in 57
There will always be someone faster. I wish I had found running years ago though, especially in my teens as that would have helped me loads back then!
I'm like you Flick, I know I won't be able to sleep before my run but I'm hoping the adrenaline will kick in on the day! It will cause havock with heartrate too though so I'm going to give myself some drift within zones but not too much so I keep my pace steady if I can.
10 weeks has flown by. You still have a few weeks left yet before your run too. Xx
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HM training week5 day3
HM training long run!
