Week 6 - Copenhagen marathon

Week 6

Week Ending 23rd February

Miles at marathon pace (sub-2:15), effort, or quicker: 12
Marathon plan: Copenhagen

Race plan - Need to find a 10k, or HM

Miles - 70

Steady miles - 15

Training Week

Not a 10/10 week, but also not a terrible week.

My advice here would be try to get momentum going in a good direction again after a race… I think what happens is we race, (I did the Armagh 5k), and then there’s an emotional high, followed by a low. Then suddenly training can feel a bit hard work again, especially if the goes well. THE BRAIN goes.. (yayy we did it, we made it, we’re awesome).. then it gets lazy after that.

Parts of this week went well, but I really need to do a full YouTube video on what actually is a full week etc. A full week doesn’t need to be a certain mileage or anything like that, but it will just tick a few boxes, and this week has a few nice parts to it, but actually it’s still quite a far bit of being a full week.

Training Breakdown

Mon – AM: 5 miles easy, and I felt really tired waking up. I had planned this to be a steady etc.. but just couldn’t drag myself out the door.

Pm: 6 miles easy, felt better than the morning, but wasn’t a great day for running, I did force myself to do the hills sprints.

5 * 10 second hills sprints very fast, easy walk / jog back rest

Tue – Double day - tempo & track

am - morning session, up / down tempo work. Week 4 of the marathon plan.

5 miles @ 5.08 per mile, or 8km, around 3.12 per km I’d say..

1mile or so, at 5.15-20, then mile at 4.55. (3.15-20 per km, and 3.05) that’s the up / down type running. I just used the loop in the park, and changed pace each loop. Knowing I was going track later that night to join Mark Kirks group, I kept it at 5 miles, but a full session would be around 8-10 for sure.

PM - 1 mile tempo easy 3.20 per km, or 5.20 per mile

12 * 400s, with 60 secs rest - 68 for 4, 66 for 4, and 63-4 for 4.

Nice progression, and i don’t normally double session, but I do like sessions like this for leg turn over etc.. and I don’t think it batters the body too much. (at least I thought haha)

Wed – 5 miles - ahh it’s annoying me now seeing these 5 mile runs, and i’m into the final 12 weeks before a marathon. But I was a bit cooked after the double day, and had a long work day ahead of me. (very very long day) still I made a commitment to Copenhagen, and I don’t want to see any AM runs next week at 5 miles.

Pm - 5 miles v easy treadmill

Thurs – 15 miles long zone 2 - Aw I’m so happy I did this, weather was horrid, and I was fatigued from the Tuesday double session etc.. but I KNEW FOR A FACT, that I needed to show some signs of Marathon training etc.. and get that marathon focus back in the training. 15 miles is something I can build on, ie next week could be 17 for example, or even 18, but it had been a while since I did a longer steady run, and so needed to kind of break myself back in.

5.55 maybe average pace, or 3.35-40 per km.

Fri – Rest day.

It sounds like excuses, but I’m just burning the candle at both ends, and some days I wake up really tired. I put a lot of pressure on myself with the business stuff, and of course it’s growing which is epic, but it’s a lot of work. Some days like today I just wake up a little cooked, and need to reset, both from a work angle, and running.

Sat – 4 miles tempo & 6 * 30 sec hills

Solo today, but still did the group session. I haven’t done hills in weeks, and so I was delighted the group session was tempo & hills. I knew it wouldn’t be pretty, but did the tempo with a bit more aggression maybe you could say. So I set off at 5.05 maybe per mile, (not crazy aggressive, but sometimes it’s 5.20 etc..) the goal was to put myself under pressure a little, then try to figure it out, get comfy again. Each mile got quicker, and I found that rythmm.. that said it must get better if I’m gonna run close to 5.00 on race day for 26.2 miles.

Hills - weren’t special, but I didn’t expect them to be. When you do hills every week, for 5-6 weeks they get to a really great place, when you neglect hills, or anything for 5-6 weeks, well guess what happens? ha.. they go backwards. Happy I did them, keeps power in a good place, and seems to support any niggles I have etc..

Sun – Easy run with the group – 11.5 miles.

Easy today, we were all a bit tired, and have about the 14th storm passing over Belfast. I don’t treat today as long run day, and just see it as a nice social run to end the week, I could add 4-5 miles later on the treadmill, or GYM would be legend.

Reflection

I can’t call this week moving forward sadly, but I think next week will be. I counted how many weeks to Copenhagen etc.. and that was a bit of a shock.. it’s scary when that gets to single fingers, and you’re not on top of things etc..

If you spent the 7 days with me, and seen how much I actually do ha, from a 8am social media work, 10 am run, 12 noon office, 3pm Youtube etc.. point of view, then you wouldn’t be perhaps thinking (why not train more??) it’s a constant volume of work / running, and sometimes when I get home from office at 5pm, and need to check on stock, social stuff, etc.. website updates.. I just can’t think about doing another run, gym, stretching etc..

The goal is to have more staff, which would help take some of the load off my shoulders etc. But I’m preaching to a crowd I’m sure know a thing or two about being tired from work, life.. not just running.

I hope next week is better. 80 miles would be fabulous, gym twice, and 1 steady run.. that’s the goal. The rest of the week is kind of in a good place..

‘Sunday10’ will get you 10% discount today on site. Can’t hire new staff and not have any work for them..

What’s missing - ‘yes I know, still missing’

Bit more recovery focus, stretching, yoga etc.

Gym 2 x per week

Volume - add 20-30 miles and it’s good

Steady days - Add an extra steady day or 2

Score: 5/10 training

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See you next week.