Warning: there’s facts and figures a plenty in this weeks post….Been another fun week! Completed every planned session and even managed to add in a circuit one and a yoga visit. The excellent thing about this is it makes my pie chart look very colourful:
I was itching to run a bit faster this week so on one of the run commute sessions on Thursday I added in a 25 minute interval set in the middle of the run. I do really like the Chrissie Wellington ones, they force you to go quicker but they also make you think about cadence too (how quickly your feet touch the ground every minute). If you have quick legs you run faster for longer with less injury risk I think so it’s definitely worth doing. I definitely recommend the sessions. The run was pretty hard, the intervals go something like: 2 min, 2 min, 3 min 4 min, followed by rests and then 2 x 30 second sprints, with increasing cadence on each one. After the two minute ones I was only just hanging on, oddly enough the 4 minute one was the easiest of the lot. It’s a good intro into the faster work I have to do so I think I’ll keep it up on one session this week too.
Right then, speed. I want to do this marathon in around about 3:15. For me, that is fast! In fact it’s a bit freaking me out, but you need to have some stretching goals don’t you. So, now that’s decided, exactly how fast do I have to run? Well, it works out like this:
[table]Target Time,3:15:00
Pace,0:07:26
5km,0:23:07
10km,0:46:14
Half,1:37:30
Full,3:15:00[/table]
Yikes. Every mile in 7:26! Aargh! This is important for my training because I need to use it to practice running at that pace one session a week starting in two weeks time. According to the Don Fink book, I’ll be a good bet to hit my marathon time if I can complete those pacing sessions and if my long weekend runs are between 45 to 90 seconds slower than this. Well, now feels the right time to see a table of how I’m doing, doesn’t it?
[table]Week,SUM of Distance(miles),AVERAGE of Pace,SUM of Completed Time
1,4.25,0:09:16,0:39:21
2,6.97,0:09:15,1:05:16
3,13.82,0:08:42,2:00:28
4,19.29,0:10:18,3:35:23
5,23.33,0:08:29,3:16:13
6,29.48,0:08:39,4:12:36
7,35.32,0:08:13,4:51:26[/table]
Right now my entire weekly average for my runs is 8:13 min/miles. My Saturday run I averaged 8:23 but I did run the first three miles with Pilla a little slower than I probably would have run on my own. This is 60 seconds slower than my target time so I’m probably in pretty good shape.That also freaks me out because I might actually have to do this!
I’m training hard for this, I’ve never ever run so frequently and touch wood still feeling pretty good from it. I’m tired, yes, but I do feel in good shape. My running is getting up to where it was pre-ironman and I wasn’t sure if that would happen, and I certainly didn’t think it would happen this quickly. I’m probably risking over-training a little at the moment, normally Sundays would be a rest day but that is my swim class. If I was sensible I’d probably take Monday off (I know rest days are important, REALLY important) but this week I looked back at my training and realised I haven’t had a day off since Christmas Day. I quite like this, so I might just carry on!
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