Week 3 - A Speedy Week!

Week Commencing 19th January

Jan 25th, 2015  /  Week 3/ 13 weeks to go

That's week 3 out of the way. Been a bit of an up and down week morale wise. On writing this I've not long been in from a good 15 mile run and finished week 3 on 45 mile so happy at the moment with the training. Kicked off this week with the usual Monday night recovery run. This time running down McMullen Road and back instead of my usual route to Sadberge. Was another cold and damp one. Tuesday, Speed day was another track session which was a simple but effective 4 x 1600m intervals with a 400m rolling recovery. Tough session. Ran the reps at a controlled 10k paced effort but was hard graft. Wednesday I wanted to run somewhere different so ran towards Aycliffe and back on the A167. I honestly thought this would cover more miles but was only 2.9 mile from my house so I had to make up some mileage when I got back into Darlington. It must of been one of the most soul destroying runs in my life. When I got back into Darlington and I needed another just over 2 mile covering I was just going to jack it in. Felt like shit though and running on your own on these dark winter nights does get hard. Thursday, another speed session! I ditched to planned progressive speed session and join some harriers on the track for a 600/400m speed session. That was great and I found myself highly motivated for this. Was also nice to meet some new runners too. We ran 4 sets of 600/400 which was harder than it sounds. Really got tough on the last two but Peter kept me right with his "controlled" efforts. Really enjoyed that one though. Friday rest day. Saturday morning I found myself down the South Park running the parkrun. Originally was just going to marathon pace this but once I got going I put the effort in finishing 18th with a 19:59 time just scraping sub 20. Admittedly the wheels fell off on the final lap (last mile) but hung in there with Dave and Justin. Was content with the time. Still a long way off to where I was and need to be but on the positive its the first time I've been under 20 minutes since last June. Ideally I'd like to get back down to early 19's in the next 12 weeks. Maybe a trip to Albert Park is on the cards. Sunday I ran a good 15 miler with a mixture of Harriers and Quakers. Nice run up to Walworth Gate then back down to Piercebridge and back into Darlington. Comfortable run out just a tad tired at the end. Was nice to be running in milder conditions too. I am running these long runs on only a coffee to teach my body to become better fat adapted come marathon day. After the run I got a good breakfast in me then went into town with the family and got a nice latte from Starbucks :-)

Only lost a mere half a pound this week on the weigh in but a loss is a loss and to be honest not the best week nutrition wise. Still plenty of tweaks to be made. This week I am concentrating on improving my lunch. More chicken and salad! Still no booze since Christmas so that's over 4 weeks now dry and still no takeaways since the new year. Despite only losing that half a pound I'm still ahead of my target with a total loss now of 5.5lbs in 3 weeks.

Monday - 5 mile recovery @ 8:08 pace

Tuesday - Speed - 4 x 1600m intervals on track targeting 10k pace. 8 mile covered

Wednesday - 8 mile steady @ 8:04 pace

Thursday - Speed - 4 sets of 600/400m intervals on track. 5.1 mile covered

Friday - Rest

Saturday - Darlington South Park parkrun - Finished 18th in 19:59 @ 6:29 pace

Sunday - 15 mile long run @ 7:41 pace

This weeks weigh in : 179 Lbs (Starting weight 184.5 Lbs/Target weight 160 Lbs)
Total loss: 5.5lbs

Weekly mileage - 45.1

Week conclusion

Been a decent week. 13 weeks to go! An increase on my weekly mileage once again. The miles are building up nicely. Next week I expect to run around 49 mile. Its the end of week 4 last year I got injured but I'm feeling strong at the moment so I'm not going to do anything daft.

Build up races planned

• Great North West Marathon
• Albert Park parkrun 5k 
• Trimpell 20 (Marathon pace)