London Marathon Training – Week 11

Week 11 was the week I made a decision to be sensible, don’t chase mileage and try to do the important sessions (clients, speed, long run) and ditch some of the recovery miles. I need to get to London Marathon fit and able to run for 26.2 miles so I need to prioritise that for the short term. Thoughts of Equinox can wait until May.

 

Monday morning started with a 3 .3 mile Running Buddy session with a Personal Training client, the furthest he had ran in a year, which was pleasing for us both. I then had a Coaching client at lunchtime, a mixture of observing her running style, discussing changes and then practising. Luckily, with my left leg still sore, I didn’t have to run more than 400metres!

Next was to Function Jigsaw and back into their ‘electric bath’. Unlike last week, when the electric stimulus was getting blocked in my hip, I could finally feel a bit of a tingling in my left foot. It still isn’t as strong as my right leg, but definitely an improvement, meaning that the time spent with the roller, hockey ball and TENS machine was starting to work. I was then back at Function Jigsaw in the evening for a back strengthening class, in the hope that could help my left leg.

 

Tuesday was a short double day. I wanted to try a run on my own before running with the club in the evening so I did an easy effort 4 miles in the morning. My left leg felt no better than it had the week before which was a bit demoralising.

Tuesday evening was definitely a run of two halves! It was the Wigston Phoenix Linear Run, where we run out fast for 20 minutes, turn and run back in 25 minutes. Due to Leicester City playing at home we changed the route and headed along the ring road to London Road and towards Victoria Park. I ran hard from the start and was ahead as we turned onto the ring road. I know the pattern of the traffic lights so managed to get straight across and that was the last time I saw anyone. I pushed hard down London Road, managing not to get caught at any junctions and managed to get to Victoria Park Road as the clock hit 20 minutes (3.41 miles at average 5.53 pace). I was surprised that nobody had caught me, but also pleased. Usually when we do this run I start to pick people up about a mile into the back leg. However, I saw nobody, apart from other runners not connected to our club. My left leg started to get sore as I slowed the pace a bit, this in turn started to affect my mentality and by the time I was a mile from the finish and still hadn’t seen anyone I was grumpy and convinced I must have gone the wrong way!

 

Wednesday was a planned rest day and instead of doing the usual recovery run I spent the time doing leg and back strengthening exercises coupled with time on the TENS machine and hockey ball.

 

Thursday was a short double day. I ran an easy 4 miles and my left leg felt ‘freer’ than it had done recently, although my calf began to get sore again after about 2 miles. I was starting to get worried that I’m not going to get over this in time for Ashby 20 on Sunday or even London!

The evening brought the club speed/hills session around Victoria Park. I get there a bit early to do 5 reps of the Peace Walk hill before running back to meet the others. I then did another 6 with them as well as various other short sprints. Weirdly, (although it is becoming the norm) my left leg was fine while running at pace and then sore when recovering and walking. It is very frustrating as when my leg feels ok I am running at a pace that is not sustainable over any great distance.

 

Friday was a double day with clients. I ran 3.3 miles in the morning with a client, before taking another for a short sprints and hill session, racking up another 2.27 miles in the process. As on both of these runs I was slower than my usual pace, my left leg was sore!

 

Saturday was to be a rest day ahead of tomorrow’s Ashby 20, but I agreed to go to a session for visually impaired people who want to get into running. I was paired with the super-speedy Haseeb Ahmad and despite my nervousness of not wanting to injure him by saying the wrong thing (or worse, nothing at all) we managed to run for 1.5 miles around Brocks Hill Country Park without any mishaps.

 

Sunday was a big day for me. I’ve had disrupted training for the best part of the last month and as the Ashby 20 dawned I was unusually nervous for what I treat as a training run. I was concerned as 20 miles is a long way and it was 27th February when I last ran such a distance. There are also hills to contend with, plus it was a windy day. I knew that if my leg struggled I could stop at mile 10 and walk back, but I didn’t want to entertain that thought.   I started off further back than usual, to ensure that my plan to start off easy and get faster as the race progressed was not hindered by going off too fast. I had a loose plan in my mind, but as my left leg was a bit sore after 3 miles (better than usual but still not right) I decided not to increase the pace at 5 miles as I have done before.   I stuck at a fairly even pace for the first 10 miles (average 7.05 pace) before deciding that I wanted to push on and test my legs a bit further. By this time, my left leg had settled down as I couldn’t feel it much (not sure if that is a good thing to take from this)!

I upped the pace and immediately started to overtake everyone that was running an even paced race, or had started to slow down as fatigue set in. As the second lap progressed I continued to overtake people, running straight by them and onwards to the finish. It is this type of pacing in a training race that gives me great confidence as there is no better feeling than feeling fresh and passing people. At this point my left leg felt great and I felt fluid, even with the undulating countryside and the strong winds. The second 10 miles averaged 6.20 pace, with the last mile, which is mainly uphill, at 6.06 pace. In the last 10 miles not one person came passed me and I finished with an 8 minute negative split in 2:14.30. Afterwards, strangely, my leg felt ok. Probably better than while I was running the first half. I was very pleased with the way it held up over the distance and that my overall average pace of 6.44 a mile would give me a comfortable sub-3hr finish at London on a far easier course.

 

For now, my confidence has returned somewhat. I have two weeks left with long runs (23 & 20 respectively) before I start to taper and the overall mileage comes down. For now, it is a case of getting my left leg better day by day so that on 23rd April I am ready to go. It may not be a PB year, but another ‘fun’ sub-3hr marathon is back within reach!

 

Week 11 Totals: 53.2 miles covered over 10 runs, plus 2 strength sessions and loads of stretching, rolling and sitting on hockey balls.

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Martin Hulbert – Personal Trainer Leicester & Online Personal Trainer