London Marathon Training – Week 7
Week 7 was finally going to be my cutback week as my first six weeks had averaged 78.5 miles.
Monday started with a 3.1 mile walk with my wife, immediately followed by an 9 mile run with the first 7 miles ran progressively faster than the previous mile. I started at 7.35 pace and gradually quickened the through 7.25, 7.04, 6.49, 6.30 & 6.10 paces until mile 7 was down to 6.03 pace coming back up Welford Road towards Wigston. The final 2 miles were ran at an easy pace to aid recovery. I always find this run mentally challenging as I know going off too fast makes the last half really tough, but the last two miles are always hard as they are net uphill coming back towards Wigston. However, the recovery from this run is minimal as half is run quite easily paced.
Tuesday was far shorter than previous Tuesdays. I had a Running Buddy session in the morning, which was a tour of Wigston, trying to find every uphill possible for a good 5 mile hill session for my client. Tuesday evening was a shorter than normal run as I drove to the club and just did their run. This was a 6.6 mile route which ended up being faster than normal. My legs felt good as after the first 2 miles we averaged 6.41 for the next 2, then 6.12 for the last 2 miles. I would have expected this as the total of 11.6 miles is less than half of a normal Tuesday.
I awoke on Wednesday and walked 3.3 miles with my wife but developed a bit of a ‘pain’ in my left calf. I always suffer with tightness in my left calf and it is one of the indicators I use to know when I need to back off training. As this ‘pain’ was not muscular tightness, but more of a sore spot running down my leg between my shin and calf I thought it was best to rest and get a physio appointment. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get in to the physio until Thursday lunchtime.
Thursday was a second rest day as I awaited the physio appointment. It was also my wife’s birthday so today was always going to be a short easy day so missing a run wasn’t an issue. I went to Function Jigsaw and after explaining the issue, a bit of prodding, bending me around I was diagnosed with Tibialis Posterior inflammation. I was given stretches, told to roll my glutes and to use a hockey ball to get deeper in to the tissue to relieve some of the pressure (I hate sitting on hockey balls as they are more painful than the inflammation in my leg)! I was told I was ok to run on it if I could cope with the discomfort. I left Function Jigsaw much happier, knowing that it was not a game-changer in the scheme of the marathon or Equinox.
Friday was a 3rd non-running day in a row (I can’t remember the last time that happened). However, it was planned as my wife and I were off to London for the day. As usual, we stayed above ground and walked everywhere, managing to wander approximately 8-8.5 miles during the day. That also doesn’t include the time spent on feet wandering around the shops!
Saturday was back to reasonably normal. As this was a cutback week I decided to stick to my plan and ran 16 miles. This was broken down as 8 miles easy/steady, 6 miles at marathon pace and 2 miles easy to finish. My legs felt a little strange after no running for 3 days and a lot of time spent on feet in London the day before. However, as I got past the first 2 miles they started to settle down and feel normal again. The first 8 miles then flew by as I gradually got quicker from 7.15 pace for the first mile to 6.41 pace for mile 8. I then pushed on down Great Central Way, aiming for my heart rate to be around 150-155bpm as an average. The next 6 miles all averaged between 6.11 & 6.16 pace with an average HR between 151 to 154bpm. Absolutely spot on! I could feel it as I slowed down for the last 2 miles as running a 16 miler as a first run back after 3 days off was not ideal but, needs must!
I finished the week off on Sunday with an easy effort 4.5 miles on the way to volunteer at Aylestone Junior parkrun. As most of it was downhill, the pace was 7.00 average for the first 3 miles, even with my heart rate at under 130bpm.
Week 7 Totals: 41.2 miles covered over 5 runs, plus about 17 miles of walking, 2 strength sessions and some basic core exercises on my BOSU ball.
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