Sunday 9 March 2014

3 long runs to go...

Last week...

I helped at Stotfold Runners on Tuesday and took a rather large group of new starters on a 2 minute/1 minute run/walk. We took it really easy and covered 2 miles exactly. Pilates afterwards focused on arms, shoulders, and core, but we had chance to use the foam roller on our legs at the end. That was quite painful and I resolved to use my own roller a lot more regularly.

On Wednesday I had loads of work to do so couldn't go out for my planned long tempo run (boooo). But, I had a bit of a surprise in the post when a parcel arrived for my husband and he told me it was for me: a new Garmin 620! That's the power of moaning constantly, eventually it works*. I set it up to test the intervals feature, and late Wednesday evening I went out and ran 4 x 400 m intervals with a warm up and cool down. The workout feature is really cool and I've been fiddling some more so expect some random interval workouts next week.

*Doesn't always work, see Thursday.

On Thursday we had no broadband and I got really cross and moaned a lot (it didn't help). Because I couldn't work, and I'd missed my long Wednesday run, and I knew I was going to miss Stotfold Runners inters session that evening, I went out for an 8 mile run. I had no plan other than to test my new Garmin and figure out the alerts and other features. I managed to maintain marathon pace (9 min/mile) or faster so that was quite good I reckon. I made Stotfold Runners beginners club and led a 200 m sprint session, we had a short warm up jog, then did 5 x 200 m sprints, with 200 m jogged recoveries, then a cool down jog back. My husband had taken the children out for a mile jog at 7:15, and they met us at 7:30 so my husband could go to the inters speed session. We bought chocolate from the shop and skipped home happily.

The Garmin 620 has a feature that tells you how well you are recovering and how long you should rest for before your next run. I'm not sure how this works but I guess it's something to do with heart rate during the last run. Anyway, it said I needed 26 hours to recover before my next run, so that meant a rest day for Friday, before my long run on Saturday.

Last week was my first 20 mile long run, and I decided to plan it so other club runners could join me if they wanted to. So, similar to my last 20 mile run for marathon training (in 2012, during which I injured my knee and had to stop training 6 weeks before my race), I ran 3 laps of the Standalone 10K route. For the first lap at 6 am I was joined by Andy and John (who were running the full 20 miles with me), Paul (who ran 15 miles), and Robbie (who ran one lap because it was his first run since the end of 2013). I'd set my watch to beep if I ran slower than 10:10 min/mile pace, which is a great feature. We had to be back at the start within 65 minutes for the second lap and to meet any one else running, and we made good progress and finished the first 6.5 miles in 63 minutes. For the second lap, Simon, Tracey, Scott, and Mel joined me Paul, Andy, and John, so it was a good social run. We finished the second lap a bit faster than the first lap, which gave me chance to stop for a wee at Tracey's house... For the third lap, Scott, Mel, and Tracey left and Naomi joined us. We were starting to slow a bit, so Naomi and Simon sped up a bit, and then Simon took off for home (he was running 20 miles also but had to get back to Arlesey so had further to run). John, Andy, and I ran up and down the High St until we made 20 miles, and that was it, 20 miles in the bag. Uninjured, a whole hour faster than I ran 20 miles last time I attempted it (3:15), full of jelly babies. And with my watch telling me to recover for 36 hours.

Next week...

Monday: Circuit training
Tuesday: Beginners run club (2 miles); Pilates
Wednesday: Tempo run: 5 miles (middle 3 miles at 10K pace, or Strava segment run)
Thursday: Run club (both sessions, I've insisted!)
Friday: Rest day
Saturday: Bike ride or swimming
Sunday: 15 miles at marathon pace or faster





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