Marathon Training w/e 7th September

With 4 weeks to go until Geneva I'm now at the business end of my build up. Very marathon specific training sessions to get me used to running race pace efficiently and hopefully having a change of gear for when the race really starts sometime after the 30km point.

For this build up I had planned to do a couple of the 'special block' sessions where you do the same hard training in the morning and afternoon but the hip issues in august put paid to that. So instead I'm experimenting with a 10 day altitude 'top up'. Its a technique that Marius Bakken reported getting good results with so worth a test. In the past I've raced really well after about 10 days back at sea level and get better for another week or so but i've never raced a marathon less than 4 weeks after coming down. So on monday evening I travelled back up to St Moritz and will come down 17 days before Geneva, hopefully feeling turbocharged.

So the first few days this week were about recovering from last sunday's long hard effort and re-adjusting to 6000ft altitude before hitting a couple of big efforts later in the week. I must be jinxed because August in St Moritiz was apparently glorious and the rain followed me from home all the way up to the Engadin where its still miserable as hell.

Monday off and travel

Tue 70 mins with last 20 steady then strides + 40 min very easy

Wed 68 mins incl 8x12sec hill sprints + 38 mins easy

Thr 40 mins easy + 50 mins easy incl 7x200m fast stride (had planned a hard workout but hardly slept so pushed it back a day)

Fri 90min including 60min fartlek alternating approx 1km HM/10k pace with 1km steady (average pace for the hour was MP). The emphasis of this workout is to control the pace of the 'recoveries' so that they are a bit slower than MP and this gives the body time to remove the lactate created by the faster segments while still keeping the overall speed up.

Sat 60 mins moderate + 42 mins easy

Sun approx 30km with 3x7km at MP in freezing, pouring rain. About as much fun as 'delhi belly'. At least on days like these you know that some of your opponents are sitting in front of the TV waiting for the rain to stop and when it doesn't then they havent put in training.

So another solid week and just a couple more big efforts to go before backing off and resting up for the big day. The Letsrun Fall Marathon Thread is here

Shoe Review: Saucony Fastwitch 3

I've been breaking in a new pair of Saucony Fastwitch 3 racing shoes for my upcoming marathon in Geneva so here are a few observations after a few runs.

First thing is the sizing. I usually go down half a size in racing shoes to allow for the fact that i'm only wearing thin racing socks compared to thicker socks and orthotics in my trainers. But with the Fastwitch 3 I'm wearing a size UK 8.5, the same as my ProGrid Triumph 5 trainers. The Saucony racers do fit a bit closer than the trainers (same applies for the A2) so this is something to keep in mind. My local Saucony stockist Tri UK holds a pretty comprehensive range of sizes which made life a bit easier.

The fit is what attracted me to this shoe. I have a narrow heel and broad forefoot so can have a problem with my heels slipping around and the consequent blisters. These fit like a dream, nice grip on the heel and plenty of room in the toe box. First time out they were fine, no problems with blisters or bruising.

The ride is somewhere between soft and hard ! The shoe has a decent amount of cushioning and some medial support so should be fine for longer races up to the marathon. For a real low profile shoe for 5-10k I would probably go for the super skinny Saucony A2.

Because this shoe has a blown rubber outsole there is some wear on it already but as I normally destroy the midsole of my racers before the outsole i'm not overly worried about this. Will report back when they have done a couple of hundred miles though. One point to note is that like many racers these days there are holes in the midsole to save weight. On a wet road this is OK but when I ran through standing water I got wet socks. So hopefully no big puddles in Geneva !!

Updated:

Here is a picture of the sole of my Fastwitch 3 racers after 150km of running. There is some wear at the back of the forefoot and also where I push off on my toes. Otherwise they seem to be holding up well.


How did you find the Fastwitch 3 racers ? Post a comment ...

Marathon Training w/e 31st August, back in the saddle

Oh the rollercoaster that is marathon training. From despair to optimism, renewed doubt and finally supreme confidence in a few short days. Money can't buy highs and lows like this ! The week started with painful easy running and a sense of 'will this hip ever heal up in time for my marathon at the end of September' and ended with a flying couple of miles at the end of a solid 2hr 15 min effort and moments of glory once again entering my dreams.

The key has been patience. Religiously doing my exercises to loosen the muscles around hip and get the glutes activating properly again. Its time consuming and tedious but essential. And then the patience to every day just stretch the training a little bit without going over the top. The temptation is to hammer the body back into shape with a few hard sessions. Instead I've concentrated on starting easy and building each day a few more minute of good aerobic running down to marathon pace and then threshold top remind the body how to work. Next week is the time for a really hard effort.

Monday Easy 37 mins and easy 30 mins. Hurting and wondering whether there is any hope
Tuesday 50 minutes with some uncomfortable strides and 30 minutes suddenly feeling much looser
Wednesday 45 mins starting easy but with last 15 mins steady. Still feeling the hip but at last no pain, cautious optimism. Physio and the good news is that everything is still where it should and just need some time for muscles to relax. More optimism !
Thursday 62 mins moderate with the hip feeling OK at last. Evening easy running and 6 hill sprints. Actually able to feel the glutes working on the right side, my arse must have been getting really flabby :-(
Friday 25 mins easy then 40 mins progressive to threshold pace. So hard, blowing out of every orrifice and wondering where on earth all that fitness has gone. Self doubt in spades.
Saturday 50 mins moderate and 30 mins easy. A bit sore from yesterday which is not a good sign after a progression run.
Sunday 2hrs 15 starting easy then at a moderate pace with the last 30mins building to marathon pace. Really helped to have John McFarlane for company on this run especially as I felt pretty rough after about 90minutes before really picking up in the last half hour. Able to change gears in the last couple of miles and felt great. Finished feeling full of belief again.

Not sure I can stand the emotional turmoil of many more weeks like this one so now hoping for a normal couple of weeks then taper down to the race on 28th Sept.

Last night I went to Wembley to support a few of my colleagues at Connectwell as they took part in the Nike Human Race representing London against the rest of the world. You have to admire the marketing genius of the folks from Oregon. Hundreds of thousands of runners all round the world (well at least in their target markets) all wearing Nike T-shirts and just doing it.

It was a cool wet night in London and being on the other side of the fence holding kit and dishing out water bottles gave me a different perspective on our sport. Isabel, Kim and Steve (left with supporters) were all so pleased to complete the 10k in 67 minutes, a big achievement for them as non-runners.

Their excitement was palpable as talk turned to 'next time' and beating the hour mark. Looks like we have three more potential addicts !

It was great to see so many people participating and actually running at a solid pace and enjoying the experience even although it was a miserable evening for running in and even more miserable for the few hardy souls who left the dry confines of the stadium to get out on the course and spectate. Although one young lady running in wave 4 (bottom left) seemed to be taking things far too seriously as she weaved in and out of the other runners with the Wembley arch lit up in the background.

Marathon Training W/E 24th August

After 6 months of trouble free running it all went a bit wrong this week. I've had a tight hip recently and on monday it finally decided that I wasn't going to run another step. Fortunately I've got a great physio in Claire Wheller and she quickly found that my pelvis had upshifted and rotated forward on the right hand side. This was causing the muscles to work in ways they are not supposed to - and hence the pain. The best metaphor I can think of is when you bash your car wheel against a curb and then a few thousand miles later find that the tyres have worn unevenly because you put the suspension out of alignment. Thats basically what's happened. Its not new for me, I did it last year before Toronto but at the start of my taper so it didn't interfere with my preparation beyond forcing me to run the race on one leg. Its a bit annoying because I thought I stopped a recurrence by spending time doing some exercises to keep everything solid but clearly I haven't been doing enough. Must do better !

With 5 weeks to go until race day this is not an ideal position to be in but there are two rays of light. The first is that before my first marathon I missed 10 days with a horrid gastro bug at about the same time in my build up and if anything the break did me some good. The second is that i'm in good shape already so if things come together this week I should have time to get in a few more key workouts then taper though I may need to have a review of my goals. Time will tell !

So after a few days of rest to let things settle training was a 25 minute jog on saturday and 45 minutes on sunday. At least this left me with some time to watch the olympics and enjoy two terrific marathon races.

The men's marathon really was a surprise. Along with most other onlookers I was expecting the fast early pace to really take its toll later on due to the conditions but Sammy Wanjiru just kept pouring it on right to the finish. There's no doubt in my mind that we will look back on this race in a few years time and say that it marked a step change in men's marathon running. Why do I say that ? Until now the fastest 10k guys to move up to the marathon have been Tergat and Geb but they have done it at the end of their careers. A couple of 13min /sub 27 guys like Evans Rutto and Felix Limo made the move mid career but nobody with such speed has specialised as early as Wanjiru. Remember he has run 26.40 for 10k and a mid 58 half marathon. With Bekele crushing the opposition again at 10,000m I can see a few more fast runners moving up mid career (I would expect Zersenay Tadesse to debut this winter) and some of the aspiring 10,000m runners to skip straight to the marathon like Wanjiru and Ryan Hall have done.

If that is not concerning enough for the european/north american marathoners it also seems that the effect of foreign coaching on the east africans is starting to take effect in how they acclimatise for hot and humid championship races. With Rothlin 6th and Ritzenhein and Hall 9th and 10th the african performance was stronger than in recent championships. And when the Ethiopians finally swallow their pride and prepare their marathon runners properly for a hot and humid championship race then there really will be fireworks. The days of relying on superior acclimatisation to beat them may be coming to and end.

Marathon Training w/e 17th August

Managed to get in two good marathon specific workouts this week though not quite as much running in between as I would have liked due to a slightly sore hip but thats all part of the joy of a marathon build up.

Having stayed up half the night on saturday to watch the Womens Olympic Marathon I made sure that sunday was a really gentle day. It would have been very easy to push too hard and risk over stressing the immune system after not enough sleep.

And what a great race it was. Britain's Mara Yamauchi kept me on the edge of my seat for the last hour as she looked very strong just tucked into the leading group. We were at university at the same time and I don't imagine for one minute that when we were slogging through mud in the students cross country league that Mara would have imagined that 15 years later she would finish 6th in the Olympic Marathon. It just goes to show what is possible with the right amount of focus and progressive training. Inspiring stuff really !

My week looked something like this:
Mon 50mins easy and 40mins very easy
Tue 2hr 15 mins moderate with 10x1min fast/2min mod after the first hour then 20mins MP to finish. The fast stuff put some fatigue into the legs which made the last 20mins more challenging. These long runs are going to get tougher in the next month and hopefully this will pay off in the last 10k of the race
Wed 52 mins easy
Thr off as the hip was sore
Fri 50 mins moderate and 45 mins easy
Sat 5x4km at marathon pace with 1km in 3:45 as recovery. Was able to really put my foot down in the last 2km of the last rep so plenty of power in the engine which is good news.
Sun 60mins easy and 45 mins easy

Marathon Training w/e 10th August

This autumn will be my 6th marathon build up and each time i've had to change things a bit to keep challenging my body to adapt. Last time out I put in a 27km continuous tempo run. For this one I've already gone a bit longer on my long runs so far (2hr 45mins) and run a bigger volume during July. Next I will be throwing in some faster segements on my long runs to get used to running at race pace on tired legs. Should be fun!

I found this week a bit of struggle. Coming down from the mountains it has felt really humid all week and the legs have just been a bit sluggish, that said there was plenty of speed when required so its just a question of re-adjusting to sea level. So the details:

Mon 90mins undulating with the last 30 steady
Tue 45mins easy + 9x2mins fast with 75 secs jog
Wed day off and a visit to the physio to make sure everything was moving properly
Thr 50 easy mins incl 7x200m fast + 45mins very easy
Fri first structured MP run: 8x2km + 35mins regeneration
Sat 65mins moderate + 45mins easy
Sun 65mins with the last 30 steady + 45mins very easy and 7x80m uphill max sprints

This works out at about 160km for the week and after the training in St Moritz actually felt quite easy. I doubt I will still be saying that in 5 weeks time though.

For those of you wondering what pace easy, moderate etc is it goes something like this:
Regeneration = 5min/km
Very Easy = 4.30
Easy = 4.00
Mod = 3.45
Steady = 3.30
MP = 3:15
AT = 3:05
Fast = sub 2.55

And as a general rule I start a bit slower and build up to the required effort and if in doubt run slower rather than faster.

The Letsrun 'Fall Marathon Training' thread is here

Funny thing endurance

At a weekend track meeting I got talking to two of my clubmates, both veterans (masters) and both the proud owners of big new personal bests. The first had just knocked 4 seconds off his 800m time to go sub 2:20, which is a big chunk by any standard. Especially as all of last season he had trained specifically for the 800m and this season he hadn't ! The second runner had a tough winter with not as much running as last year. The last time we spoke in June he was toying with the idea of running some shorter races than last season's range of 800m-5000m. This seemed like a good idea as he has plenty of speed. So when he popped a 59.9 for 400m (not bad for a 45 year old novice sprinter) the plan was vindicated.

Earlier that morning I had been reading in the newspapers Marilyn Okoro explaining her 1:58 front running win in the Crystal Palace GP the previous friday. Maz is a 800m runner with enough 400m speed to be on the GB 4x400m relay team. Her slow start to the season (she was running 2:02 back in May) was down to the heavy endurance work she was putting in she explained. In the same paper Michael Rimmer was chuffed with his 1:44 breakthrough which in his estimation had a lot to do with a winter spent training with the 1500m man (and accomplished cross country runner) Tom Lancashire under the guidance of experienced coach Norman Poole.

So this got me thinking, what have a couple of 45 year old club mates got in common with two of Britain's Olympic middle distance hopes ?

Well the first of my clubmates had actually run his first marathon this spring. As a result he had spent the winter running more volume and doing more long runs than before. So while he hadn't been hammering short reps on the track all spring he had been getting aerobically much fitter. And given that the 800m is about half and half aerobic and anaerobic contribution its pretty easy to work out now where the 4 second improvement came from !! In fact if he now does a few weeks of race pace workouts I would bet that there is another second or two to come off that time. And the second club mate was simply matching his race event to the amount of background training he had managed to get done in the winter. Instead of facing a summer of disappointment in the longer middle distances he moved down and focused on setting personal bests at those distances.

So what's the takeout ? The aerobic system has far more scope for training than the anaerobic and the majority of us are underdeveloped aerobically. (Even after a few years of marathon training I am still improving my running economy and turning in faster races even though my anaerobic power is less than it was 10 years ago). So whether you are a half miler or a marathon runner get to work developing your aerobic capabilities. It takes time and the payback is well worth it.