Marathon Build Up Week 4 of 9

This is the week when I started to feel tired at last as the cumulative effect of the marathon training took hold. This is the position you are looking to get into and its a fine line to tread between staying tired and ensuring you are fresh enough to nail the key workouts. I was probably just the wrong side the line by mid week and Friday's Marathon Pace workout was tough as the legs felt knackered. But at least I was able to pck up the pace on each effort and in the context of a block of hard training the pace was OK on what was a cold, wet day.

On sunday there was still enough in the tank to knock out a solid 5 miles in the South of England 12 stage relays where I was running for my Wells City Harriers club (finish photo left by Ken Hoye). The legs were still a bit battered but I was able to push harder than at Bath a couple of weeks back and although I was on the limit in the last mile the first 20mins felt controlled.

The team put in a solid effort to finish 10th but unfortunately the number of teams in this event continues to decline. I've posted on the 12 stage before so suffice to say its time to change the format before it dies a slow lingering death.

It was a good weekend for other runners from the Harriers as Emily Smith won the Junior Girls race at the English Schools Cross Country in what was by all accounts a mad sprint for the line as she came from way back in the last couple of minutes of racing. For American readers the English Schools is the biggest race for school age kids over here. You have to get through several qualifying races, district, county and regionals to get to race. For many runners it will be their first big race away from home and you get to stay the night before with a host family. On the two occasions I qualified this was the scariest part of the weekend ! I think my best was about 166th at Preston in 1987.

Anyway back to 2010 and the weeks training went

Mon 69 mins and 44mins
Tue 35 mins and a track session of 30x200m with just 100m jog
Wed 1hr 40 picking up the pace after halfway
Thr 42 mins very easy
Fri 75mins of Marathon pace going 3.24/km, 3.22, 3.20, 3.18, 3.14
Sat 35mins and 40 mins
Sun w/u 5mile relay stage w/d

This worked out at about 95miles for the week and looking at the last 15 days its been pretty densely packed with hard runs. This week I will have a few easy days towards the backend before racing the Wilmslow Half Marathon then I will be off to altitude to finish my London preparation.

Really looking forward to getting away and hopefully some sunshine !