Here's a session that I get my clients to do once a week in their 12 week programmes. It's the magical POWER HOUR, you know the one four mins slow and one minute fast on a treadmill. ONLY, today I did this in the gym at The Cardiff International Pool. The only place in Wales that is well over 40 degrees today! What a sweatbox...
My knees starting to knock by 50 minutes and the last 10 just went on forever...but that's what I expecting to happen but with the air-conditioning sadly broken, it was excellent MdS training for me and my MdS Tent Buddy of two years, Chris Whistler. To say we were bu66ered at the end of the hour was an understatement.
Following the run, we went into the pool with very red faces and it took ages to cool down from Gas Mark V to something near normal.
I did feel very good for the intervals so it's more of the same next time :-) Todays intevals are here...
I ran HARD today...VERY HARD or so it felt...actually it equated to 8.52 minute miles but it was as hard as I could smash the 8.4 miles out. Not quite what I would have liked and during my FAST marathon years I would have been 7.48 all the way for the whole 26.2 mile as an average but being realistic to being 16 years older and some 740 marathons worse for wear, it's not surprising that the legs have lost a little sap.
I'm trying though... the 3.52.30 I would have done on today's timings just isn't good enough. I'm better than this AND i'll prove it.
It's far to easy to blame the pneumonia and the green gunge I'm still coughing up on the run but I'd like the legs to turn over a LOT easier... maybe I'll get 'em going better tomorrow.
More then... today's effort is here...
My well earned day off any exercise at all, really helped with my recovery from all of that hill training of my past few outings. With this in mind, I decided to see what it would ten be like to run a tempo six on a course which in contrast to all of them hills was considerably a lot flatter.
I soon discovered that it felt really good... in fact, VERY good and all that humping and pumping on the mountains had really helped my speed. I think my Saucony Mirage 2 Trainers helped too as they are very lightweight and responsive when you are going up and down the pavements and dodging the general public.
I'm going to try another Tempo-Run tomorrow so we'll see how the legs shape up then.
Today's run is here... and How's your Christmas Training Going?
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| Caerphilly Castle |
The hill theme continued today as I took on Caerphilly Mountain and did a round trip run to the Castle and back. There's a good couple of 20% hills on the way there and on the way back of course to take on and conquer. It's a tough run...
I must say that I was just about out for the count on the way up to The Traveller's Rest Pub at the top of Caerphilly Mountain but I did manage some good recovery time on the way down in to Caerphilly Town Centre. The only thought during this section of the run was that I had to go back up the massive hill! It did cross my mind to turn round well before the bottom of the hill but in my new and improved 2013 mode, I made sure I went and touched the Castle Gates, just to make sure that I didn't cheat my way out of the full hill climb back out of the town.
I needn't have worried as the way back wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I actually speeded up and maybe it's been helped along by my using the MapMyRun softwware. On it yesterday I was Male Hill Climber of the Day, so it can't be all that bad.
Today's run is here.
More tomorrow...
Boxing Day in Wales, and yes you guessed it, a complete washout of a day for running. I still went out though and tried to attack the hills that creased me yesterday. It did the trick as I managed a lot better on the climbs out of Ty Mawr as the rain really battered it down.
I'm slowly getting used to my Saucony Peregrine 2 trainers as I'm still testing them out for a good off-road option possibly for UTMB and they work very well on the mud and on the down hills. They are a bit narrow though for my broad feet so I'll let you know after a few more try-outs.
I did manage to improve my running time over the 6 miles by nearly 12 minutes so maybe I'm getting used to managing the hills a bit better. Tomorrow will hopefully underline this further.
More then...
Well, if you were like me you were out there this morning running a few miles to make space for an average gut busting 6000+ calories of Christmas Dinner. Mine was just ace from our Christmas Lodgings, Near Llysfaen which lies between Caerdydd and Caerffili. It was meant to be just a simple six mile trip out on a very wet Christmas Morning.
It turned out to be a very hilly one too as I took on the massive hill from Ty Mawr to the top of the ridge that separates the two valleys. If you ran my Birthday Marathon with me last February, it's the one we walked up that day... It was only pride that got me to the top of it this morning, still running, not puking and with at least some lung function. My word, I have to work on my hills.
The path across the ridge, buried in mud and raging water torrents added to the fun of a great start to this part of my race preparations for 2013. And this is where I'm going to focus a lot of my strength work for next season and I'll be back out there tomorrow making a fool out of myself once again, only this time a few pounds heavier in more rain no doubt.
More then and have a Great Christmas Evening...
Well it's Christmas Eve and yes I've been out on the trails today as I will tomorrow as I start my preparations for 2013... following a couple of hard and rainy marathons to get me back into some distance running and a few days of recovery, as to be honest I was totally bushed it's now time to man up for one of the biggest years of my running life of recent years.
Not the normal appraoch for a man of 50 as most I meet are thinking of taking an easier life but I'm not your ordinary sort of person and I'm out there next year to add some more of 'The World's Toughest Footraces', especially the UTMB, to which I've just been accepted.
I don't think Cardiff's pancake flat roads are going to do the business for that one and so it's off to them hills for a bit of a refresher course this week as I step up the pace and the miles.
To all of you who read my blog, have a good one and more after a few thousand well earned Christmas Calories...
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