Sunday 1st April 2012
Lower quantity than last week but higher quality. Happy with my leg at the 12-stage. Three weeks until London.
Monday: Rest (0)
Tuesday: 10 easy (10)
Wednesday: 4×2 mile off 2 mins. First 3 hard, last one marathon effort. Ran it too fast. 10:32/10:33/10:38/11:06 (14)
Thursday: 12 easy (12)
Friday: 8 easy (8)
Saturday: Midland 12 stage relay. Leg 1, 5.4 miles. 13th on leg, 22nd fastest of the day 28:14 (PB). Team 7th (11)
Sunday: 15 mile tempo 86:32 total – 5 mile splits of 29:55,28:46,27:51 + 6 easy in 44:00 (21)
Week total: 76 miles
2012 total: 1022 miles
Sunday 25th March 2012
99 miles off singles. Heavy legs by the end of the week.
Monday: 12 easy (12)
Tuesday: 13 easy (13)
Wednesday: 14 steady (14)
Thursday: 10 easy plus some 400s at 80% effort (11)
Friday: 12 easy (12)
Saturday: Parkrun 5k. 1st in 15:46. Heavy legs (12)
Sunday: 3 hours. Sore. (25)
Week total: 99 miles
2012 total: 946 miles
Taken from my training log.
Tuesday 20th March 2012
I’ve done a couple of races recently. It’s been fun. Two weeks ago I ran a half marathon in my home town and last weekend some club-mates and I ran a local 20 mile race as a warm up for the London Marathon.
This race was notable for a few things. One was that I was happy with my time and that it confirmed that my training has been going well, and the other was that for the first time ever I received an email from another athlete taking part. It was sent via our club secretary; here is an excerpt.
I politely (and very slightly through gritted teeth) applauded those lapping me. Of the 7 or 8 who did lap me, the only one who acknowledged this was your representative, Ed Banks. And not only did he say thank you, he had the breath and good manners to wish me good luck as well.
Obviously it was a pleasure to receive such a kind email from a complete stranger, but it got me thinking and I felt compelled to reply. To paraphrase my response, I told her that although she admires those of us towards the front of races, the respect and admiration is certainly reciprocated. She probably cannot identify with my situation, nor can I with hers, but ultimately we are doing the same thing. Running. The only difference is that she is doing it for longer, and I have a huge amount of respect for this. I know that nearly everyone who starts a race is there to work hard, to graft, and to put themselves through large amounts of pain in the hope they will succeed. The sender of this email was out on the road for nearly 4 hours, far longer than I have ever run for in my life.
If anyone is the hero in this story it is her and not me.
Sunday 18th March 2012
Good week. 80% effort session on Thursday and a 3rd place finish in today’s 20 mile race. I am pleased with my new-found ability to negative split a race. Thought: is the perfect tense of negative split ‘negative splat?’
Monday: 12 easy (12)
Tuesday: 12 easy (12)
Wednesday: 13 easy (13)
Thursday: 2×4 easy,2×6 easy,6/6/4 hard,6/6/4 steady,2×6 easy – 72,71,1:49,1:49,1:40,1:43,65,1:49,1:44,67,1:53,1:57. (10)
Friday: 8 easy (8)
Saturday: 6 easy (6)
Sunday: Ashby 20. 3rd in 1:54:18. 5 mile splits of 29:02/28:47/28:15/28:14 (21)
Week total: 82 miles
2012 total: 847 miles
Sunday 11th March 2012
Took a while to get the half marathon out of my legs. Happy with the track session.
Monday: 9 easy (9)
Tuesday: 8 easy (8)
Wednesday: Rest (0)
Thursday: Long warm up, 2×400,2×600,2×800,2×600,2×400 all off 200 jog or 2 mins. 71/70/1:45/1:46/2:15/2:21/1:53/1:51/61/65 (12)
Friday: 6 easy. Sore. (6)
Saturday: 13 with 2 mile hard section in middle (13)
Sunday: 25 miles. Started slow, ran 18-23 hard (25)
Week total: 73 miles
2012 total: 765 miles
Taken from my training log.