After several white or grey weeks, it was lovely to see the colour back in Wharfedale. The strength of the sun brought the blueness back to the river and the greenness to the fields. It felt like I was seeing them for the first time - I could not remember them ever looking that good.
We headed down through Burley, Otley, Pool to Arthington, touched the railway bridge (at 11 miles) and turned to retrace our steps. It was a good steady run, hitting our target pace of 7:40 with enough energy to chat about everything from the state of the economy to the latest club gossip. The miles flew by, and I felt generally strong. On heading into Otley (at about 15m), my legs started to really ache, and by the time we reached the Burley underpass (at 18m) I was really struggling.
Our plan was to push on from this point and do 3 at 6:50 (target marathon) pace. Andy was really strong and pushed onto to get close to the target. For me, it was just not my day, and despite trying to up the pace, if anything I was getting slower and slower - the wheels had fallen off!
I could just not lift my legs to plant the next step, and ended up doing the marathon-runners shuffle for the last 3 miles, trying desperately hard to stay upright and moving forwards!
Although it was torture at the time, I'm trying to be philosophical about it - I actually think the last month or so has been really tough for me. Not so much in the number of miles, but the intensity of some of the efforts (3 long runs, 1 half-marathon PB, 1 hard XC and 1 fell race).
Still it was another 22m in the bag, and another good learning lesson!
Garmin details here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/23523665
Been thinking about this, Paul, and I'm convinced you need to give yourself some time to concentrate on your main goal, VLM - I think you should look to get some decent base mileage in during the week - maybe build up to a 10/12 miler midweek with a few miles of MP or fartlek. Also try and get a few more easy miles in in between - I don't think that old blokes like us can run 6 or 7 times a week, but I think you should try and get another couple of easyish runs in each week. Like you said you were going really well to 15/16m and looking great - but then I think all your hard efforts probably bit you on the bum.
ReplyDeleteWell done to both of you on another long run....I certainly could not have managed to run much more than half of your 22 miles today.
ReplyDeleteJust to contribute to your number of runs debate, I think that the key to running 6 or 7 times a week, if that's what you want to do, is to do plenty of easy mileage & save the fast stuff for efforts & races. Having said that, I'm not planning to run a marathon.
I think Paul and I agree that we have neither the time nor the bodies to run 6 or 7 times, but we were thinking if it is to be 4 or 5 then what are the key sessions. I think for marathon training it's the long one, a longish midweek run, maybe building up to (but no more than) 15 miles (and 12'd probably be fine) then a couple of easy runs that can be anything from 5-8 miles but done slowly, almost as recovery. Track sessions are fun and clearly brilliant for racing speed, but we're actually not looking to run that fast - just a bloody long way!
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