Training weeks

With a couple of weeks off from racing is back to business training for the Manchester Marathon and Oulton Park Duathlon.

After the hard work of Trimpell 20, I got my legs ready for my first track training session in many a year!

The shiny new blister is a peach and protected it with a plaster for a recovery run of 5:00 min/km pace, it was hot and I was glad it was over. My legs were heavy; finally, on the turnaround, they eased off a little to get back on track with the intended pace.

I have returned to the track after many a year, the surface at the local track has just been redone and super fast, a little bouncy but fun. Oldham Community Leisure (OCL) put on a session each week, the coach is John Sweeney, whom I have great respect for and raced against for a few years. Most of the attendees were either Royton Road Runners or Rochdale Tri... of which I am a member of both!

The session was 800's with 2 minutes recovery, my legs were still achy, so I hoped they would work after the warm-up and stretching, which they did, but grumbled at me.

I paused my watch after each 800 and then started again, 6 sets and I was happy to finish the last one (with a sprint).

The watch splits at 1Km intervals, so I can't see the individual efforts unless I use "segments".

I did record a 1:16 400m effort, so a modern-day PR, the first set I went out a little fast and that accounts for a 3:20 1k, the other 4 1k's were consistent enough, actually slightly improving each time.

The moving time was 17:43 for 5.2km, now wouldn't it be great to do at parkrun... albeit with a 2 minutes rest every 1k 😛

On Wednesday, I did another recovery run of 5min/km pace my HR a nice easy 145bpm, the blister still being protected but looking better and causing no bother.

Thursday a did a "Sandwich Session" which is run, bike, run... a duathlon practice, 

As I was going on holiday, it would be a week of running, no bike, the kid's bikes took all the spots. So having got into the holiday home and unpacked, I headed out for a 5k at Marathon Pace (MP), which at the moment is 4:40 min/km and managed to stick to it.

4:40 pace spot on

On the first Sunday of the holiday, I tried a swim in the pool, the "lanes" as always... shut, so in the mix with the hordes of kids and holidaymakers, I managed 260 meters, my left shoulder even with breaststroke no good ad painful, so went on the slides for fun instead!

I deferred my Long Slow Run (LSR) to Tuesday and did an "out and back" from Hafen to Porthmadog, a story I recounted to the gardener who had a hard time believing I had done that and just under 3 hours. The trouble with Wales is there are few pavements outside of towns and the holiday park is on the main road. Thankfully there is a pavement on the left all the way to Crieth, as you exit the town, it flips to the right, once I reached Porthmadog, I picked possible the worst choice at the main junction in town and head "up" to Black Rock.

Once I reached "Black Rock Llamas" I turned back, stopping off at a petrol station to refill my water bottle, the weather was cool with some drizzle. However, you need to keep hydrated!

My "Easy" pace is 5:05, I managed to keep it at 5:07, so please forgive 2 seconds a kilometre!

Garmin Fitness

Fo the past few weeks my Garmin watch and companion app have been giving me improvements and as of Friday it is reporting I have reached 59 and that gives you race predictions like this:

I will take the "Fitness age of an Excellent 20-year-old" but the race times are a bit fanciful.

After my dog chewed the last of my shades, I have bought some Ron Hill - Tokyo shades, which will double up for cycling as they give good coverage against the wind.

This photo was taken whilst waiting to go into the "King Arthur's Labyrinth" which if you are in "South-North Wales" you should visit, it takes you under the mountain into an old mine, with the old tunnels and quarry caverns, boat ride and the legend of King Arthur played out to you, magnificent. So that's my Welsh tourist board job done 😁 the shades are great and that's my British Triathlon buff keeping me warm and Covid Safe... 

York parkrun

In a re-arranged holiday to Budapest with the lads, it was a trip to York and the horse racing instead. Any opportunity to be a parkrun tourist, I will take and this was no different! I jogged from the hotel to the racecourse and loosened up with an anti-clockwise walk around the service road which the parkrun uses. They have key markers like the start, finish, KM, etc. painted on the road, making the setup easier!

I chatted with a few of the runners and began to get my legs warmed up again, I got myself up front for the start as I wanted to attack from the start and get the best time I could. 

From the off, I pushed hard, trying to keep my pace under 4:04, which I managed to do, people that had overtaken me in the first few km, I started to catch back up in the last Km, my right calf worryingly a couple of times developed a sharp, stabbing, burning pain which eased off after each attack. Despite this, I kept the pace up and was happy with the time, 19:19, but my GPS states a18:59 5K, I was 16th overall and 2nd M45, which I am super happy with.

Splits and route

A strong start and finish

York is a nice flat course, so the time is good; for context, my fastest parkrun is Cardiff at18:22 which is also flat. So I am getting closer to my times from 10 years ago!

Hopefully, my troublesome calf heals quickly, I will ease off this week and get ready for Sundays Cheshire Half Marathon as best I can.