Thursday, 25 September 2008

A Hybrid Run - and then another one!

Training is going to have to be focused in a number of different areas over the coming months. The primary goal is going to be building a strong and reliable endurance base, and easing the body though an adaptation process to get it accustomed to being ON feet for a long time for lots of consecutive days.
The other thing is going to be pace.

I have a rough pace goal in mind for the 10-in-10 at present, which will - as is the nature of these things - be reassessed depending on the progress I make and the realities of that which my body can actually achieve over the coming months.
Needless to say - I won't be aiming to simply jog-out the 10 marathons. I have higher expectations of myself than that, and there is a part of me that thinks that if I'm going to do this thing, I'm going to do it well.
And I will make sure that I justify my place on the team by aiming as high as I can!
To that end, I'm going to need my Run All Day Every Day pace to be a little quicker than it is now.

Yesterday 'life' kinda got in the way of training. Lack of time, driving and tiredness constraints meant that I didn't get to do the run I had planned yesterday - 10 miles at 7:30's - and instead did a very nice 5 miles at 9:30's with Lorna.

I love running with her. It's often in silence, or just the occasional word, but the thing about it is that it is a time when we are completely together! There are no external distractions, and really is a time when we are in a time/space bubble, and we are simply "us".
Fabulous!!

I contemplated doing two hard sessions today - one really early and one later - but knocked that on the head with Lorna coming home at lunchtime, and the possibility of a run with her.
As it turned out she didn't have time at lunchtime.

That gave me an opportunity to get out and do a quicker one on my own.
The question was - WHAT..?
The 10 miles at 7:30's from yesterday
or 6 miles at Tempo pace (7's ish)

What I ended up with was a sort of hybrid run - a mixture of the pace I'd planned for yesterday with my Tempo Pace.
As I couldn't really decide what to run at, I decided that IF I hit 7:10 or less that would be fine - and if not - that would be fine too!
What I ACTUALLY tried to do was to run really relaxed at a pace that was easily sustainable at an effort that was easily sustainable.... and this run is what resulted.
It was good to give the legs a decent stretch - I'm glad I didn't push it out for any more distance with JW on Saturday.
But everything was working well. Pleased with this run!

6.64 miles
35:21
7:09 min/mile average
Splits 7.20 - 7.08 - 7.05 - 7.20 - 7.02 - 7.03 - 7.07

AND I had plenty left for a run with Lorna when she got back from work - Perfect.

Come the evening we went out for a short one. Lorna's legs had less bounce than they have had for the last couple of runs, and we had a time-constraint at home.
Every run has a purpose. This one was a recovery pace for me, and an opportunity to concentrate on maintaining good running form.

3.5 miles
35:21
10:06 min/mile

Splits: 9.58 - 9.46 - 10.47 - 9.43

Tomorrow I think that a Rest Day would be prudent.
We are participating in the JW Ultra - a 30 mile run from Straford-upon-Avon to Bournville - as a long run on Saturday.
So eating and resting are the order of the day!

The sponsorship trail also starts tomorrow.
I think that is going to be just as difficult as the training. The work that Brathay do is particularly close to my heart, and I want to ensure that we do as well for them in this venture as is humanly possible.
I'll explain why in due course!


No comments: