Marathon Eryri – Week 8 review into Week 9 #runchat @runningblogs
Back on New Years Eve entering Marathon Eryri was a great idea. At 12:01 I logged onto the site and entered my details. I’d looked at it the previous year and thought it would be good but never entered. Now I have and with around 7 weeks to go the training is starting to increase.
Only two things now that could hamper my efforts and they are injury and illness. I’m okay at the moment in general. I do have a slight hamstring tightness from a Week 9 interval session but hopefully I’ll rest it and it will be okay by the next run. I’ve increased my vitamin intake so hopefully that will keep any colds away. I feel quite fit and the mind is getting more positive after every run.
After reading some other blogs it occurred to me that I may not write enough. I doubt anyone reads it so I’ve decided to write a bit more content. So how has Week 8 gone? Amazing – a good week of running. Here is how it went:
Tuesday – 30th August : 6M of 1M jog + 4 x 1M at 10k pace (approx 9-9:30/mile) with 2 min 30 sec jog recoveries + 1 mile cool down
Really good run on the trotting track where I live. The soft surface is different than a road so I think I work harder. The warm up and cool down are a bit longer than the plan @ 1.4miles but otherwise all mile splits were hit. I really enjoy interval sessions.
Thursday – 1st September : 6m progression run – starting at 10:30 pace and speeding up a little each mile
I’m not a fan of progression runs as I struggle to know what pace I am doing without setting my Garmin to beep at me if I am too slow or too fast. As it happens it went really well with mile paces of: 10:24, 10:10, 9:48, 9:33, 9:21 and 8:39 – that last mile was good and I felt there was more in the tank.
Saturday – 3rd September : 5M including hills at threshold effort level.
Today I ran over the mountain towards the swimming pool where my children have swimming lessons. The pool is 7 miles away so there was a car pick up at 5m. I try not to run over planned miles. Ran with a guy called Martin who passed my house as I was starting out. It was nice to have company running up the main hill.
Sunday – 4th September : 9M easy
Very tired legs today but I managed to keep going at an easy pace of around 9:30/mile (as expected). The last two miles of the slog where up hills and they were a struggle. Hills worry me especially as Eryri is hilly.
So 4 days of running and a total of 27 miles or so. 2 rest days.
Food wise – everything is going well. A small takeaway on Saturday evening with a bottle of beer – just to keep the mind happy. Otherwise it’s chicken, brown rice, salad, spinach etc etc – all good things. The weight is going I think. I’ve not weighed properly in two weeks.
I’ll post Week 9 training schedule up later in the week but until then I wonder – does anyone actually ready this blog? Nobody comments so I assume nobody does (I use it as a personal diary more than anything). If you do – please send me some motivation. I think the comment box is working again. Please tell me about your training – are you getting there? Is your race soon? Have you any advice?