A View From The Middle

A month of two running races, one good and one not so good. A solid half marathon PB of 1:20:12 at Paddock Wood and a slightly disappointing 2:52:41 at the London Marathon.

In retrospect one probably affected the other. Last year I ran the Paddock Wood half at marathon pace for a 1:24 rather than ‘racing’ and the race was 3 weeks before London. This year I did race the half for the 1:20 and because, I assume, it was Easter weekend 3 weeks before London there was only a 2 week gap between the two races.

Lesson learned there – a hard half 2 weeks before a marathon is possibly not the best idea! – for me anyway. I ended up 57 seconds slower than the 2012 London Marathon but both the races panned out differently. Last year I gradually slowed from about the 35k mark, losing a handful of seconds per km until I had to stop at the 600m to go banner for cramp before jogging to the finish.

This year I know I am running better than last year with better results, both in races and the little test runs I do regularly, and thought a sub 2:50 time was a realistic target. I was running really well until around the 16 mile mark. I had been comfortably running 4:00/k and enjoying the race when suddenly my hamstrings tightened up and my left achilles started to hurt and I was running 4:12-15/k instead. From then to the end it was a struggle and focused on running a pace that would get me to the end. 2:52 is a decent time but not what I wanted and not what I believe I was capable of. Next year…

I was going to do the David Lloyd Sprint Triathlon a week after London but sore legs and some sage advice from my Dad I decided not to run and marshalled instead.

I swam just over 32k during the month, a decent mix of endurance and harder intervals and also included my first open water swim of the year – in the sea of all places. A balmy 7ºC it was a needless to say it didn’t last too long!

Cycling has been good throughout April with 739km ridden. I made a conscious effort to keep the mileage up as last April I really focused on the running and only managed 94k and I’m sure that my cycling suffered in the month after because of the lack of time in the saddle.

As well as some long rides I’ve done my first time trials and joined the Hampshire Road Club and am intending to do a few CTT events over the next few months. My first 2 club 10′s have been a 26:05 at 258 Watts – a sub par effort 2 days after the Paddock Wood half and followed up with a better 25:08 at 275 Watts which included a stop at a traffic light which had a police car sitting by it. Bugger!

Most of the running was either easy or racing during April so nothing really to add to the races above.

A week in Lanzarote to look forward to in May with hopefully plenty more time on the bike along with some more TT’s hopefully. I want to maintain my run fitness rather than look to increase the mileage now and do a bit more swimming in preparation for The Swashbuckler at the beginning of June.

One race in March, the Portsmouth Triathletes Spring Duathlon. Like last year I did the sprint event and like last year I finished second overall. Not a bad race but I lost time in transition because of frozen fingers, probably not enough to affect the result but I did feel it could have been more of a race at the end.

During the month I swum 52km, mostly either short 50 or 100m intervals or longer, endurance sets with a pull buoy.

Cycling I managed 794km. Some good long rides, several over 100k and an 80k ride at Ironman intensity. I’ve also ridden a couple of times up to Haslemere and back to visit my Nanna – the ride a couple of days ago was 50k straight into the teeth of the North Easterly wind! It took me 10 minutes longer than normal to get there and 15 minutes quicker than usual to get back. I am usually 5 or so minutes quicker on the way back because of the extra downhill but the 2:10 to get there and 1:45 return was extreme.

The trip up earlier I managed the 50k to Haslemere and a longer route back of 105k for a decent day in the saddle.

I was pleased with the ride at the Dualthon ending up with the third fastest bike split and an average of 271 Watts, a big improvement on the same race last year. It was a bloody cold and windy day though so it was a slightly slower time time than last year for that improvement.

Plenty of running during the month as the build up to the London Marathon finishes. 414km in total in the bank. My weekly long run peaked with two runs of just over 25 miles, the quickest of which was a 3:08 so at a decent pace. The peak weekly volume was 107k but the least was 87k so I have been fairly consistent.

The runs at Goodwood were OK as well with the first 4k run run ay around 17:50 5k pace and with nothing really to run for on the second went at 20:00 5k pace.

It’s all about the running in April with the Paddock Wood Half Marathon this weekend and the London Marathon a couple of weeks later.  I’m going to try to keep the bike volume a bit higher than at this time last year as I think I lost a decent amount of bike fitness during the marathon taper and recovery. I ran pretty well at London last year with a 2:51 and it is much less of a priority than it was last year and there are bigger races for me later in the year.

Like January and the Stubbington 10k there was only one race in February, and that was one that I didn’t ‘race’. The Portsmouth Coastal Half Marathon has for the last couple of years been a good training run and an opportunity to train at a pace that is faster than my normal training pace.

It went OK and Rory and I ran a faster pace than last year but ended up with a slower time for our hard work as we ran a extra half a mile because of the lack of signage and marshalls at one of the turn points. Not too big a problem for us as it was a training run but more upsetting for those racing for a time!

In terms of training February has been a big month for me.

Overall I’ve swum 40k in the pool with the start of the month generally being more emphasis on easier swimming changing to harder interval based sessions towards the end of the month. Looking back I only swum twice up to the 10th of February so the majority of the metres swum have been in the second half of the month – more consistency needed I think. The hardest session I did was a 3000m set with a 500m warm up and cool down with 2000m sandwiched in the middle as 40 x 50 m with 10 seconds rest.

I was disappointed with the Hour Postal Swim, covering 100m less than last year in the hour with 3375m, but a week later did set a new 400m PB with a 6:09 so the swimming is not going too badly.

it was nearly my largest volume of cycling in a month as well, not bad for a short month with 962km covered. I tried to do a long ride each week, at least 100k, and my long ride in the last week was 120k which I will gradually try to increase. Plenty of TrainerRoad intervals as well and I’ve also used the turbo trainer and TrainerRoad for some longer rides when the weather has been poor.

Running has been the main focus though with the London Marathon getting closer. My long run has been getting longer and has been 21 miles in the final two weeks of the month. Lots of other running, mainly easy paced, with either others from the Tri-club, my wife or on my own meant I ran 310k in February, running 6 days a week. There have been a number of brick runs just for the convenience rather than any particular need to do that type of workout.

One Body Balance session per week has completed the picture and whilst I will never be described as flexible I’m sure it’s having some benefit!

So some big weeks in terms of volume – of the weeks in February I averaged over 19 hours per week.

March will also be a big month, one race with the Portsmouth Triathletes Spring Duathlon and plenty more running as the build to London continues.