Tuesday's session was back to the short stuff - loads of drills, some 60m sprints, and then 4 x 800m reps with long rests. I managed to keep the first three 800m reps at 2:25 (three PBs I think), but the last one was a notch slower at 2:26. Hard work as ever, but I felt like I am starting to get the hang of how to breath at a faster pace and this seems to allow me to extend my top level effort for an extra 200m or so.
Wednesday was 'rest day', but I ended up dropping Deb off at the start of a hot and sticky recce of leg 2 of the Round Sheffield Relay (with Claire S), and committed to having the car and cold water waiting for them at the other end. To kill a bit of time I decided to jog slowly out from the end to meet them, and ended up doing a very easy 7.6 miles. Thursday's session was SRC speedwork on the 'field of dreams' with coach Dave O. The session was basically the back end of a pyramid session (1600, 1200, 800, 400) with short rests and 2 x 200m sprints between each rep. I was happy with the effort level at the session but Alex P was way ahead of me - suggesting I am in for a torrid time when we run as a pair in September (Round Sheffield Relay) and October (at the brilliant gruesome twosome half marathon).
I had Friday off work so managed to squeeze in a recovery run am / pm double totaling just over 12 miles. We were due to go away on Saturday afternoon, but I snuck in a quick set of drills and a parkrun progression before we set off - maintaining tempo effort for the first two laps of hillsborough parkrun and then stepping up to race effort for the last lap to finish in 17:26. Again, I wasn't that happy with the pace given my heart rate - but at least I had finally built up the courage to get on the weighing scales that morning to find that I am 3kg heavier than when I ran London. That will explain the drop in pace then! I followed the parkrun progression with 10 x short hills sprints, focusing on maintaining form. A 2-hour drive later and I got a bonus 2 x 3-mile recovery walk in Hemingford Grey (off a pint of beer by the river - sod the weighing scales).
Sunday was a pretty hectic day as we were driving an hour from the hotel in Hemingford Grey to pick the kids up at 10am near Thetford (after their week at XUK activity camp). Still, with Deb needing to get some miles in, we were up and out at 6:50am for just under 8 miles before a tasty hotel breakfast. I ran the first couple of miles easy with Deb and then moved into low threshold for two and a bit laps of the amazing Hemingford Meadow (1.7 mile loop of grass path in stunning riverside surroundings). I hadn't planned a threshold run but having walked round the meadow on the Saturday evening, I just fancied running it hard. Apparently the meadow becomes a lake for a few months of the year so my strava course records might just last a bit longer!
Hemingford Grey Meadow (the big one above the road)
After collecting the (exhausted) kids we drove to the Youth Hostel at Blaxhall and I nipped out for an easy explore around the nearby Rendlesham forest. Found loads of great sandy trails - although you have to love the moment you realise you are going the wrong way down a 'red' mountain bike trail. I just about managed to navigate back home again without being taken out by a mountain bike, making extensive use of the compass on my garmin 620. I felt pretty good, so picked up the effort for the last couple of miles.
Rendlesham Forest - endless network of sandy trails
Langham Road - quiet training lane (with bonus leg sapping humpback bridge)
In the last few weeks, Monday has become 'tempo' day. The prescribed session to start week 6 was a variation on the theme - basically a 5-mile progression run. I had scouted some quiet country lanes (above) earlier that day whilst driving. I had decided to ignore the pacing guidelines and manage the progression element of the run using breathing patterns - something I use a lot to regulate effort. So I started off easy (breathing out easily every 6 steps) and progressed through to a hard last mile (breathing out hard every 3 steps). You can find out more about running to breathing pattern here (LINK). I don't believe the hype about breathing patterns preventing injury but a quick look at my heart rate and pace stats whilst using this technique should convince anyone that breathing patterns can really help regulate effort.
Tuesday was another quality session - warm-up, core drills, and then 3 x (600m, 400, jog, 400m, 400m jog, 200m) off about 4 mins. I used the same country lanes as the day before, carefully marking out 3 consecutive 200m stretches and using these for the whole session. Deb joined me. We were both pretty traumatised by more of the dreaded short stuff and the 600m was 1:48 of pure pain (just 3 seconds quicker than my 11 year old daughter's 600m time). But, and this is a big BUT, for the first time in 25 years, I actually felt like I was sprinting strongly at times - elbows jabbing back, knees springing up, heels flicking back. Whilst my times were still woeful, way behind the youngsters from the training group who were doing the same session on the track in Sheffield, it felt good to feel the benefit of the drills and sprint work. And, to cap things off, I woke up on Wednesday without sore legs suggesting that I am finally adapting to the new regime. I was so pleased, I took Wednesday as a genuine, proper day of rest. Well, apart from a very easy 17 mile bike ride with the kids.
I had spotted a 5k race in Ipswich on the Thursday (part of a series). It looked small and friendly enough to use as a hard training run. The winning times previously looked pretty slow, but the runbritain handicap was generally between 1 and 2 suggesting a course like Hillsborough Parkrun. I drove there on my own and found a course that was more Concord than Hillsborough - twisty paths through formal gardens, and proper 'Sheffield' hilly. I warmed up, did my usual pre-race drills, and set off with about 150 others. I ran the first mile pretty easily at the front with two other lads. By the time we were approaching the end of the first lap (of two), there were only two of us running hard up a pig of a hill. As we turned into the second lap I could hear that my running mate's breathing was going wrong so I pushed hard for 200m and opened up a decent gap. I continued at full race effort (158bpm) for the rest of the race and finished a good minute ahead. I couldn't quite believe my watch said 17:34 at the end - I had worked within a few beats per minute of my maximum heart rate for most of the race and had hoped to get much closer to 17 minutes despite the hills. The bottle of wine and the news that I had broken the course record cheered me up a bit. I jogged for mile to warm down, and to prevent my right calf cramping up.
Friday was the end of the short break in the youth hostel - and also meant a very long drive from East Anglia to the back end of South Wales where Deb's mum and dad were waiting in their boat to take the kids for a few days. Deb and I got out for a light farewell jog round the forest before breakfast and then set off on what turned out to be 9 hour journey. I was cheered up slightly on arriving at Neyland Port to find a fabulous riverside path that looked like it went on for miles. Perfect for a pre-breakfast leg loosener before the long drive up to Sheffield the next day I thought. Absolutely ridiculous torrential rain the next morning put pay to that plan.
After 6 hours of traveling back to Sheffield on Saturday afternoon, we both fancied stretching our legs so we headed out to Derwent for an evening run - hoping we had picked a gap in the torrential rain that had followed us from South Wales. We were both pretty fresh legged having had 36 hours of rest since the last (easy) run. And, we had done basically nowt but sit in the car all day. Deb decided to do a long low threshold run (about 7:10 pace on the undulating Derwent trails) and I decided to run alongside her (romance not being dead after 20 years together), apart from miles 3, 6 and 9 when I would stretch my legs out at tempo. The 11.5 mile session went well and I felt strong on the tempo sections. More importantly, the late evening, stormy skied, scenic setting was absolutely spectacular - well worth a short drenching and a nice reminder that the Sheffield area is a great place to run.
Sunday's run was much slower but much harder as we jogged out in the searing heat to the start of our recce of Round Sheffield Relay leg 2. After a sweaty, hilly recce, we ran back into Hillsborough through the Rivelin valley to get the car from Hillsborough corner. I left Deb at Rivelin cafe with a cold drink (she was absolutely exhausted) and finished off the 15 miles before scooping her up on the way to the supermarket for supplies (note to self: never go to supermarket whilst hungry and thirsty after a long run - it's expensive).
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