Training summary w/c 28th January

28. January – 3rd February 2019

Another week gone, I really can’t believe how fast these days going.

Week 7 of Ironman Bolton training.

Week 14 of Tokyo / Boston / London marathon training.

Monday:

Monday’s are still rest days. I really can’t get myself into thinking to do any kind of workout. Eventually would be good to do some yoga or strength training, but after 6 days worth of training I really just feel that I need to sit down, take a breath and enjoy doing nothing.

Tuesday:

Went to swimming straight after work. This time the pool was quieter, and people seemed to used the correct lanes. There were still some annoying ones, who decided just to chit-chat at the end, without swimming a single lap.

I still really don’t know how to break up my long swims. So ended up simply swimming 25x100m sets. I do feel good about my swim pace. I wanted to make sure all of them were around the 2:20 mark, so there was no point for me to shoot out and swim a few 2:10s when I know I won’t be able to do that 25 times. But compared my time to an earlier session back in December I clearly got faster 🙂

Tuesday evening means tri club run session. I had a feeling that it will get cancelled, because the weather wasn’t the nicest. But coach said as long as someone turns up he’s happy to do the session .The Facebook poll said 3 of us will be there, but at the end 5 of us turned up. Not too bad. Luckily it wasn’t too cold, just a bit wet.

The session was held at Crabtree, which only could mean one thing. Hill reps. Oooh dear God, how much do I hate those? A lot.

So the plan was to run half a lap, around half  a mile till we get to the other end of the forest, and to the top of the hill. Then do some hill reps for 15-20mins.

I’ve ended up running the whole thing with G. He’s still injured, so he’s coaching us. He said my pace is perfect for him, it wouldn’t put too much strain on his knees. Well good to be slow then haha.

So back to those hill reps, it wasn’t just the little ones I’ve done a few weeks ago. Nope. Started it from further down, and run further up. Passed a bench, into the woods. It was probably twice as long as the ones I’ve done before. Did I already say I hate hills?

I think we ended up running about 6 times roughly. When we were doing the 5th, he said that’s the last one. But then got to the top and he said he changed his mind and off we go and do another one.

The last 2 sets were the hardest, I’ve been told not to stop, no matter how much it hurts, try to push it through, and for the last one I had to try do attempt a faster pace. I think I was probably racing with a snail. Because it definitely wasn’t a quick run. But got up to the top.

It’s so much harder when you are running with someone. I’m really bad at hills, or faster paced runs. So usually when I feel tired I just stop and walk a bit or a lot. But when your coach is running next to you , you do have to try your hardest to keep going, and I’ve done that. It did hurt, but at the end of the day this is how I get better.  Need to push through, no matter how much I don’t like it.

After the hills we ran back to the cars, nice and easy jog. Haha easy for them. It was still faster than my usual pace. Then the guys decided to run home, and G. and I ran one more mile long lap, as a cool down. Running a mile doesn’t sound that bad, but after those hills, it wasn’t easy.

At the end we clocked in 6.3km in just over 49mins. But this included loads of down-hill walking. Ohh and to my surprise with my sloth pace I managed to grab a 1st place on a  Strava Segment.

All time Women – 1st, All time – 10th, This year ( women ) – 1st, This year – 4th.

It’s either being a new segment, or people in January are not too active. I still can’t believe how did I manage to get the 1st place Women spot, with my pace?

Wednesday:

One of my favourite day , I love doing my brick sessions. It does feel like I’m getting better with them. It was only a really short session, but my legs did work hard and they didn’t wobble.

Thursday:

Last day of January, I can’t believe how fast this month gone by.

I wasn’t really planning to have a long run session, but had to keep my legs moving, and get some mileage in. Even if it wasn’t a long session.

Bang on 8k, and much faster than my marathon pace. At the end I even managed to get a new VO2 max. Finally I’m up to 42. I was standing on 41 for ages.

Let’s see my January stats:

Swim : 15.81km 🏊🏼‍♀️
Bike : 290.36km🚴🏼‍♀️
Run : 142.94 km 🏃🏽‍♀️

Friday:

Another day on the bike. We’ve snowed in so I really didnt’ want to risk going to the pool or do another run session. Wouldn’t be  good ending up with a broken arm or leg before Tokyo. Here’s a photo from the morning, I took it whilst I was at work 🙂 Did I say I LOVE snow 🙂

45 mins cycling around Watopia, with a little elevation. Plan said keep it in Z2, so I wasn’t allowed to push it any harder or do more hills. At the end of the session I was in Z2 for 93%. Not too bad 🙂

Saturday:

No training today. Went up to London to attend the yearly Meet the Experts session organised by London Marathon. A great and informative event. I do believe it’s totally worth it if you are running London the first time 🙂

Sunday:

Long run session today. The roads were still ridiculously icy and snowy. There was literally no chance for me to run outdoors. I had to run 14 miles and this close to my marathon I really didn’t want to miss it. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to go to the gym, and run on a treadmill. I absolutely hate those machines, the only thing I hate more are prawns and hill reps. How the hell can I run 14 miles on the boring treadmill? They gym has 1 tv , and it showing the news constantly. So nothing exciting at all. I don’t have a foot pod, so can’t run virtually on Zwift. So 14 boring and long miles here I come.

At the end I decided to do intervals. 60secs runs and 30secs walk break. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. The people kept changing next to me, but I tried to stay motivated and keep going on and on and on.

At the end I did manage to run 14 miles, but it felt like this was my 14 longest miles in my life.

Have to say I was surprised with my time, in a positive way.

14 miles – 2:45:26 – with a pace of 7:20mins/km.

5secs/km faster than my target marathon pace, well if I decided to target a sub 5:15 finish time, or even if worst case I only can achieve a 7:50mins/km pace that would still take me into a sub 5:30 finish in Tokyo. These are still massive improvements from my 5:58 finish at Chicago in October (8:30mins/km pace).

Sunday evening I also went to do my tri club swim session. We had M. back as a coach, he was back from his holiday, so sessions went back to normal. At first it was only a few of us there and I had a whole lane for myself, but others did turn up a bit late so we were almost up to the normal amount of swimmers 🙂

Summary:

This week wasn’t as busy as the last few. My running takes a lot out of me, and like this week I wasn’t able to get in my long bike session. But as soon as I’m down to taper with my marathons I can definitely can get my cycling hours up. It’s just so hard to run 10-15miles then squeeze in another 2-3hours long bike as well.

I have one more long run next week, up to 20 mileish, But then after I’ll be able to do all my long bike sessions as well.

So I’ve finished the week with :

• Duration: 7:23 hours
• Swim: 3600m
• Bike: 37.9km
• Run: 38km

Love,