Hey guys,
Well, I survived, for now. The first week of training under the FP Run Club was no walk in the park and it will only get harder as the weeks go by. 8 runs in 6 days! Yes it's true, here's each of them in turn:
Monday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 30 mins 3 secs, 4.7 km.
Tuesday
Type: Easy
Time and Distance: 29 mins 42 secs, 5.6 km.
Type: Progession tempo
Time and Distance: 46 mins 8 secs, 9.7 km.
Detail: First 15 mins at easy. Second 15 mins at steady. Last 15 mins at threshold.
Wednesday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 42 mins 7 secs, 6.2 km.
Thursday
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 44 mins 21 secs, 6.7 km.
Saturday
Type: Continuous hills
Time and Distance: 42 mins 36 secs, 7.4 km.
Detail: 10 mins warmup. 4 sets of 5 mins at threshold with 90 seconds recovery.
Type: Recovery
Time and Distance: 28 mins 15 secs, 4.7 km.
Sunday
Type: Long run
Time and Distance: 90 mins, 17.4 km.
Total Weekly Distance: 62.4 km
Comments: 8 runs in 6 days and 62.4 km in the first week! That's pretty much unheard of in the first week of a marathon training programme. Two double days of running (one in the morning, one in the evening), three days of recovery/easy running and a day for the obligatory long run, with only one day of complete rest. So far I've felt like I've worked hard, but not to the point of being exhausted.
Improvements: One thing that is challenging me in my programme is the understanding of effort and pace. I've been taking HR readings throughout my runs, and was shocked to learn that my HR for recovery/easy runs are far too high as recommended by this training programme or any other training programme for that matter. The heart doesn't lie with respect to how hard I should be working. This led me to ask: how fast should I be doing my easy/recovery runs? How fast should I be running at threshold? These are questions that I really need to answer next week. I'm seriously considering buying a heart rate monitor to help me know on demand what HR zones I should be training in. Suggestions are most welcome.
I've studied week 2 of the sub-3 hours training programme, and it is definitely a step above. There is an extra threshold run, which is the key to running faster. However, getting the pace right for this threshold run is even more important, and it seems that all my runs have been done too hard and too fast. Hence why I'm thinking of buying a HR monitor. At the moment I'm feeling a little sore in the legs, which is only natural with the amount of running being done day after day. Hopefully it won't get too bad in the coming week.
Best,
Aaron
