I thought it was important to share the training that I’ve been doing in order to progress. Not only to try and give myself a little more accountability to running, but also to share with you the truth that may or may not come across on other outlets. I’ve recently found that my instagram is full of running photos, and not a lot else. I’ve been trying to force myself not to share run picture after run picture, but am finding that a little difficult. There’s a couple of reasons for this, the first that the weather hasn’t been amazing recently and so I’ve been trying to limit my time spent outside, the second running really has been the only real ‘instagrammable’ part of my life recently between commuting and work there’s only been running, thirdly I’ve been trying new routes and sessions in my running recently that has inspired me to share and I’ve been doing so on my instagram. Because of this it may seem like I’ve been running way more than I actually have!
I’ll start with what my goals were for this month and then follow up with what I actually managed. This month was a transition month for me as I stopped training my 10km distance and started looking at the half marathon distance. With this in mind I would test if my 10km speed had improved before having a little break before starting my long runs again. However, this was not exactly the case, very quickly into the month I became a little worried about whether I would have enough time to train for the half marathon distance if I continued to try and improve my 10km time. While this training is somewhat similar, during my 10km training I hadn’t been pushing the distance very much over 10km and realised that four weeks to pull that up to 21km wasn’t very smart. So I switched over to training for my half marathon distance a little earlier than planned and didn’t have a full 10km test. I’m sure it has improved, I’m just not too sure by how much. Underneath is what I planned to do now my training had been somewhat ‘sorted’.
- Week 1 (wc/25th Feb): Gentle 5km/8km Hill Repeats/X-Train/Tempo 5km/10km Night Race/5km [Total: 32km]
- Week 2 (wc/4th March): 8km Hill Repeats/Mid Tempo 10km/X-Train/7km/5km/5km [Total: 35km]
- Week 3 (wc/11th March): 5km Intervals/8km Hill Repeats/X-Train/12km/5km/5km [Total: 35km]
- Week 4 (wc/18th March): 8km Hill Repeats/12km/X-Train/Intervals/10km [Total: ~35km]
- Week 5 (wc/25th March): 5km Negative Split/15km/X-Train/Intervals/5km [Total: ~30km]
The first three weeks represent weeks I was trying to improve my 10km time, whereas the last two are where I’ve tried stepping up my game to incorporate longer distances.
SO HOW DID I GET ON?
Honestly it’s not gone that badly, I did get ill though so I haven’t completed as many of the sessions as I initially intended to, I also as a result changed a few of the sessions to accommodate this and just do what I felt my body was capable of. I’d also like to add that all the final distanced on each week are all optional ‘Sunday Rundays’, that I try to do with my partner but if we’re not feeling it, there’s no pressure to complete it, especially if the weather’s bad!
- Week 1 (wc/25th Feb): Gentle 4.5km/8km Hill Repeats/X-Train/10km Night Race [Intended Total: 32km] [Actual: 22.5km]
- Week 2 (wc/4th March): 5km/X-Train/1.5km Commute/5km [Intended Total: 35km] [Actual: 11.5km]
- Week 3 (wc/11th March): 5km/5km Treadmill Hills/X-Train/5km [Intended Total: 35km] [Actual: 15km]
- Week 4 (wc/18th March): 8km Hill Repeats/12km/X-Train/8+2km [Intended Total: ~35km] [Actual: 30km]
- Week 5 (wc/25th March): 5km Fast Tempo/15km/X-Train/5km [Intended Total: ~30km] [Actual: 25km]
Looking back now it does actually seem a lot worse than it felt, I got ill pretty much the night of the 10km night race, which did suck my motivation as I both wanted to let my body rest and try and sweat my cold out. So I ended up just not doing a lot. Changing my goal a little earlier has really helped me though, I may still be dipping out of interval sessions but I’m back to enjoying running as I’m able to try pacing the run, not forcing it to be faster than I’m capable of. For this half marathon it will be my first official time, so I’m less motivated by getting under a certain time (although my hope is under 2 hours!).
This month I’ve learnt a few things:
1 – Make sure your running backpack is set up for you, I ran at the Trust10 event on the fourth Sunday having simply popped my backpack on. 2km’s in and I was getting cramp, but didn’t thing much of it as it’s a slightly hilly course. 8km’s in and the cramp still hadn’t gone away despite trying to calm the pace a little, and had also spread to the opposite side too. I then got home and thought about it a little later, finding that the cramp was in a position where one of the backpack straps lay. Needless to say I moved it slightly, and did my 15km run with it on without the hint of a cramp.
2 – Let yourself take a break, I was maybe a little too lenient with myself this time, but I don’t regret that. I’ve come back and am running a little bit faster, as well has having hit my monthly km target.
3 – Pre-hab. I’ve been taking the time before runs to foam roll my IT band in the hope of staying healthy and not having my recurring knee injury, so far, so good. (Touch wood)
I hope this gives you a little inspiration and a little bit of truth behind all the pictures I share on my instagram. You can also find all the other bits of exercise I do over on Strava, there’s a lot of cycling.
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