March 2011 - Moving

My weekly mileage really started to ramp up in March resulting in a personal best 225.15kms (16 runs), eclipsing the previous best of 172.91kms that I set in January of this year. Although the increase seems pretty significant, it was a little lower than it should have been as I took 5 days off running whilst the family and I moved house. I figured that: a) I was getting plenty of cardiovascular workouts with all the lifting and stairs that I did; b) I was exhausted so I probably wouldn’t have been able to run anyway; and c) following on from b, that had I run I would have been risking an unnecessary injury that could derail my marathon bid.

I think I made the correct decision and just made sure that I got my quality workouts in, i.e. one long run (20-25kms) and one speed session (a tempo run at lactate threshold pace).

Speaking of tempo runs at threshold pace, I started phase II of my marathon training plan in March and thus started my speed work. I hadn’t done a single workout resembling a speed workout since November of last year so I was a little apprehensive before the first one. As it turned out, all the slower base-building runs I had done from November to March had kept me in excellent shape and lack of endurance was not a factor.

My tempo workouts at this stage consist of 3x2km repeats at threshold pace (T-pace) which equates to 4:50/km with 1 minute walk breaks in between each interval. The key to these workouts is to be able to hit the desired pace in each of the intervals with no slow-down below 4:50/km. If you can’t hold the pace then you will not get the maximum benefits from this workout. If you find that you can’t hold the pace in subsequent workouts then that T-pace is too fast for you at this point in your training. I was happy to complete all the intervals in each weekly speed workout at or faster than the required pace, so as I mentioned, endurance was not a factor and to be honest it was extremely liberating to be able to turn it up a couple of notches and run fast again.

April will hold a whole new set of challenges, my weekly mileage will increase again, and I have the Run for Reach half-marathon race on the 10^th. That race will be an excellent indicator of the success of my training so far. I am hoping for a personal best (sub 1:48:50) with a view to perhaps breaking 1:45 if I can. I will also have marathon-paced training runs to look forward to. These are long runs that start at easy pace for 3 or 4kms and then ramp up to marathon pace for a set distance (usually 16 to 21km). After that there is a cool-down at easy pace for another 3 or 4kms. At this stage I am not entirely sure what my marathon pace should be. I have in my mind to try 5:15 for these workouts and see how they go, and then adjust accordingly if the pace is too fast or too slow.

In less than 8 weeks the gun goes off for my first marathon. The snow has all but gone and I am now running in shorts, so spring is well and truly here. Let’s see if I can add some spring to my step in the month of April.