A couple of really good sessions this week focusing on that marathon pace so come race day it’s going to feel natural. A couple of easy runs in there too with the S&C to compliment it all. A decent week all round, consistency is king. Any problems let me know.

142 Points Achieved

MONDAY

Loading...

10pts | Gym Legs/Core L1

10 POINTS

A good all round session to work the legs and core. You should have built up to this fairly gradually, so don’t dive in head first as you want to take your time building your strength. Be sensible with the weights to begin with.

If short on time combine 2 exercises together (superset) them to save on the recoveries. Ideally one leg exercises and one core exercise where possible. Eg squats and planks.

14 Points
Completed as planned. Elliptical w/u (13min), and strength (51min)
Fantastic work Phil. Some bonus pts for the elliptical as well. Strong way to start the new week.

TUESDAY

Loading...

33pts | 3 Miles Marathon Pace/3 Miles HM Pace

33 POINTS

1 Mile WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

3 Miles @ Marathon Pace (RPE: 5)
3 Miles @ Half Marathon Pace (RPE: 6)

1 Mile CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

A good session to mix up paces. WU & CD very important to slowly build the pace.

33 Points
Pretty good session and it felt hard (HM section). Elliptical w/u as usual (11m) and then 8.17m versus 8.00m as follows: 1.17 easy *10.03/m 3 x MP (9:02 / 8:57 / 8:55) and 3 HM with elevation (8:08 / 8:11 / 8:07) -MP and HM was slightly quicker than planned. 1 x easy @10:00. 143 BPM, cadence 177 Slight niggle in inside thigh (just below groin), so will monitor and hold off lunges tmrw.
Thanks for all the data, saves me checking on strava. If only everyone did that. Liking the paces, just under target is always positive. You will still be working quite hard at HM pace, so that’s fine. It’s almost like your speed work right now but without pushing too hard and risking further injury. So got to get the HR up for a few kms. Great work Phil.

WEDNESDAY

Loading...

10pts | Gym Legs/Core L1

10 POINTS

A good all round session to work the legs and core. You should have built up to this fairly gradually, so don’t dive in head first as you want to take your time building your strength. Be sensible with the weights to begin with.

If short on time combine 2 exercises together (superset) them to save on the recoveries. Ideally one leg exercises and one core exercise where possible. Eg squats and planks.

10 Points
Completed as planned
Excellent work Phil!!

thursday

Loading...

15pts | 50 Mins Run

15 POINTS

It’s important to keep the easy runs easy. Focus on good running form and low heart rate.

21 Points
Exceeded plan because I wanted to take a bit of the pressure off Sunday for if I needed it! 58m versus 50m plan. 10m elliptical w/u. Felt pretty good and nice running form I think. Stats as follows: 6.01m @ 9:45/m ave with pretty consistent splits (1st was too quick due to sat nav not catching up). Heart rate was 136 bpm, cadence felt on track and came in at 177 so good for a slower run.
I like your thinking and if my maths are correct, now if you were to miss Sundays run you’d still hit 96% of your training for the week, high enough for the 100% club. That’s where I think this approach works very well to be honest. But great work Phil, I like the fact that HR was nice and controlled too.

FRIDAY

Loading...

Rest Day

0 POINTS

“Rest days are key. Our body adapts and gets stronger when we rest & recovery. Have a good one!”

SATURDAY

Loading...

54pts | 4-3-2-1 Miles (M)

54 POINTS

1 Mile WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

4 Miles @ Marathon Pace (RPE: 5)
1 Mile @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

3 Miles @ Marathon Pace (RPE: 6)
1 Mile @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

2 Miles @ Marathon Pace (RPE: 7)
1 Mile @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

1 Mile @ Marathon Pace (RPE: 7)
1 Mile CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)

A comfortable long run session for marathon runners. Most likely performed early in your training plan to get comfortable with goal pace.

64 Points
Really strong run today. Pre-race routine and prep was v good. Fuel and hydration, good. Felt strong so exceeded Plan to cover off the miles for the week (ish) and put more time on feet for a long run. 18m achieved vs 15m plan. Splits as follows, 1 x easy (9:50), 4 x MP (8:50), 1 x easy (9:44), 3 x MP (8:49), 1 x easy (9:35), 2 x MP (8:46), 1 x easy (9:44), 1 x MP (8:47), 1 x easy (9:47), 1 x Half Marathon Pace (8:15), 2 x easy (9:55) MP times were quicker than plan. Half-MP thrown in as a tester. RPE felt 7 by the end but I could have carried thru to 20 (+) Cadence was good on the MP runs (177-181). Heart rate was ave 143. Vertical oscillation 8.4% Form was pretty good but need to keep the core strong (note to self)
Wow. That’s impressive. And I think on runs like this when you feel strong, I’m always happy if you want to add a bit extra on the end. It’s silly not too, but equally do the same on the days you’re not feeling good (do less), then that should balance itself out and ensure we don’t fall into that “over training category”. But just seen you rested Sunday which was wise, but overall a really good week, finishing on a high. Very happy.

SUNDAY

Loading...

12pts | 40 Mins Run

12 POINTS

The biggest mistake we can make with these recovery runs is running too fast. This will mean when our harder sessions come round we are still fatigued and not able to put enough effort in to make the necessary gains.

Simon, Some good news in the chaos, which is that I’ve had to cancel my trip to China so i will be in the UK this week now and able to do more than we planned. On that basis I plan to rest today, but wondered how we should tweak the sessions this week. I think the weekdays are fine, but wondered whether we should go for a more challenging long run at the weekend given my 18m yesterday … either going for 20m or putting pace into a run again? Anyway, I’ll leave it to you as you know best. I suspect you’ll agree with the rest day today, and it’s what my garmin is stressing as I have a training readiness of 1%. My garmin and strava “predict” times are falling quite quickly since we started to work together (ie two weeks ago) … so thank you again as we close out week 2.
Smart move to rest today for sure and you’d already banked the training target with this run so that was good. I’ve made quite a few changes to the plan. I’ve pushed up this weeks run to 180 mins if you felt good at the end of 3 hours and want to top up to 20m, that’s fine, but not essential. I’ve moved the 1st recovery week back 7 days so that’s coincides with your next trip (when scheduled to run with Chris for 3 hours). That made sense, then just shuffled the key MP sessions around to suit. But further changes can be made if need be. Glad to hear its going well and Garmin is being kind.