Week 5 – 19th Feb to 25th Feb

Week 5 already and this is going to be a de-load week. A week where you reduce the number of miles and ease back a little on the intensity of training with the idea of giving your body a chance to recover. When you step up the mileage the following week you should be in a stronger position to handle the increase.

You can catch up on previous weeks here:

Reminder – this is not intended as any kind of recommendation, it is purely my own thoughts and comments on my weeks training. You should seek professional advice for correct marathon training tailored to you. However I hope it gives you some kind of inspiration to try something different yourself.

Training Runs

Tuesday 20th February

First run of the week is usually a Monday but as I couldn’t do a Wednesday this week due to work I swapped my week days to Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was an easy run, a recovery run to help recover from the long miles over the weekend.

We went down Dene House Road and along the front to ASDA, then up Ropery Walk to Dawdon Park and then back along to the end of Princess Road. I wanted to get 3 miles in so ran up and down Princess Road a little to get to 3 miles. Certainly no records broken tonight just very steady and just getting some more miles in the legs.

Thursday 22nd February

Tonight was to be a technical run called mile repeats. The idea to do a mile warm up, back to back miles at a steady tempo pace and then a mile cool down. The emphasis was to be on miles 2 and 3 and especially aiming for 3 to be at least as good if not quicker than 2 ideally.

The route from VT car park was along the front to Noses Point. Up round the Villas to King Edward Road and along to Dawdon Park. Along Grants Crescent and up to the Station. From here along to the cricket club and then back through East Shore, down Denehouse Road to the front and back along to the car park.

The pace was better than Tuesday night but still not feeling 100% and not as good as previous weeks. However you can see from the charts below that miles 2 and 3 were reasonably consistent.

Saturday 24th February

Saturday is here and it’s the return of the Foxes after a week off. Great turnout and 3 Foxes virgins – Dawn, Emma (Miss Blue Sky) and with a temporary Saturday transfer from the Crazy Gang, welcome to Leanne. Sally D, Leanne, Faye and Lee were planning to do a marathon today in training for their Ultra in 3 weeks so they joined the Foxes to get some extra miles in company.

I had plotted a shortish route this week as some of us were doing a 10 mile trail run on Sunday and this week was a de-load week after all. Only problem was my watch had not charged overnight so was completely dead! So I had to rely on my phone only to track the runs.

We started at the Town Hall and ran through Seaham Park to Northlea turned right and out to the Kestrel then down Station Road to the Police Station. From here we started up the Avenue and turned left to the Leisure Centre then through the tunnel/subway. (I call it a tunnel!) Through Dalton Le Dale park and then through Dalton Le Dale, turn right up the Times Inn and all the way back down to the Town Hall.

It was a chilly morning but lots of warm smiles and chats to keep us all going. Thanks to everyone who joined the Foxes this morning and great to see that the Ultra squad completed their marathon a little later.

The second run of the day was going to be over 4 miles with a decent 2 mile climb in the middle. With the 10 miler the next day, I was not keen on that distance or elevation. So when I heard my old mate Emma was running with her son Ruben, I jumped at the chance of joining them.

We had a much gentler run planned, just under 4 miles, keeping us off the main roads as far as possible.

The first half of the run would take us from the Town Hall through the park and the back streets down through East Shore Village to Dene House Road. At this point we turned around and ran back up to the Town Hall. I hadn’t really thought that through as it meant we were going back up hill pushing the little guy. I was pushing Ruben on the way back up and Emma noticed a strange sound coming from the tyres. We had a flat tyre!!

We carried on back to the park when we bumped into the other runners finishing their run. We were on about 3.6 miles so decided to round up. We left Ruben with David and did a lap round Byrons Walk and back though Northlea and through the park. This took us to around 4.5 miles for the second run, and a little over 8 for the day. Great to run with Emma again and Tempest Fits youngest member Ruben.

As I was using the phone to track the runs, it did 2 things in Strava, it over tagged the distance by nearly a whole mile for the day and also over egged the pace. But I will take them both, it only counts if it’s on Strava, right?

Sunday 25th February

Today was going to be the last official race before the marathon. I did this one last year – the Derwent Reservoir 10 mile trail run. The course was slightly different this year but certainly no easier.

Again we had a decent squad running today, about 15 of us took the trip up to the reservoir. It was nice and sunny when we left home but in the hour it took to get there it was quite foggy and chilly.

Last year we started at the top of the hill right near the dam but today we started from the car park at the bottom of the hill, ran round the big field and then up the hill to the dam. Definitely a tough start, much tougher than last year.

Injury alert – as I was running up the hill at the start and probably for the first 2 miles I had pain in my left heel. Let’s hope this does not turn into plantar fasciitis, something that can turn out to be quite painful and potentially blow the whole marathon plan out of the water!

The pain subsided after the first 2 miles and I was feeling good, much stronger than last year. Like last year I was running the first few miles with Ashleigh, another legend in our squad who runs very long miles, often solo, taking immense mental strength. It was good to run with Ashleigh for maybe the whole of the first 6 miles.

At about the 6 mile point I was feeling good and I knew that the really big hill was coming up around the 7 mile point. So I wanted to get ahead before hitting the hill and started to take off a little. I was feeling good and after a short while I turned around and couldn’t see the others.

I then hit the hill, a steep climb that goes on for maybe a half mile or more. I had to walk a little to get up the hill. I heard Lee running behind me and I was pleased to run with him for the second half of the hill to help me get up there. Shortly we were joined by Sally for the photo below and then the rest so we were all together again for the last mile and a half or so.

I was really pleased to read my stats which said I finished 10 minutes quicker than last year ( a minute a mile quicker). It was also really nice to finish alongside the majority of my friends today. Usually I am one of the last ones over the line and everyone is waiting for me to finish – not today!

We finished the day off with a great Sunday lunch at the Derwent Walk Inn. Another great Tempest Fit Road trip with very pleasing run stats.

Nutrition

Similar to last week, I feel comfortable with my choice of fuelling during the longer runs with Hi5 sachets, dried apricots, squashies and dextrose.

Progress to Plan

Still staying ahead of plan with a de-load week. Long run was a little shorter this week although again with back to back longer runs on Saturday and Sunday.

Key Learning

I guess the key reinforcements this week rather than new learnings was the power of friends and the Tempest Fit family. Another great trip up to Derwent Reservoir and also running with old friends again.

Fave of the week

For once this one is very clear but before I say who it is, some appreciation of the great runs I have had again this week.

Thanks this week to:

• The foxes for another great Saturday morning turnout.
• Special thanks to the Fox virgins – Miss Blue Sky, Dawn and of course Leanne.
• Thanks to the marathon runners this week for the inspiration – Sally D, Leanne, Faye and Lee. Sally and Lee completing their first marathon.
• Ashleigh for the first 6 miles at Derwent.
• All the other runners at Derwent who kept me going/pushed me along or even cheered us on.
• David for driving to Derwent.

So the Fave of this week was very very close to being Emma C for returning to running with me but she has to be pipped by her son and heir, young Ruben! Sorry Emma, maybe next time!

25 miles covered this week so probably a little more than I wanted to do but all good miles. Hope the heel holds out this week and the training continues.

Have a great week everyone.