Looking back at my blogs you could get the impression that all I’d done lately was swim. I’ve been doing lots of swimming, yes, but I’m still training hard for my marathon come back at Brighton next month.
In my last running-related blog I was hoping four quality runs a week would give me the training I needed while keeping my knees happy and more or less pain-free. The regime seems to be working ok. My knees definitely wouldn’t put up with running on consecutive days but I seem to be able to start and complete each run pain-free and things are stable and not deteriorating at all – all good.
I’ve done a couple of longish runs at marathon pace – up to 12 miles and am doing my third 20 miler this coming Sunday – the Finchley 20. After that it’ll be 17 or 18 miles the following week then a three-week taper. For intervals/speedwork it’s been hills every two or three weeks, longish intervals (eg 6 x 1k) at threshold or just above, and recently I’ve started doing Yasso 800s. I’ve just done 9 x 800m with 400m job recoveries on the treadmill, in 3.40 so if Mr Yasso is correct, and everything else has been working, a sub 4 isn’t out of the question. I’ll do 10 x 800 about 10 days before Brighton – and possibly once before that, too. I’ve been doing them either on the treadmill (13kph – about 7.30 min mile pace) or on the road (using ‘x’ x 4 mins@ 7.30min/mil with 4 mins jog recoveries). The track, even a grass one, just doesn’t seem to suit my knees – must be all the corners, so even running fastish (for me!) on the road seems to be preferable.
So I’m blocking out tales of people running much more frequently than me. Running every other day’s not ideal, but I’m tolerating it and being relatively fresh for each session so I’m thankful for that.
4 weeks 4 days to go!
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lou@louwalker.com
