A proper(ish) session!

Frustrated by the never ending series of 8 min mile paced sessions I decided to take my stuff into work on the offchance Risk Committee would finish early.  Dull as ditchwater, so true to form we managed to get through it an hour under time, so at 12:45 I was free to sample the sunshine (and snow).

The car temp gauge had shown -7º on the way in, so I was buffed, hatted, jacketed and gloved, but this proved to be a tad more than required.  Wore my Innov8 shoes, and whilst the snow wasn;t as good as it was last week it was ok to run on.

I've been reading that a key session is to build up to running 10/12 miles at MP (marathon pace), so decided I'd go with 5 at MP to start with.  I'm going to train at 3hr MP until my body tells me to stop, so 6:50 ish was the plan.  In the event I managed 5 at between 6:38 and 6:48, and whilst I felt I was working harder than I would want to for 26 miles my HR was in the right area, somewhere in the low 80% of WHR.  I'm sure the slightly slippy ground made it harder work, and my right calf is a teensy bit sore, which I'm sure comes from having the muscles slightly tensed when you feel yourself slide a bit.

Anyway - pretty pleased with the session, and one I'll look to build up to 10 miles by the beginning of Feb.

The picture shows the pace in 1/2m increments and my gradually increasing HR.  It peaks at 157bpm, which is 83% of WHR, the top end of what the Runners World programme has as "steady" or MP training.

I've been continuing the debate about what to do at Trimpell 20 - most people feel that racing a 20 4 weeks out is a mistake, as you'll not recover properly (or at least it'll screw up your training) in time.  The wise man (and 2:25 marathoner) that is Terry Lonergan believes it should be raced.

I think I'm coming to the conclusion that the truth (for me) is somewhere in between - I do recover fairly quickly (witness 2x18s and a fell race last week) but I'm not doing the sort of mileage Terry did in his prime - so I think I'll treat it as a "slightly faster than normal progressive long run in company"!  Plan (and of course there's still 8 weeks for me to change my mind!) is to look to run 2:20, made up of something like a 75 10m and a 65 10m (probably nearer 72/68 really, as 68 is about MP).  A 2:20  (assuming it feels ok) will make me absolutely confident of being able to run 3:15, and yet I'll have run 10 miles at MP in race conditions.

Anyway - 8 weeks for cogitation yet!  Steady 5 at lunch tomorrow, then hopefully the first 20 of the campaign with Paul O and Sally on Sunday (depending on the roads being runnable...).