After Sunday's long run, I headed to the tunnel for a 30 minute tunnel session with the team. Session went well - a few somewhat dramatic moments including a bit of freeflying on the entrances haha! but things are really improving. One more session this week and then it's the Challenge the weekend after Easter. Felt surprisingly good in the tunnel as I managed to have a nap and plenty to eat after the long run. The first flight was a bit hairy and i got cramp right down my left thigh in the middle of block 4 which I had to try and stretch out as soon as we'd got out. Was quite wide awake when i finally got home at about half midnight and so had something more to eat (I was craving something salty so had marmite on a crumpet) , then just crashed out in bed!
Monday, was in a bit of a daze first thing. Went out for a short recovery run with Matt at lunch and just did about 2.5 miles - Matt carried on for a while longer after we'd done a lap of the cycle track and back roads. Spent the day afternoon at my desk! I find I can't eat fruits (other than bananas) or high fibre foods the day before a long run (or during the day if doing a medium run that evening) so I try to eat things like Fruit and Fibre cereals and drink orange juice and fruit smoothies on the days in between. On Wednesdays and Saturdays i stick to the "safe" easy to eat foods with plenty of fat and carbs! On Saturday my brother cooked an excellent carb-free pizza with a base made with egg and cheese which was very good, I had this at lunch and then a potato with cheese and beans in the late afternoon for the carbs. The long run the next day went well so think I will do this again next week.
Was very tried when i got back from work so had a small dinner then needed to have another short nap!! I have read you should nap for either 20 or 90 minutes - anything in between makes you feel groggy which was about right. 20 mins seemed to work well. I had a swimming session with Tri-Force in the evening so couldn't crash just yet! The swimming session went fairly well, I was tired but still managed to do most of the session (few beginners actually complete the full session planned every week!) but really struggled with the main part of the evening which was 2 x 400m race pace (with the first 50 m of each at a sprint). Needless to say my "sprint" was race pace and the race pace was just a gentle swim by that point!! No way could I get my speed up so just tried to focus on not loosing technique. My arms and upper body were still aching a bit from the tunnel the night before as well!
Today, Tuesday, is finally a semi rest day. I get to drive to work, do no training at lunchtime, but will do an hour's circuits in the evening with Tri-Force. Tomorrow I would normally do swimming at lunch and a run in the evening, but we have an away-day at work so won't be able to get to the pool. I'll also need to drive, so looks like tomorrow will be easy up until the evening which will be the medium-tempo run. Hopefully I'll have recovered a lot more by then and will be able to get a decent time like last weeks!
I think the week before the final long run, just before the taper starts, is the hardest of all marathon training, possibly harder than the marathon itself!!! My plan involves two weekends of long runs, with more runs and cross training in the middle and feeling constantly tried and hungry! VLM is less than 4 weeks away now and really am starting to count down the days!
Total training
Monday
2.5 mile recovery run
Swimming session with TF
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