Trip to Milton Keynes

I do like to run twice a day if one of those runs is on the track. An easy run of a few miles helps recover from, (if the track session is AM), or prepare for, (if the track session is PM), the high intensity of track running. The additional mileage accumulated is also of benefit and is an important factor in the distance runner's training schedule.

However, I was provided little opportunity to follow Tuesday's early morning interval session with an evening run. After work I made the short trip from Luton to Milton Keynes to collect coach wife and Naomi from the train station and later that evening became re-united with the usual weekday evening routine. They had both spent a few days away visiting family and, whilst I waited for their arrival on platform 4 at Milton Keynes, I pondered what Naomi’s reaction would be having not seen or spoken to her daddy for 4 days. "Moon" she said, pointing right past me and towards the sky as I helped Coach wife lift the buggy off the carriage. "Look mummy, the moon". Perhaps if she grows up to be an astronomer I won't hold her interest in the moon over her own dad that evening against her!

As for Thursday, I give no excuse other than tiredness. The weather wasn't exactly enticing that evening and it would have taken a lot of bribery to get me outside. I also reminded myself that, whilst this is only my 6th consecutive week of training, it is the most running I have done for 12 months and, on the eve of the track season, I don't want to invite illness for the sake of a 30 minute jog.

　

Week Commencing 18^th March 2013.

A 'recovery' week on the traditional S&C work so good opportunity to introduce some more plyometrics on Friday. I have also measured the 'mile' reps I frequently run and admit the distance being closer to 0.9 than 1 mile!

　

Monday: AM - S&C; PM - 45' easy running

S&C:

Ankle Hops 3 x 8

Depth Drop 2 x 8

Straight Leg Dead lift 3 x 5 (80kg) combined with Drop Jumps 3 x 8

Front Squat 3 x 5 (60kg) combined with Box Jumps 4 x 5

Low hurdle hops 3 x 8

Press Up (with resistance band) 3 x 8

Bent Over Row (45kg) 3 x 5

Tuesday: AM - 5 x 800m & 400m (2' & 1' recovery) (800's circa 2'39; 400's circa 75'')

Wednesday: AM - S&C; PM - 53' easy

S&C:

Front Squat 3 x 5 (60kg)

Single SL Dead Lift 3 x 5 (60kg)

Bent Over Row 3 x 5 (45kg)

Press Up (with resistance band) 3 x 5

Candlestick 2 x 3

Thursday: AM - 6 x 300m (3' recovery) (reps #1-5 circa 50''; rep #6 46'')

Friday: AM - S&C

S&C:

Power Skip 3 x 8

Straight Leg Dead lift 3 x 5 (80kg) combined with bounding 3 x 8

Single-leg bounding 3 x 8

Front Squats 3 x 5 (60kg) combined with High Hurdle Hops 4 x 5

Broad Jumps 4 x 5

Saturday: 4 x 0.91miles (2' recovery) (5'10''; 4'57''; 5'02''; 4'58'')

Sunday: 55' easy

'Rest' week

Some words of wisdom from an amateur distance runner...

"Never bother to plan a rest week into your training schedule, they often arise with no notice and little choice".

These words have not been quoted from an experienced pro coach but are from a chap trying to balance work, family, running and sleep into every 24 hours that the earth spins. I have learned just to let the rest weeks happen, and this last week, (or the latter part of it), is a good example of that.

As intended, I did reduce the weight I was lifting, (see previous blog on simple S&C programming), and introduce some plyometric training, (more of which next week), but some personal business requiring Thursday and Friday off work and a weekend away from home on a training course was enough to disturb the (vital) routine and write off half of the week:

Monday: AM - S&C; PM - 40' easy

Tuesday: AM - 6 x 1000m (circa 3'30'', but last two reps 3'28'' and 3'25''); PM - 30' easy

Wednesday: AM - S&C; PM - 53' easy

Thursday: 30' easy

Friday: REST

Saturday: 10' easy 1 x 18' Kenyan Hills 10' easy

Sunday: REST

S&C, including Plyometrics, (Monday):

Ankle Hops 3 x 8

Depth Drop 2 x 8

Straight Leg Dead lift 3 x 5 (60kg) combined with Drop Jumps 3 x 8

Front Squat 3 x 5 (60kg) combined with Box Jumps 4 x 5

Low hurdle hops 3 x 8

Press Up (with resistance band) 3 x 8

Bent Over Row (45kg) 3 x 5

S&C, (Wednesday):

Front Squat 3 x 5 (60kg)

Single SL Dead Lift 3 x 5 (60kg)

Bent Over Row 3 x 5 (45kg)

Press Up (with resistance band) 3 x5

Candlestick 2 x 3

4th March 2013

This week, I decided to cancel my membership to one of the well known budget fitness facilities and instead direct my £16 per month to Active Luton, who manage the gym and track at Stockwood Park. Yes, £16 per month for 8 lanes of synthetic track, a lifting platform and 4 Olympic sized bars! If you doubt that is good value for money then you must be from Luton because in my first week there I have seen only a handful of people training!

The schedule below outlines the third week in a row of near full training. I can't remember the last time I have managed such a feat. Just like I can't remember the last time 3 weeks passed without feeling unwell or being snowed in. Speaking of illness, I seemed to have avoided the worst of the latest virus imported to the household from Naomi's nursery, unlike coach wife. The most likely reason is that this is a strain of something I have suffered from previously. However, I couldn't say my new found robustness had nothing to do with the re-introduction of a Vitamin D supplement to my diet. Vitamin D is mainly associated with bone health and muscle function but it does play a role in immunity...

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2879394/

 

If I had had insufficient levels of Vitamin D before starting the supplements, then I am certain I wouldn't have been the only person in the UK to suffer. Not least because the production of vitamin D in the skin relies on exposure to the sun, and anyone who has lived in the UK for the last 18 months has probably had very little exposure to, if at all seen the sun!

 

Perhaps those branded supplements are paying me back already!

 

Monday: AM - S&C; PM - 30' easy

Tuesday: Midday - 10' easy 2 x 10’ Kenyan Hills 10' easy

Wednesday: AM - S&C; PM - 53' easy

Thursday: AM: 20' cycle; PM: TRACK: 4 x 600m (5' recovery) (all approx 2' +/- 2'')

Friday: AM: S&C; PM: Rest

Saturday: 4 x (approx) 1 Mile (on road) (between 4'58'' and 5'05'')

Sunday: 61' easy

　

SC:

Front Squat 3 x 5 (70kg)

Single SL Dead Lift 3 x 5 (70kg)

Bent Over Row 3 x 5 (60kg)

Press Up (with resistance band) 3 x 6

Candlestick 2 x 3

 

 

25 Feb 2013

As the temperature rises to a tropical 4 or 5 degrees and my feet are not sodden at the end of every run, I am reminded that spring is upon us. According to science / legend, this is a time to phase out some of the winter / gym work and replace it with more specific training, namely ‘speed work’, ahead of summer competition. But historically, I have never had a period of gym work to phase out. Like many amateur endurance runners, I have doubted the importance of strength and conditioning and worried about the time I was spending not running. But increasing mileage brings only a diminishing return and, in my case, a chronic Achilles tendon injury! Perhaps most importantly though, there is now an abundance of literature suggesting that strength training reduces the oxygen cost of running at a given pace, which to an endurance runner, is like finding gold. So since late summer 2012 I have been attempting mine this pool of untapped potential.

　

But now March has arrived, I have to prepare for the possibility that I might be able to compete on the track this summer. Pregnant coach wife looks bemused when I mention the possibility of racing again this year. The schedule she has put together for me contains a long, extended break from all running from May onwards, when we will be expecting the arrival of our second child.

　

Even so, I heeded the advice of introducing speed work and could have been found at Stockwood Park in Luton on Thursday afternoon, running on an athletics track for the first time in 9 months. At 5 seconds a lap slower than my training times in 2010, my hopes of running 5,000m in under 16 minutes for the first time are faint. (Pregnant coach wife tells me my hopes of running 5,000m in over 16 minutes are equally faint). Yet undeterred, last week I continued with an easy day / hard day routine with S&C accompanying the easy runs, a routine suiting me quite well at present::

　

Monday: AM - S&C*; PM - 30' easy

Tuesday: Midday - 10' easy 2 x 10’ Kenyan Hills 10' easy

Wednesday: AM - S&C; PM - 53' easy

Thursday: Midday - 5 x 800m (avg. 2’40’’)

Friday: AM: Hit the snooze button so no S&C today. PM - 30' easy

Saturday: PM - 10' easy 20' (60'' hard / 60'' easy) 10'easy

Sunday: AM: 60' easy; PM - 2 hrs in the allotment

　

*SC:

Front Squat 3 x 5 (65kg)

Single SL Dead Lift (65kg)

Bent Over Row (55kg)

Chest Press (55kg)

Candlestick 2 x 3