Chester Marathon - Week 9 of 10

Chester Marathon - Week 9 of 10

Week 9 (Mon 24/09 - Sun 30/09)

Mon: Rest Day
Tues: Rest Day
Weds: 6.0 Miles (incl. 1 mile @ 6:41)
Thurs: Rest Day
Fri: Rest Day
Sat : 6.0 Miles incl. Hull parkrun 17:53 (3rd) (5:45/mile)
Sun: 11.0 Miles Easy @ 8:58/mile

Total Mileage: 23.0


I almost forgot to blog this week due to there being so little running going on!

It became more of a taper week than I had initially intended with only 23 miles covered but in the great scheme of things it should work out okay.


Aborted Track Session

The plan for Wednesday was for a 2 x 5 mile session on the track at about 6:15-6:20ish pace.

However, after a 4 mile gentle warm up it became apparent that the calves were too stiff, any stiffness would usually loosen off with a reasonable warm up but not on this occassion. I still gave it a go but after a single mile at 6:41 I called it a day on the basis that it was just too risky at this stage of the game.

But it was no great surprise that the stiffness was there. I had just had a hard period of 8 days that involved 4 races (including GNR) and then followed that period with 2 rest days. I usually find that it is after 1 or 2 rest days that stiffness is at its worst, without the rest days the calves would probably have been fine.


Hull parkrun

I had targetted this for a serious attempt on a sub 17 clocking, which would have been a sizeable chunk off the current comeback PB of 17:25.

With a fresh pair of legs it felt like there was a reasonable possibility of getting close.

However, on Saturday morning conditions werent really suitable for fast times, 17:30 would probably have been more realistic. But on the basis that I had gone to have a go at sub 17 I decided that I may as well have a go anyway. Whats the worst that could happen?

So off we went and it quickly boiled down to three of us as a leading group, with the other two guys being  16:42 and 17:03 runners. Perfect pacemakers!

At halfway we were all still together and bang on 17:00 pace but I had worked far too hard to that point to overcome the conditions and I had to drop off the back as things unravelled pretty quickly.

It was worth a bash though and it will be a nice target to keep for later.


Ready or Not Ready?

Regardless of what training has been done I tend to find that there is just a general feeling of either readiness or a feeling of trepidation in the lead up to a marathon.

Well on this occasion I am pleased to say that I am chomping at the bit, I just cant wait to get on with it.

It was great to have the Berlin Marathon a week before Chester and be able to follow the progress of several people on the live tracker. All three people that I was following produced superb performances with excellent pacing:

Dan Robinson
18:44, 18:08, 18:20, 18:34, 18:42, 19:06, 19:09, 19:58 - 2:39:30 (PB by 40 secs)
Jocelyn Payne
20:58, 20:36, 20:36, 20:45, 20:41, 20:36, 20:22, 20:08 - 2:53:30 (PB by 7 minutes)
Kelvin Dickinson
20:21, 20:12, 20:13, 20:05, 20:20, 19:57, 19:34, 20:03 - 2:49:38

Apart from the fact that these three made running a marathon look incredibly easy from the view of a tracker screen it was very inspirational to witness the hard work over the last few weeks and then see that work translate into such impressively executed races.

Certainly hard acts to follow but if anyone is interested in tracking progress next Sunday, the live tracker is here:

http://track.rtrt.me/e/TDL-CHESTERM-2012#b=R2MUANP5~2&v=ptrack

and the running number is 1575.




Next Week.......

The final week will see another 3 day period of carb depletion, Monday to Wednesday, followed by normal diet thereafter. Hopefully that will produce the same situation as on previous occassions of feeling fully fuelled but without the bloating.

In terms of final week running I'll be looking to do a midweek 5 miler at 6:15-6:20ish pace and a couple of very easy runs of 10K just to keep the blood flowing around the system. Saturday will then see a parkrun in about 24 minutes.

The next post will be after a 26.2 mile run around the streets of Chester :)