NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2019 TRAINING UPDATE: WEEK 11 & 12

Here we go again, another update on the marathon training. As I mentioned in my Week 9 & 10 Update although we are now on week 11 & 12, I see week 10 as the official start to my proper marathon training block.

The first 9 weeks were more concerned with recovering from the calf tear and doing it at a sensible and controlled rate. This was one of the main reasons why I sought the help of a run coach, more to hold me back as I knew I would get carried away and do too much too soon. We have all been there, right?

In week 10 I had my first double-digit long run at 10 miles. Getting through this without pain and feeling very comfortable at the steady pace gave me a big boost and the belief that (barring any injuries) I should be able to run the New York City marathon.

My goal at this stage is still to try and run under 3 hours, I don’t see any reason why I shouldn’t aim for that now and use that as my motivation to keep pushing hard in training. Closer to the time and after a few proper long runs of 18+ miles I will get a better idea where my fitness is at after the injury. Worst case, I will try to run a course PB and beat my time from the NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2018

From now on I will focus purely on the running aspect of my training, although the running will only form at best, 50% of my training volume, this is a marathon training update so I think it is best to post more details on the running.

Week 11:

Running: 28.8 Miles – 4hr 2mins
Bike: 162.6 Miles – 8hrs 54min
Swimming: 7,792 yrds – 2hrs 21min

Monday:

2.8km Distance Swim
10 Min Foam Roll

I was planning on jumping on the trainer and doing the 3rd Zwift Academy workout today but the back of my left knee was aching after the swim, I must have pushed off the wall at an angle my knee didn’t like. I ended up skipping the bike session and had the knee strapped up.

Tuesday:

30.8 Mile commute to work on the bike
30.9 Mile commute back from work
10 Min Foam Roll
5 Mile Easy Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

The knee felt ok this morning so I did bike commute but kept the strapping on. No signs of any pain in the afternoon so it looks like I dodged one there.

First run off the week after taking yesterday very easy with just a swim. The pace goal for all of my easy runs is around 9:00 min per mile, I don’t use that as a hard and fast rule, if I am slightly faster then so be it and if slower that is good too. I tend to focus more on my average heart rate when running easy / recovery. For me, if I can be in the low 130bpm, that tends to feel easy and very comfortable.

Today I averaged 8:51 pace with a heart rate of 131bpm, I was pretty pleased with that having already done 60 miles on the bike.

Wednesday:

5.7 Mile commute to the train station on the bike
30.9 Mile commute back from work
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
10 Min Foam Roll

Lacking the energy today, a few later nights and the early mornings are catching up and combined with the long training weeks it is all adding up and taking its toll. The ride back from work was a struggle, just didn’t have the energy in the legs, it took 10 minutes longer than yesterday.

Thursday:

2.65km Technique Swim
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
20 Min Legs, Hips, & Glutes Strength Training
7.85 Mile Interval Run
- 1.5 Mile Warm Up @ 9:00 min/mile pace
- 10 Min stretching & 3 x 10 secs strides @ 80% effort
- Repeat 4 Times:
  - 1km @ 7:10 min/mile pace
  - 2 Min Recovery Jog
- 3 Min Recovery Jog @ 9:00 min/mile pace
- Repeat 3 Times:
  - 500m @ 5:50 min/mile pace
  - 2 Min Recovery Jog
- 3 Min Recovery Jog @ 9:00 min/mile pace
- 1 Mile Cool Down @ 9:00 min/mile pace

So the aim for today Interval Run was to run the first block of 4 x 1km at just over 5k pace, then the second block of 3 x 500m at under 5k pace to ensure that we are hitting different training zones within the one session and getting a good speed workout in early on in the marathon training plan.

My 5k pace would normally be 5:45 min/mile pace but given the fitness loss over the last 3 months I played it safe and went for 5:50 for the 500m blocks, I thought 500m is not that far so I should be able to hold that pace.

With swimming in the morning and running at lunch, I would normally have a mid-morning snack/brunch to fuel the session. Today I ate breakfast at 5:45am, swam then nothing before my run at 12 noon which left me feeling low on energy during the run and gave me that jelly leg feeling towards the end of the 1k reps as the lactate built up. I did manage to hit all of my pace targets for this session, really happy with that despite poor fueling so definitely more in the tank for the coming weeks as these sessions get longer, faster and less recovery.

Friday:

2.1km Short Race Pace Swim
58 Min Zwift Academy Workout 3 ride
20 Min Core Strength Training
10 Min Foam Roll
4 Mile Easy Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

Easy paced run today to give the legs some active recovery from the speed work yesterday. Same as Tuesday but 1 mile less. Today I averaged 8:57 pace with a heart rate of 131bpm.

Saturday:

60 Min Zwift Academy Workout 4 ride
60 Min Zwift Academy Workout 5 Ride
10 Min Foam Roll
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises

Sunday:

30 Min Legs, Hips & Glutes Strength Training
10 Min Foam Roll
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
Long Steady Run Number 2 – 12 Miles @ 8:00 min/mile pace

This is my second long run of what I am calling the proper marathon training plan. At 12 miles it will be the longest run since my calf injury but I went into this with no concerns about the calf. My only concern, as with most days in the UK, was whether it would rain on my run.

My target for this was 8:00 min/mile pace, which is over a minute slower than goal marathon pace, but for now the aim is to build up the time on my feet and get the body back used to running for longer periods of time, the pace will increase as we get closer.

I came home with 12 miles in the bank and averaged 7:56 min/mile pace and an average heart rate of 143bpm.

Week 12:

Running: 37.5 Miles – 4hr 57mins
Bike: 84.8 Miles – 4hrs 37min
Swimming: 8,311 yrds – 2hrs 28min

Ok week 12, here we go. This week is slightly less intensive on the bike front, however, I have two running races this week. The Mid-Cheshire 5 on Thursday followed by the Cheshire Half Marathon on Sunday.

I am not expecting to be pushing PB in the 5k, I just haven’t done the training or had the injury recovery time to be running at 18:10 pace. The half marathon, I think I could probably quite easily beat my PB but instead, I will be just running at a steady pace and using it as my long steady run for the week.

So let’s get it done…

Monday:

60 Min Zwift Academy Workout 6 Ride
10 Min Foam Roll
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
60 Min Easy Paced run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

I had originally set out to run 6 miles but felt really good running at a nice easy pace so I continued on to bring up the 1 hour. The ave pace for this was 9:09 min/mile so slightly slower than the plan, but pace is not the goal here. My heart rate was nice and low at 128bpm so pleased with that and a good solid start to the week.

Tuesday:

30.8 Mile commute to work on the bike
30.9 Mile commute back from work
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
4 Mile Easy Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

After biking into work, I decided to use my easy run as a brick session. Basically, that means you run straight after getting off the bike. This gets the mind and body used to that feeling of running after a hard bike effort ready for a triathlon. So after the 31 mile ride home where I was pushing it a little to make sure I had sufficient time to do the run before my wife got home, I quickly got changed and went out on a 4 mile easy run.

I ended up running 8:42 min/mile pace but with a 128bpm heart rate. The stats look good, I run faster than planned but maintained that low heart rate and all that despite the 31 mile bike ride. Yet in fact, I really struggled on that run. I was not fuelled for the bike ride let alone a run as well, my legs felt fine for the first two miles but once I turned to run the second half my legs just felt like jelly and my body felt weak, tired and fatigued. All signs of poor fuelling and the body running low on energy stores.

I am not overly concerned by this, I know why I felt like that and have found the rides back from work tough anyway. After a full day in work plus already racking up 30 miles on the bike, that 31 mile ride home is pretty much a constant up hill all the way and I just don’t have the same level of fuelling I would had I been heading out for a ride at home.

Wednesday:

2.8km Distance Swim
10 Min Foam Roll
3 Mile Easy Run @ 9:00 min/mile pace

With racing the 5k tomorrow I decided not to bike into work and took the train to save the legs. I did run the 3 miles straight after getting off the train on the way home but felt much better than yesterday’s run. In fact, I paced this one perfectly with 3 miles banked in dead on 27 mins with a heart rate of 131bpm, a touch higher than the previous two days but still low enough for me.

Thursday:

2.65km Technique Swim
10 Min Foam Roll
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
MID-CHESHIRE 5K SUMMER 2019

Click the link above to read more details on how the 5k race went, but the short story is, I ran my fastest ever 5k and fastest ever 1 mile. The comeback is picking up pace now and such a massive confidence booster for the rest of this training block. I might actually still be in with a shot of running a PB in New York.

Friday:

2.3km Speed Swim
2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
30 Min Legs, Hips, & Glutes Strength Training
20 Min Core Strength Training
10 Min Foam Roll

Saturday:

2 x 1 Min calf stretches (30 secs per calf) followed by 12 calf raises
30 Min Legs, Hips, & Glutes Strength Training
10 Min Foam Roll
3 Mile Easy Paced run @ 9:00 min/mile pace + Strides

Just an easy run to shake the legs out from the 5k and get ready for tomorrow’s half marathon. The legs do feel fine coming off the back of the hard effort on Thursday so I am feeling good about running tomorrow. Today’s pace was 9:18 min/mile which does include stopping and walking before and in between the 3 x 10 secs strides I did after the run.

Sunday:

CHESHIRE HALF MARATHON 2019

Again, the link above will take you to my Cheshire Half Recap, but the short story is I ran 16.3 today with the warm up, race & cool down. The longest run for nearly 5 months. I ran the half marathon all at goal marathon pace of 6:45 and ended up beating my half marathon PB by 93 seconds. Three PB’s in a week!!!