4 Athletes 4 Marathons - Week 11 Diary
Oct 25, 2023
Marathon Blog Week 11
Each week we bring you an account of both athlete and Coach’s view of how training has gone.
First we have the week of training from Keri Pearson who is aiming towards the Frankfurt marathon in 3 weeks time:
Monday - PM 7.8 miles in 60 mins, nice and easy run, mixture of trail and road.
Tuesday - Unexpected rest day!
We got the call from OFSTED, and as I am an Assistant Headteacher in a very large secondary, this meant stress/ hours worked increased astronomically today - anyone who is in the teaching profession will understand why this needed to be a rest day.
Wednesday - Two seriously very long days 15+ hour and a lot of mental stress, called for another rest day. The peak week of volume not going so well 
Thursday - PM Home at a reasonable time to run today, so attempted a small session, all my stats showed I was pretty much on the floor prior to running tonight.
4 x 8 mins at marathon heart rate off 90 secs, I was actually amazed at this, it shows what a little bit of rest can do and has given me a boost to make sure I get the taper right and I don’t start filling the additional time with additional alternative training and just trust the process instead.
Each rep was below my marathon heart rate effort and came out at under 6.20s. Very happy!
Friday - PM Now trying to replicate my normal week just a day behind, so did an hour tonight, Thursdays run would normally be a bit longer, but keeping is sensible with the tiredness until I get a few good nights sleep banked. 8.4 miles in 66 mins.
Saturday - AM 8 miles in 66 miles, kept really easy and a day behind on my plan. Needed a seriously relaxed day, so spent the afternoon napping, drinking coffee and a little online shopping for winter training gear and race entries 
Still hopefully going to finish the week on fairly decent mileage considering taking two days off completely.
Still hopefully going to finish the week on fairly decent mileage considering taking two days off completely.PM 4.2 miles in 36 miles, even easier than this morning, hopefully all miles ran easy enough for tomorrows big session.
Sunday - AM slightly different long run on the plan, 3 sets 5 mile blocks of 6.40,6.30,6.20,6.10, easy mile. Managed to hit all the paces and an average 6.26 for the all the efforts at under my marathon heart rate so pleasing signs. Slightly concerned that I have dropped in mileage too early, so squashing my plans of racing next weekend at Yorkshire and just using it as part of a long run or just doing an easy long run.
After a chaotic week, everything ending on a positive, caught up with sleep, stats are showing that I am more “alive” and both sessions this week have surprisingly actually gone really well.
Next 2 athletes are both doing the Yorkshire marathon on Sunday and here is their final week of training leading into race day with first up being Lee Milburn:
“Final week, final blog before marathon day.
This last week has gone fast very little running to report. The final finishing touches included 45 mins on Saturday and 2 miles on Wednesday all at target marathon pace heart rate. All went well with the pace coming out at kind of what I’m hoping / expected. Let’s just see on race day what’s in the tank come the 20 mile point. I’m feeling confident with the plan going into this marathon so all I’ve got to do is stick to it and hope the months of graft prior pay off. I’ve ran York before so I know what to expect in terms of the course and fuelling so very little to think about in the last few days before Sunday. It’s all about staying relaxed and ensure I really let my body rest by eating well and getting plenty of sleep. Race report to follow”.
Finally we have our very own Jenny Blizard who like Lee is running the Yorkshire marathon on Sunday in her first marathon for 12 years:
“This week was a full week in sunny Portugal and the temperature remained very hot throughout. Whilst wanting to relax a bit there was a balance between not just sitting/walking everyday in the sun and starting to feel ill. We also needed to keep an eye on hydration too. Three times now we have stayed at the same hotel all inclusive. The food isn't Michelin star but it is perfect for training and what we have noticed is the speed of recovery with fueling straight after training, eating much more protein, salad and vegetables than we would at home. I reduced my % body fat and increased my muscle mass slightly whilst I was away, but this didn't stack up with the reduced training/strength i was doing and reduction in calories expended so i can only assume this must be down to the differences in what I was eating and probably the large increase in protein - something we are continuing to work on back home.
My overall mileage for the week was higher but this was due to moving the long run a day from Sunday to Monday to give an extra day recovery after Saturday's session. My last long run of 2 hours went really well, dropping down to target marathon pace on mainly a dirt road and the overall HR for the whole run was very low. My next session was the track session two days later of 10 x 800m which we were aiming for around half marathon effort. I got a little carried away in the last few as I felt really good. The purpose for this session and my last session next week was to take my heart rate up a lot higher than what I have been running for the marathon training paces. This is because my target HR of 153-158 is to get me to 14 miles, it will elevate in the next few miles as i take on the two long inclines but after that it will be all out and I will be expecting to hit 180+ for the last few miles. Being fresher due to reduced volume meant that i didn't overcook things.
Not being at work and also being able to just focus on looking after myself has meant that despite the heat I have seen my heart rate on easy runs drop very low compared to usual which hopefully shows I'm fresh and ready to go.
Now back home I have entered into the final week and other than a few relaxed 1000m reps on Wednesday with the group the order for the week has been plenty of rest and just easy running.
This blog is written on Friday and today I have an easy 30 minutes planned with strides with just a very easy leg loosener tomorrow before race day. Wish me luck!!!! See you on the other side”
Those were the views of the athletes and compared them to Coach Tune’s version of their training:
“This week with Keri she has had more than a challenging week with OFSTEAD in and some very long and stressful days but my focus has been to try and reassure her than even a couple of missed days training in the bigger picture of things will not make the slightest difference and this was proven correct with a couple of the sessions she did even when really tired.
The temptation as I know Keri will be to want to try and “catch up” with missed training and this really is the worse thing she can do and focusing on the process we have created will pay back to her rather than adding in extra come Frankfurt”
Next we have both Lee and Jenny who are doing the Yorkshire marathon tomorrow:
“Being away has meant communications with Lee being a little more restricted than usual but I was delighted that last weekend when still not feeling 100% he didn't push things too much. Watching him first hand on Wednesday told me he is in shape and the key thing now is executing his race plan which I am very confident he can do and come away with the result he deserves for the hard work he puts in”
Finally we have Dave’s view on Jenny’s training:
“While out in Portugal my main goal was to ensure that Jen did not over train just because we had more time on our hands. Thankfully she was very compliant and the few bits of faster paced work we did both on the road and the track was of excellent quality backed up by lactate reading as I took the measuring monitor away with us.
All her work is now done and history has shown us in this final week she will “develop” all sorts of aches and pains and fear of coming down with a cold but this is normal for her!
The main thing is that she has a positive experience so that we can take that into our next marathon and help her to achieve some of the lofty goals we have created for the next couple of years ahead”
Enjoy the read and wish the guys a bit of luck ( even though you make your own luck! ).
