4 Athletes 4 Marathons - Week 7 Diary
Sep 18, 2023
Marathon Blog Week 7
First up we have Keri Pearson who is aiming for the Frankfurt marathon on Sunday 29th October:
Monday - When I said marathon training was a rollercoaster, it truly is, after several really good weeks in the bag, I got hit with Covid over the weekend. However with a stroke of luck or pure coincidence it timed itself with my scheduled down week. So today was the 45 mins planned but on the indoor bike.
Tuesday - An hour was on the plan today, so indoor bike for an hour, it’s not the most exciting form of training but it keeps you ticking over. My stats seem to be returning to normal, last weeks initial disappointment on Wednesdays tough session and the decision to drop a rep on Saturdays was evidently the right decision as my stats (HRV, RHR, body battery and respiration rates) all headed in the direction you don’t want them too, so pleased today to see them returning. This is my third time with covid and they seem to be returning much quicker than previous infections.
Wednesday - PM 50 mins marathon effort was on the plan so today, I increased the effort on the indoor bike to replicate this.
Thursday - PM 90 mins off road, finally back to work and the outdoors to run! The weather was lovely and saw some runners from my club and had a chat with them whilst running. Just what was needed!!
Friday - AM Took a rest day, haven’t had one since the beginning of august and with this week being an easy week, it fitted well. My body battery measure whilst had improved had not hit 100, which I really wanted it to do before getting back into this block. I knew a rest day would help with this.
Saturday - AM Easy hour, 8 miles in 63 mins, my heart rate was high but with the very high temps and rest day yesterday, it was kind of expected. I always feel sluggish on an easier week but looking forward to seeing if a jump can be made in training with this scheduled cut back. I also did some strides to get ready for Sunday.
Sunday - AM First of the four races in this marathon specific phase of my training.
I’d be lying if I said I was slightly worried by the weather after suffering from heat exhaustion in Leeds and at several points in the lead up contemplated replicating the session at home but much earlier in the day.
So the plan was 3.5 mile warm up, the half marathon race at a marathon effort and then 3.5 mile cool down to see where I’m at with 7 weeks to go!
To say I was over the moon with it, was an understatement, I ran 1.24.58 and every mile split was consistent, it felt great. A huge, confidence boost. I survived the heat and the covid hasn’t had any long term impact on my training. It felt strange initially not wanting to charge off at the start with everyone else, but having planned to run with someone else doing a similar session, it was motivating gradually picking off runner after runner throughout the race! Today was a day of many small wins.
Looking forward to another block of training now my legs have had a little refresh!!
Next up we have Matt who is aiming for the Berlin marathon:
This week I came straight out of London’s Big Half, being around other runners and kept the momentum going;
Monday - 90mins in the gym comprised of upper body strength work and HiiT. As I’ve said in previous weeks I don’t put too much thought into going to the gym. I general train with friends, and I’ll either follow their lead or just do what we enjoy. If I want to do anything running specific, I’ll generally come before the group gets here or stay behind for 10-20mins. Today I did 10mins extra on the treadmill just to shake off the half marathon from yesterday
Tuesday - 40 minutes nice and easy
Wednesday - 50 minutes of running with 30mins in the middle at threshold. Averaging around 4’45/km and 167bpm
Thursday - Rest
Friday - 60mins of strength work in the gym including HIIT, a leg circuit and some upper body strength. 30mins on the treadmill at a recovery heart rate.
Saturday - Rest (I had 35mins planned in)
Sunday - 70mins long run.
Not a perfect week, but very happy with building back into routine. When life throws you curveballs the routine is the first thing to go, so it’s all moving in a positive direction and I feel loads better for putting things together again. Just enjoying the process with my eyes set on 2024.
In other news, won a place in the Manchester Half Marathon through Erdinger! A case of liquid gold, an Erdinger race vest and an entry was up for grabs. So coach will be glad I’m running a half after the marathon!
Our very own Jenny Blizard is next as she prepares for the Yorkshire marathon taking on her first marathon in 12 years since she last ran one for England in Denmark and in her words:
This week the focus was on reducing mileage slightly to run a bit faster on the Wednesday group session and then complete the Vale of York half marathon as part of a longer marathon paced run. I achieved all of the above but with some valid modifications due to the weather and some poor race prep added into the mix.
I was looking forward to the Wednesday session and being able to go a bit faster as I enjoy these types of sessions, however as I have got older and interestingly since starting marathon training I realised they probably shouldn't be too much of a focus for me and used more sparingly. Since getting older I have noted that they take me a) longer to recover b)fraught with the potential for niggles c) stop me from sleeping that night d) interestingly - the after effects reduce my motivation to train which I had not noted since before starting marathon training 
. We decided therefore to limit how hard I go and see in marathon block whether I can experiment with going a bit faster without overcooking it. Having taken my lactate reading after a number of shorter races now and it hitting 12mmols, I know that previously I would regularly hit the same kind of intensity in training as I loved the feeling of training hard but that is way too hard!!! This Wednesday was really hot so we modified the session even further with the remit not to go anywhere near my tempo zone. My heart rate range is huge so very slight variations when training with a group can send it much higher, like going around a corner, jumping off a curb and then picking it up to get back with the group. I have been as low as 132 average on recovery runs but can maintain 180 for a 10k and hit 190's max in a race. The aim was to not hit 178 which is the start of my interval zone. I hit 179 max 
just on one occasion!
. We decided therefore to limit how hard I go and see in marathon block whether I can experiment with going a bit faster without overcooking it. Having taken my lactate reading after a number of shorter races now and it hitting 12mmols, I know that previously I would regularly hit the same kind of intensity in training as I loved the feeling of training hard but that is way too hard!!! This Wednesday was really hot so we modified the session even further with the remit not to go anywhere near my tempo zone. My heart rate range is huge so very slight variations when training with a group can send it much higher, like going around a corner, jumping off a curb and then picking it up to get back with the group. I have been as low as 132 average on recovery runs but can maintain 180 for a 10k and hit 190's max in a race. The aim was to not hit 178 which is the start of my interval zone. I hit 179 max just on one occasion!The next target was to run the Vale of York half marathon as a marathon effort with a longer warm up and cool down to make it a 20+ mile for the day. Having not had to focus on fueling in races since 2011 and knowing that race day anxiety can affect digestion I wanted to use a couple of running events to practice breakfast/water/gels as I would on race day and see how I got on. Again I had to modify my plan due to the extreme heat. As my planned marathon heart rate range for my target race of York is very low 153-158 and a very small band I knew it would be almost impossible to be in target pace with the heat and keep such a tight band. More realistic would be a 5 beat average higher which is still well below my first rise in lactate levels (of 165 heart rate) and much lower than my true marathon potential heart zone (if i decide to do more marathons!). The day started off bad.... we laid in by 45 mins we NEVER EVER lay in but i think because of the recent hot weather, not sleeping and really struggling working in the heat (my room at work is awful) then I just think i was tired. Luckily we get up really early anyway to have breakfast and do some mobility work. We still got out of the door on time but the breakfast was late, i did no mobility and my anxiety levels crept up (a good test but not a great start). Having got there (always 90 mins before) I had calmed down. We then started on the warm up and the course had almost been flipped around from previous years so on the way back we were slightly disoriented. We asked a marshal the way back and obviously some confusion in the question we were asking and we ran the wrong way back. After 1/2 mile ish i knew something was wrong, we stopped to orientate ourselves and saw the car park in the far distance over a field. Anxiety levels crept up very high and so did my heart rate (higher than in the actual race) as we ran back a mile further than planned hitting the start line with people lining up at 8 mins to go and still having to go back to the car through the start to pick up vest, shoes and gels. Having got to the start line with a few minutes to go (start delayed due to Q at toilets) I took some deep breaths and got my heart rate back down.The gun went off and then I realised I had put myself in the start at where I would normally race a half marathon and not nearly 10 mins slower. Sooooooo many people passed me. It was awful but I just stuck to my plan and tried to ignore this. It was hard to keep continually backing off and backing off to stick to my planned heart rate zone. I finished 3 seconds per mile slower than my target pace and after totalling 18miles already I still felt like I could carry on. I completed another 3 miles to finish the day off. The positives to take from this was my digestion survived the anxiety (probably more anxiety than the actual race day will be). I finished feeling very easy and my marathon target pace wasn't that far off on a very hot day.
we NEVER EVER lay in but i think because of the recent hot weather, not sleeping and really struggling working in the heat (my room at work is awful) then I just think i was tired. Luckily we get up really early anyway to have breakfast and do some mobility work. We still got out of the door on time but the breakfast was late, i did no mobility and my anxiety levels crept up (a good test but not a great start). Having got there (always 90 mins before) I had calmed down. We then started on the warm up and the course had almost been flipped around from previous years so on the way back we were slightly disoriented. We asked a marshal the way back and obviously some confusion in the question we were asking and we ran the wrong way back. After 1/2 mile ish i knew something was wrong, we stopped to orientate ourselves and saw the car park in the far distance over a field. Anxiety levels crept up very high and so did my heart rate (higher than in the actual race) as we ran back a mile further than planned hitting the start line with people lining up at 8 mins to go and still having to go back to the car through the start to pick up vest, shoes and gels. Having got to the start line with a few minutes to go (start delayed due to Q at toilets) I took some deep breaths and got my heart rate back down.The gun went off and then I realised I had put myself in the start at where I would normally race a half marathon and not nearly 10 mins slower. Sooooooo many people passed me. It was awful but I just stuck to my plan and tried to ignore this. It was hard to keep continually backing off and backing off to stick to my planned heart rate zone. I finished 3 seconds per mile slower than my target pace and after totalling 18miles already I still felt like I could carry on. I completed another 3 miles to finish the day off. The positives to take from this was my digestion survived the anxiety (probably more anxiety than the actual race day will be). I finished feeling very easy and my marathon target pace wasn't that far off on a very hot day.Next week will be another race, reducing the mileage even further and another faster paced mid week run.
MON Rest day from running gives me 48 hrs to recover.
TUES 9m @6:58 HR ave 156 (marathon effort). Total 11m
WED Strength session. Group Session 1x2m, 8x400m, 1x2m6x800m Total 10m ish
THUR 7.7m on road @7:53 HR ave 139
FRI 4.14m @7:47 HR ave 134. Strength session
SAT 8m AM off road with group @8:04 min/miles HR ave 139 (so hot!). PM 3M and strides
SUN Vale of York Half Marathon 1:29:26 6:48 HR ave 162. PLus warm and cool down total 21.5m. Strength session
Weekly Totals 66 miles. Some faster paced efforts. My first trial of race day nutrition and another long run. Challenging week with the heat. 1 x strides, 25 mins yoga, 140 mins S&C.
Finally, we have Lee Milburn who like Jenny is running the Yorkshire marathon in October:
Another week ticked off of great training. With work now taking up my days I’m feeling a bit more fatigued and my mileage has dropped but I’m keeping my quality sessions. My key session this week was at the weekend. With lots of the group racing, Saturday was an easier day and then on Sunday Dave set me 2x5miles at marathon pace heart rate with a long warm up and cool down at either end. I felt a lot more comfortable on this run with my heart rate hovering around that 157-159 magic figure we’re aiming for, for the first 20 or so miles of the marathon. The pace came out at 5.28 which puts me in great shape with still a few weeks of training to go incorporating a specific marathon session and a half marathon race. This week has been quite easy as we prepare for cleethorpes half marathon at the weekend. Race report to follow on this next week
Here is Coach Tune’s view of the athletes and how he feels their week of training has gone:
“Unfortunately Keri once again has caught covid which is no real surprise when exposed to lots of people via work after several weeks off as a teacher.
The good news this time is a few days of non running and ticking over on her static bike at home seems to have worked as her run in the Vale of York half marathon at the weekend was a very positive experience once we got running again.
We have a very big key couple of week’s coming up and with Keri at this stage it is all about not going over the top and maintaining fitness”
Next athlete is Matt Hamer who has been struggling a little recently and is aiming for the Berlin marathon on the 24th September:
“Matt has turned things around really well and the race last weekend in London seems to have sparked something within him. We still need to be realistic in Berlin but the facts that he has come to me and asked about a list of races moving forward he wants to plan his training towards is a very positive step and from a coaching perspective I just need to give him the right advice to ensure that Berlin is a positive experience and that we train on from it”
Next to chat about is wife Jenny who is running the Yorkshire marathon with Lee on the 15th October:
“I think the best thing to come out of the last 7 days of Jenny’s training was highlighting what NOT to do on race day as we used the Vale of York half marathon as a prep race.
The marathon is much a mental challenge as a physical one and allowing yourself to be as relaxed as possible standing on the start line is very important. Often good performances are won and lost in the detail leading into the race and having a routine that works allow you to focus on the task ahead and I think Jen was a little too relaxed going into Sunday and making a bit of a “cock-up” of a few things is sometimes a good thing to do to help focus you on getting it right when it matters!”
Finally we see the review of Lee’s training and his current week of training:
“A great week of good quality from Lee and the data we gathered in his lactate threshold test we put into practice in our long run at the weekend and the numbers that came out were very encouraging. My worry with Lee at this stage is that his mileage has dropped a little too much now he is back to work and the day to day pressures take over but I am hoping a solid run at the weekend will help lift his confidence and put that all important bounce back in his stride”
As we enter into these final few weeks of training before the guys actually do their respective races, it is more about supporting them mentally as much as it is writing a training program. The actual ability to get each individual much fitter at this stage is limited but helping them to make realistic race plans and manage their expectations is the biggest challenge.
Enjoy the read!
