4 Athletes 4 Marathons - Week 8 Diary
Sep 25, 2023
Marathon Blog Week 8
First up we have Frankfurt heading Keri Pearson who is looking to rewrite her marathon personal best in the German city:
Monday - PM 6 miles in 50 mins, super easy off road after yesterday. Legs felt much better at the end of the run.
Tuesday - PM 9.5 miles in 70 mins including 30 mins at the bottom of zone 1, really pleasing figures, an improvement both in pace and heart from 3 weeks ago. It was my marathon pace a year ago but 10 beats lower. 
Wednesday -PM session day, initial plans for 8 x 1km off 90 secs however Dave changed on the day as felt I needed a slightly different session, so 8 x 1km at half pace off 60 secs but trying to keep the 60 secs at a reasonable pace. He wanted my heart rate graph to represent small waves. Session went really well and hit the remit given. Running just short of 6 miles averaging slightly under marathon HR at 6.18 pace.
Thursday -PM 10 miles in 81 mins, mix of road and trail, again super easy. Currently deciding whether I need to run my long run as a part of the race on Sunday or an easy long run, to be decided with Dave over next few days and trying to think of the bigger picture.
Friday - PM 4 miles in 33 mins - super easy, legs feeling quite fresh after an easier couple of weeks.
Saturday - AM 9 miles in 66 mins including 8 x 90 secs relaxed off 60 secs jog. Pleased at how easy HM goal pace came on the 90 secs and again decent float between.
PM 4.2 miles in 36 mins, first double in about 3 weeks, again easy miles. Decision made, to keep the powder dry for next weeks mid week and Saturday sessions as we have identified them as key ones in this build up.
Sunday - AM The changed plan was 2 hours easy, followed by 30 mins at marathon effort, after the initial disappointment of not doing my long run as a race and the changed plan, I thoroughly enjoyed this long run, after the last few weeks running fairly flat for long runs and with next weeks marathon session having no planned elevation, I ran with a bit of elevation in as it definitely makes you stronger/ makes it feel easier when you run on the flat and used it as another opportunity to nail the fuelling strategy after purchasing the new 40g of carb maurtens. Fuelling went really well, it was windy and warmer than expected, but the run felt very easy and controlled. Averaging around 7.30s for the easy 2 hours and then 6.38 for the 30 mins, well below marathon heart rate, which considering the wind, I was really pleased with. Hopefully have kept that easy enough this week for the two key sessions next week!
Next we have Matt Hamer who is the first to race over in Berlin which is actually tomorrow!
“Started the week off like most weeks in the gym, lifting weights and doing strength work.
I find this works well for me, not only from a schedule point of view but if it’s been a long weekend of running it’s easier to lift weights when tired then to do more running.
Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of 2 x 40min recovery runs.
Thursday I went down to the track with my club to do some speed work. We did 400m, 100m rest, 200m, 100m rest x10. The track is something that’s recently new to me but I’m finding the sessions valuable. Even if you can’t find someone who is quite at the same pace as you, nobody is ever far behind or in front so it encourages you to keep going. Luckily for this session there were 3 of us that worked together and the laps ticked by.
Friday I had penciled in a rest day, however I was feeling good so went back to the gym for some more strength work, specifically legs. Goblet squats, leg press machine, calf raises. It was a good session, but in hindsight this was a mistake. I should have taken the rest so that I was fresh for the weekend. Luckily, as race week approaches I didn’t have anything crazy in the plan, but I ended up missing a 35min recovery run on Saturday and a long run on Sunday due to not being able to recover properly. We also had some last minute dog sitting issues for race weekend, so spent the rest of Sunday running around figuring that out.
Overall happy with the week, and looking past Berlin can start to feel my fitness coming back.”
Next is Lee Milburn fresh from his recent win in the Coastal half marathon:
“A quiet week in terms of training to note. This last week was all about leading into my only race before the marathon. Training sessions have been brilliant and I’m feeling confident with the plan we have in mind. I hadn’t raced for a while so it was great to put the Blizard vest and enjoy myself. Sunday was a solid day, took the win, new pb despite tough conditions and probably decided on my race shoe. Despite it being a relatively low mileage week of 58.3 miles I still managed to focus on a midweek speed session of 8x1k and a 13 mile threshold effort at the half marathon with recovery runs in between. As this marathon block has progressed I’ve seen my hr on my recovery runs become lower and lower showing a great sign of fitness. Last Thursdays 40 min run @7.01 pace averaging 124 bpm probably the best one to date. BIG session on Saturday incoming!”
Final we have our very own Jenny Blizard who is doing her first marathon in over 12 years:
“This week I had a race to look forward to at the weekend so the training was geared around the weekend’s effort.
Monday was a rest day from running but I got into the gym and worked hard on my strength which I have found to be more valuable that plodding a few miles!
Tuesday we decided to make an easier day rather than a marathon paced effort to allow an extra day to recover from last weekend and I welcomed this as had a very busy day at work.
Wednesday was our group speed session which consisted of 8x1k efforts off short recovery which I handled really well and was pleased how fresh my legs felt having done some more strength work just before.
Thursday was a solo road run from home as Dave was taking his daughter back to university and I really enjoyed it and once again kept the pace nice and relaxed.
Friday was our usual short run plus strides ahead of the Blizard Run Club class at night and a big weekend of training ahead of me.
Saturday the group used the Austerfield nature reserve to train on and I just ran steady clocking up just under 12 miles off road.
Sunday was race day and my race report earlier in the week goes into detail on how the race went but I have had another great week of training with a race at the end of it that went really well and we just need to keep this momentum going”
Now we have Coach Tune’s version of his athletes and how they have performed over the last 7 days:
“This week I felt that Keri would benefit more from a long run rather than a race which turned out to be an excellent long effort for her.She is in the best shape I have ever seen her and the following week we have a mid week race and then our final big long session so I was concerned that adding another hard effort into our plan would be a little too much”
Next we have Matt Hamer who is now into race week for Berlin on Sunday:
“Matt is under strict instructions to enjoy his marathon over in Berlin so his training this week is more about allowing him the freedom to do a bit of what he fancies and that was apparent with the positive comments he has wrote in his blog”
“Lee, had an excellent race on Sunday and I was super impressed just how fast he ran in difficult conditions on a hardly perfect course. If anything I am a little concerned he pushed harder than he needed to but his confidence will have benefited more than the fact his legs may be a bit tired and sore for a day or two after”
Finally we have a brief outline of Jenny’s training in the eyes of the coach!
“I think more than anything I was impressed with Jenny’s race on Sunday as her experience shone through. I was pacing her and when she dropped down into 6th position I was trying to urge her to speed up but she assured me that she was fine and was going to push the last few miles which she executed with ease to claim an excellent 3rd lady overall and earn her first England Master’s vest to go with the full set she has now gained from Junior, Senior and now Master’s which is an impressive extension of time competing at the highest level”
Enjoy the read!
