Coach Tunes Race Report - Bassingham Bash

This weekend not only saw me pull on my racing shoes but also experiment within my own training with a training load that has received plenty of press in recent years of “double threshold days” that famously Jakob Ingerbrigtson uses.

The concept of double threshold days are nothing new and a bit of research into my old training diary’s revealed the last time I did one was way back in 1990’s when I did a very controlled track session in the morning and  then raced the South Yorkshire road league which was held then over 5 miles in Armthorpe!

Several of the training group and coached athletes have asked me my views on them so the group Saturday morning session followed by the Bassingham Bash 5 mile road race served as the perfect opportunity to see what effect they have on an older athlete!

Morning session was completed and then after a quick shower and change of dry clothes myself and a few of the team made the trip just past Newark for the super flat and fast course that attracted an excellent field.

My main goal this next few months is the Frankfurt marathon in 12 weeks time so a block of training is my focus rather than trying to be in too good shape too soon and a double threshold day where I controlled things in the race was my remit rather than race hard.

I used my marathon heart rate which I can sustain in a longer race as the only metric I needed to focus on and left the pace and my end time to whatever it would be.

The rain had stopped coming down post warm up and it was almost perfect running conditions and after a fairly steady start of a few minutes I soon settled into the zone I needed to run at.

It actually felt quite easy ( which it should for marathon heart rate ) and not one single person passed me all race as I gradually kept picking people off.

I crossed the line in 29.27 minutes and have to thank Nigel Fearn as well as shouting everyone on, who kindly carried our mobile lactate machine so that I could take the readings straight after the race of both myself and Jenny. Both recording the number we had hoped for.

A quick turn around to cool down finished a very big day of training and I must confess I felt the tank somewhat empty once I had finished and needed some food straight away.

I had planned to do 2.5hrs or 20 miles as a long run on Sunday and although Saturday had been manageable, starting a long run on Sunday feeling somewhat “flat” is the only way to describe how I felt.

Do double threshold days work? Well, time will tell but my gut feeling is that these are something that need NOT to be a priority in our training program unless fully conditioned which I clearly am not compared to when I last did them!

Enjoy the read!