26 Nov - 2 Dec

Swim

 3 sessions

Time: 02:30.00

Distance: 7100m

Run

3 sessions

Time: 1:38.50

Distance: 13.7 miles

Run 1 - 3.5 miles, 23.45
Run 2 - 3.1 miles, 18.57

Run 3 - 7.1 miles, 56.48

Cycling

 1 sessions

Time: 4:58.15

Distance: 86.7 miles

Bike 1 - 86.7 miles, 04:58.15
Bike 2 -  miles, 0:00.00 

Bike 3 - miles, 00:00.00

Week Totals

7 sessions

Time: 09:07.05

Distance: 104.8 miles

 A pretty good week this week.  Managed to get swim volume back up, but a little frustrated that my 3rd session was ruined because of how busy the pool was.  Never mind, I should have gone down for the morning session rather than the lunchtime session.  Cycling was just 1 session this week, mostly due to the cold, icy conditions, but it was a pretty good one.  Running was also pretty good again this week, including 2 races.  The first was my second XC race of the winter and I enjoyed this one a lot more.  The course was more suited to me, with a long drag uphill followed by a sharp downhil and I placed a lot better this time.  The second was the ParkRun at Kingston and I managed an 18.57 - RACE REPORT.  

All in all, another good week.  Need to get on top of this recurrent illness, seems every week I've got a cold or something.  Not sure what will sort it out, but I'm off to parent's house for Christmas soon so maybe some of the luxury of home will help....

This week while training I've mostly been singing....

Kingston ParkRun 1/12 Race Report

Finally managed to make it to one of the ParkRuns after chatting to a cycling clubmate.  I'm happy enough with my effort, but heavy legs paired with truly terrible pacing mean I'm certain I'll improve the next time.  

In the lead up to the race on Saturday, I'd raced XC at Ally Pally, done a 90mile ride on the bike and some decent swimming too.  I no longer track my TSS but I'm sure my TSB would have been seriously negative going into the race and I could really feel it.  During my warm up, I felt like I'd just finished the race with heavy legs and a poor technique.  Nevertheless, I lined up just behind my clubmate who I knew would be at least a little faster than me.  I hoped to stick with him for at least a mile before he inevitably pulled away and I would do what I could to hold on until the finish.  The plan worked well enough, but I hadn't taken into account how quick the first mile would be - we went through in 5:41.  I've recently done a couple of 5km efforts as training and quite comfortably held 6:15min/mile efforts but this was starting slower and building up.  This race was pretty much the opposite as we went off quick, before I blew up and ended up crawling in to the finish.  The next time I race, I'm going to stick to my own race plan, as I know I take 0.5mile - 1mile to get into the pace of things and can then start winding up to the finish.  I really feel like I can average just under 6min/mile for a 5km which would give me 18:33.  It seems like a big jump, but looking at some of my splits from today I really did wreck my race in the first mile.  With some good pacing and some good legs, I think it's a possibility.  On a more positive note, it's still a PB and I broke the 19min barrier so much to be pleased with.

Official time - 18.57 (6:06min/mile)

The FIRST Running Program...

So, after my result at London, I've decided it's time to start taking my training a little more seriously.  Like many people, I tended to do what I wanted, when I wanted, with no real focus other than blasting those fatties on flash bikes in Richmond Park into the weeds.  So, to begin with, I've decided to base my running around the FIRST program.

Developed by Bill Pierce, Scott Murr and Ray Moss at the Furman Institute it focuses on the idea of 3plus2 which is 3 runs, plus 2 cross-training sessions.  They make some pretty big claims in their book Run Less, Run Faster about improvements such as 4-7% improvement across VO2 max, pace at lactate threshold and pace at VO2 max.  All off 3 runs a week.  With very low mileage.

The 3 runs consists of a track session, a short tempo run and a longer, slower run.

Example
          Workout 1 - 15min warmup, 8x400m with 400m rest, 10min cooldown
          Workout 2 - 1mile warmup, 3mile at short tempo pace, 1 mile cooldown
          Workout 3 - 6miles at long tempo pace

The paces for the track intervals, long runs, short, medium and long tempo runs are all calculated from your 5k run pace.  Hence, the 5km race pace run I did this evening which I've embedded at the start of this blog.  You add or subtract time to this pace to find the paces you need to run each workout at.

Track Repeat Paces
Tempo Paces
Long Run Paces

As a triathlete, who would easily fit in the 2 cross-training sessions required, this sounds almost too good to be true.  I'm going to follow the program until the Hever Castle Triathlon and see if I improve on my (frankly abysmal) time that I ran at London.  I've also got some 10km races lined up for when I return to London, so should be able to chart any improvements in my 10km times.

Sub 40mins for a 10km is something I've thought impossible.....but who knows......

James out.

FIRST Running Program website
Runner's World article

PS Promise I am in no way associated with the guys who wrote this program or any of that shizzle