Shorter distance to cover this week (42 miles), but a couple of quality sessions (finally) after the drudgery of running at easy pace for five weeks. I also have to work around business travel, which despite only taking a relatively small chunk out of the week, invariably interferes with my “flow”.

It’s important not to add too many intensive sessions straight away, so I’m sticking to two tempo runs and another Lyme Park hilly run on Saturday. My midweek long run will be tomorrow (not really midweek) and with these dark winter evenings, I’ll miss the early evening park runs with the dog. We’ll make up for it on Saturday, Buffy.

Last week was a complete wash out. Never been so disappointed with my complete lack of commitment to a training schedule! Granted, there were a couple of days where it was less convenient than others, but there was a time when if it meant getting up at 5:30 to make sure the week’s mileage was completed, that was what happened.

I have committed to knocking some serious minutes off the appalling GNR time in September, so it’s time to knuckle down. This week’s mileage target MUST be hit. Thus begins the final week of Block 1. Next week it’s time for some quality.

Last week was a huge disappointment. No lack of effort or intention, just ill health and business travel conspiring against my running schedule. This kind of thing happens and you just have to put it behind you and move on.

This week’s target is 60 miles and, as ever 25% of the weekly mileage needs to be in the form of Sunday’s long run. So today, I psyched myself up for a fifteen miler – albeit at a very comfortable pace. The weather was lovely. A chill in the air (enough to wear gloves and the gimlet) but bright with an occasional appearance from the sun.

This is the penultimate week of 100% slow running and it will be great to add some quality sessions (hills, tempo and fartlek) to the mix the week after next. Tomorrow I’ll download, complete and send my entry for the Brass Monkey 1/2 Marathon in January. That’ll be a good incentive.

Up until Thursday evening, I felt on top of the world. During my long run, I swallowed a fly (common hazard for runners and not very vegan) and since then I’ve been pretty sick. I guess, given the lifestyle habits of a fly, a connection between said ingestion and shaking legs, fever and general uuurggghiness is entirely plausible.

Anyway, the top and bottom of this is that Saturday’s run was cancelled (I was in bed) and right now today’s is looking unlikely. Just as well that this is a step-back week and I’m supposed to be cutting my mileage in half.

The other thing which will impact on the schedule this week is a trip to Brighton and London on Wednesday / Thursday, so I’m trying to work my mileage around those days.

Delighted with the first week’s running. Didn’t quite manage to keep the heart rate at the desired level, but only 5bpm over which isn’t so bad really. Felt very comfortable at 9:40 (and so it should). I think the target for this week is to try to maintain – or perhaps even slightly improve on the average pace – whilst bringing the heart rate down to the 154 target (easy pace).

I’m looking to increase the mileage by 10 per cent this week, before a step back week next week. Step-back weeks will happen every third week. During a step-back week, mileage from the previous week is cut in half before proceeding to the next 10 per cent increase. Here’s the plan for week commencing 4th October.

With seventeen weeks until my next race, I want to bring the much referenced FOCUS to my training, so starting today, I’m embarking on a very prescriptive plan.

BLOCK 1

The next five weeks will be FOUNDATION (base) training. Lots of slow easy pace running with almost no “quality” sessions (hills, tempo, intervals, fartlek). My target is a minimum of 50 miles per week during Block 1 (step-back weeks excepted).

BLOCK 2

This will be followed by a QUALITY phase – six weeks of majority slow running with two or three quality sessions per week. These will be mainly hills and tempo sessions but by weeks five and six of this block, I may look to add one interval session per week.

BLOCK 3

The final block will be QUALITY and TAPER – four more weeks of quality running and a taper down over the last 10-14 days to race day.

So, my plan is to schedule each week on Sunday and add a comment to the post to say whether or not the day’s session(s) have been completed and how they went. The advantage of blogging it this way is that my site doesn’t become too running focused. Only one post per week about running.

All runs to be at EASY PACE (154bpm or lower)

It’s the worst case of “too little, too late” that I can remember. I was reading some of my earlier running posts and I’m shocked at how frequently I fail to heed my own advice.

What’s absolutely clear is that this year’s Great North Run is a write off. I’m disregarding my time and I’ll be perfectly happy to get around in two hours. Given that my PB of 1:32 was two years ago and that I really wanted to break 1:30 this year, that is a huge disappointment.

My plan now is to get an entry into the Brass Monkey (Jan 2010) and work hard on pace between now and then. In reality, there’s still insufficient time to train for a sub 1:30, but I must improve on the time I’m about to log for a half marathon.

All of that said, GNR is a wonderful event and I’m really looking forward to next weekend!

Garmin Connect Log

6.5m | 56:39 | 8:42 | 166bpm | Marathon Pace

I’m always prepared to see really slow times for my morning runs. I could blame the dog, but you’d know I was fibbing. (Actually she was pretty tired for the last half mile of today’s gentle jog around the park and I had to more or less drag her home.)

Beautiful morning and always a great way to start the day, regardless of how it feels as I step out the door!